Extreme light sensitivity and chronic eye pain

[jkwmsga]

I have been suffering with eye pain and light sensitivity since February 08.
Here are my symptoms. I was wondering if anyone else had a similar experience.

First of all, my eye problems started suddenly with no problems before then. One Saturday morning, I woke up with blurred vision in one eye. After about a half hour of closing my eyes, the blurred vision went away. By that evening I had a stabbing pain in both eyes.

My current symptoms are: extreme light sensitivity, sharp pain in both eyes and floaters from time to time. I do not have a gritty feeling in my eyes; I have no blurred vision; and my eyes are not red. Just to look at me, you could not tell anything was wrong with my eyes. I am not able to drive. Reading and watching TV make me nauseous.

I work on a computer most of the day. I do try to blink a lot and take frequent breaks. Even when I am not on the computer on the weekend, the symptoms don’t decrease. I still cannot be around any form of light without being in pain. I have even taken a week’s vacation, but the symptoms did not go away.

I have had a lot of eye exams. My cornea is healthy. An MRI and blood work were both fine. My scores on the Schrimmer test are low. I got lower plugs, but that did not help my symptoms or the Schrimmer score. A few months into this I switched to new glasses and even though my vision has improved, my symptoms have not gone away.

[Racer200]

Hello,

Boy I thought I was reading my own first post there for a second. I'm like you and I have extreme light sensitivity. I was fine until about mid June and I was working outside that day repalcing some wood. That afternoon I could have sworn I had something in my eye. Felt like I had sawdust or something in it. That night my eye watered alot and I tried watching a movie and it seemed like the TV was ten times brighter than usual. I even checked the settings thinking someone had changed them.

Since that point in time and it may not have had anything to do with it but I've been struggling with light sensitivity. While I'm working at the computer and sitting at my desk I'm fine. If I turn to talk to someone the overhead fluorescent lights make my eyes burn and feel scratchy and I start blinking and wanting to rub my eyes. If I turn back around and go back to the computer my eyes return to normal. I'm sitting here now typing this on a 24" LCD monitor and I feel no pain or dry feeling at all but just one half hour ago trying to watch the nightly news on TV was a real struggle. I even had all the blinds drawn. It just seems so strange that I have no symtoms at all till I get in certain types of light. Get back out of that light again and I'm back to feeling normal. Is that normal dry eye symptoms???

I basically feel fine except when you introduce certain type of lights into my life. I can even stand outside in normal daylight and have no symptons but when I get in the car and start driving it feels like I need to blink and close my eyes. I can sit in my home office on the computer or reading a book and I'm fine but if I go into our living or family rooms the sensitivity starts.

I've been to my optometrist numerous times and even bought new glasses. I use Refresh Tears and they do not help at all. I can put Refresh Tears in and try and watch TV and it makes no difference at all. The Doctor tried some steroid drops (prednisolone) thinking I had Iritis and it didn't help. Tried some allergy drops (Elestat) and Clartin but neither one helped. I used Restasis for two weeks and seemed a little better in one regard but it made my eyes worse in others (Blurry vision,Halos and burning ) and that made life in front of the computer screen worse so work was really a struggle.

I'm going to call Monday and get an appointment with the Ophthalmologist that did my Mom's cataract surgery. I really liked him when I met him then so I'll check it out and see what he can find.

Don't mean to hijack your post and believe me I know how you feel. I wish I had an answer for both of us. You are not alone

Good luck and I'll post back if I learn anything.

Later,

Jim