Just wanna be cured...

[SomeGuy]

Hi, new to these forums... well posting in them anyway. It's been such a great resource of information for me. I'm from Australia.

Back at the end of 2007 I fell very ill, not sure what it was, just a very bad cold. When I got better, I noticed my eyes weren't as white as I had remembered them but thought nothing of it. I didn't get it looked at until early 2008. I first went to a pharmacy and they had suggested I may have allergies and so gave me eye allergy drops. These helped my eyes become white and I used these for a long time (these contained anti-histamines, little did I know it may have been causing more harm).

I went to the Optometerist and was told I had Dry Eyes and she told me that I should use artificial tears (Refresh and Biotear). I used them - they didn't work as I hoped. The thing is, I really don't mind the pain because I don't get it that often, it's the redness.

I went to a second optometerist and he suggested Systane and said that an Opthamologist would do no more than keep suggesting eye drops. So I have used a combination of the allergy eye drops (for redness) which I know is bad for me, but I'm desperate and I am also using Systane. This combination seems to be fine for now. But I am going to see an Opthamologist so hopefully I will find a better solution.

All I care about is the redness. I don't have pain often, mainly in strong winds. My eyes are red as soon as I wake up, after long sessions in front of the computer and in air conditioning. I wear sunglasses outside and my normal glasses (I'm short-sighted) inside. I blink and take breaks as often as I can when on the computer. I even tried taking fish oil supplements.

I one day, hope to get rid of this redness because I aspire to be a television presenter.

I know I might not have done the right thing by using the allergy drops, but I have no choice. I hardly go out at night (that's when they are at their worst) and when I do, I end up drowning my eyes in the mentioned combination of drops. It's affecting my social life and I'm becoming more self-conscious than I usually am.

I just want the redness to go away. Does my story sound similar? Any suggestions on what I should do?

Thanks for your time if you managed to read through all of this. I hope my visit to the Opthamologist next week offers a solution in the near future.

Thanks.

[liz56]

Take this all with a grain of salt

Hi, SomeGuy.

Welcome, and I am sorry to hear about the redness and (occasional) pain.

Over the long run, the drops that claim to remove redness very well might make it worse, because of the specific preservative that they use, called BAK (Benzalkonium chloride).

You know, a lot of people post here about redness, and I refrained from saying anything for a long time, because I have conflicted feelings about it. I am putting up with some redness, because the pain and other problems that I have with my eyes are so much worse that the redness is not something that I worry about. Also, I discovered after being here that the thing that I am going to talk about is discouraged for long-term use by Dr. Holly, whose opinion I really respect.

With that, I'll tell you something that you may or may not want to try. I was very desperate in about 2002 for help with dry eyes. This is a good five years before my official diagnosis of DES and serious problems with my corneal dystrophy. I had gone to eye doctors and talked with friends and family, all of whom just said to use some eye drops. So, when I was at the drug store, I was looking for drops and saw a bland (that is not Muro 128 5%) ointment for the eyes.. Here in the US anything like Puri-Lube or Lacri-Lube is what I am talking about.I bought some, because I remember that when I had a corneal abrasion, the ointment that the ophthalmologist put in my eye felt so soothing. So, I bought some. I put it in and took a nap. When I got up, my husband remarked that my eyes looked "really white." Somehow, that time, it worked.

Now, I want to list problems with using ointment every night at bedtime and too often:

1. It blurs vision;
2. When I tried using it again after severe corneal problems, and I was using it every night for two weeks, I developed little bumps (like zits) along my eyelash margin, and my eyelashes started falling out;
3. The ointment can cause a deep and bad redness in the skin around the eyes, which is even worse than having redness around the eyes, because it blocks the oil glands in the eye lids;
4. Dr. Holly explains that the ointment can disturb the correct balance of the natural tear film and cause more problems in the long run.

So, with all that in mind, you might want to lay off the BAK drops and switch to non-preservative, single-use drops, and try the ointment once. Then, if it works for you, use it maybe once a week or once every two weeks.

Other things that might help could be warm or cold compresses. I am thinking that if you are concerned about redness, cool compresses might help to shrink the blood vessels in a natural way, and it might even feel good on your eyes and help increase moisture retention and reduce pain.

Again, please take this all with a grain of salt. I don't even know that I should recommend ointment. Using it too often caused such a problem for me that I have not used it in over 18 months.

Best wishes,
Liz

[SomeGuy]

Thanks a lot for that. Hopefully I can get an expert to comment on my situation as well.