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New UK members, at my wits end with irritable eyes
Hello, I'm a newbie! I am a 27 year old guy from the UK and I've been suffering from eye problems for about 12 years now, previous to that I didn't really have any problems. It is such a relief to find this website as I find the problem embarrasing and nobody else seems to have it.
It all started one day when my eyes got increasing more irritable, feeling dry and tired at first and then becoming red, weepy, sore and with a horrible aching, stinging feeling that just seemed to get worse and worse.
I went to the 'Eye Casualty' unit at the local hospital and they said I had 'Corneal Abrasion', however the problem kept coming back and I've been struggling with it ever since. Some days I'm fine but other days my eyes are painful all day.
I often have bad episodes where my eyes get worse and worse and eventually they get so bad that I have to go and lay down for several hours. Closing my eyes helps immensely in the short term and in these situations it is painful just keeping my eyes open. The pain is unbearable and I am totally unable to concentrate on anything.
I used to be under a consultant at the eye hospital but they discharged me because there was "nothing more they could do" but they don't realise how much misery this is causing me. They were never very helpful and didn't explain anything to me about what exactly the problem was.
I have identified one very obvious trend for setting off bad episodes and you will probably think this is wierd - I certainly do and the consultant at the hospital told me that I was talking nonsense when I brought this theory up but it is social situations that make it worse.
I suffer from social anxiety (and depression) which makes me feel nervious when around people unless I know them very well. I am generally OK in these situations if I have something to do, for example, working, using a computer, any physical activity but talking to people or sitting in a meeting and so on are almost guaranteed to set me off. My eyes start off tired and dry then start to weep, sting, become red and my eyedlids swell up and make me look like my eyes are half shut. Usually this affects one eye worse than the other but which eye is affected appears to be random.
Putting eye drops or cold water in my eye provides releif but this is only temporary and the symptoms return worse than ever. Putting something cold on my eyelids also helps but this is very short lived too.
Eventually, my eyes get so bad that I have to go home sick which is really embarassing and then it takes a few days of pain for them to get back to normal.
I am absolutely at my wits end with this horrible stupid condition and I just want to be 'normal'. I went home sick yesterday with bad eyes after holding out for as long as I could, it was painful just keeping my eyes open. I went to bed, expecting to find my eyes much better in the morning as a good night's sleep usually helps and they were almost as bad as before. Right now my eyes are stinging, very tired and inflamed (actually only my left eye is, my right one is OK apart from generating above usual amounts of mucus and looking a bit red.
I have never actually been diagnosed with dry eye snydrome but my symptoms exactly match those listed on Wikipedia and this website. The hospital said it was all related to hayfever and prescribed me Olopatadine (which I still take) and various other mast cell stabilisers but they don't seem to have much effect. I also tried hydromellose artificial tears but they also didn't help much. I have tried every kind of over-the-counter eye drops you can get and not found anything beneficial. The only eye drops I have found to help were Predsol but the doctors will not give me them again. I really wish I could have a bottle only to use in emergencies but they won't do it.
I do suffer from eczema, asthma and hayfever, I am on 10mg Methotrexate per week to control my eczema but it doesn't seem to make my eyes any better. I used to be on Cyclosporin for the eczema. Not sure if the eye problems are related to eczema but the eczema is pretty well controlled.
I just don't know what to do. My eye problems are making me avoid a lot of things. I absolutely hate meetings. If they're less than an hour I can get away with it as my eyes don't have chance to get really bad but meetings longer than that are guaranteed to make my eyes flare up. I also try and avoid training courses (unless they involve looking at a screen all the time, in which case I'm OK) but I have to go on various seminars and things occasionally as part of my job.
The only thing I can do which helps a bit is drinking alcohol - this dopes my nervous system down and can usually prevent me from getting my weird nervous dry eye symptoms although once my eyes are bad it makes no difference. I have to go on a course tomorrow, now I really want to go on the one hand because it will be extremely useful but on the other hand I am seriously tempted to just not turn up because I know it is highly likely I will have to go home sick and embarass myself in front of important people.
My condition also has a terrible negative effect on my self esteem. I have never been in a romantic relationship, probably because I am afraid of somebody finding out about my weird eye condition and rejecting me. I don't really have any close friends either as doing anything other than being in a pub and drinking alcohol is destined to cause disaster on the eye front.
Any suggestions? Maybe there is some wonderful cure for this or perhaps something mental I can do? I have got to my GP next week anyway and intend to bring up this issue, so any information I have will help me greatly because doctors have always dismissed my problem as hayfever or 'allergic conjunctivitis' in the past. I'm sure my atopy doesn't help but it is definitely not the only cause and not even the primary cause I think. If I could avoid the flare-ups I get then that would help me to live again. I have been suffering in silence for too long and to be honest I have been denying how much of a problem this is causing me for too long as it is embarassing and nobody understands me.
I found this site after Googling 'mucus fishing', as this is another thing I do a lot of the time. My eyes often feel dry and like there is something in them which is very irritating and it's like having something constantly in the corner of my vision so I go and look in the mirror and pull the bottom of my eye down and sure enough, there is stringy white stuff in there. I pull it out but it is often difficult to get out and gets stuck to the eyeball.
It all started one day when my eyes got increasing more irritable, feeling dry and tired at first and then becoming red, weepy, sore and with a horrible aching, stinging feeling that just seemed to get worse and worse.
I went to the 'Eye Casualty' unit at the local hospital and they said I had 'Corneal Abrasion', however the problem kept coming back and I've been struggling with it ever since. Some days I'm fine but other days my eyes are painful all day.
I often have bad episodes where my eyes get worse and worse and eventually they get so bad that I have to go and lay down for several hours. Closing my eyes helps immensely in the short term and in these situations it is painful just keeping my eyes open. The pain is unbearable and I am totally unable to concentrate on anything.
I used to be under a consultant at the eye hospital but they discharged me because there was "nothing more they could do" but they don't realise how much misery this is causing me. They were never very helpful and didn't explain anything to me about what exactly the problem was.
I have identified one very obvious trend for setting off bad episodes and you will probably think this is wierd - I certainly do and the consultant at the hospital told me that I was talking nonsense when I brought this theory up but it is social situations that make it worse.
I suffer from social anxiety (and depression) which makes me feel nervious when around people unless I know them very well. I am generally OK in these situations if I have something to do, for example, working, using a computer, any physical activity but talking to people or sitting in a meeting and so on are almost guaranteed to set me off. My eyes start off tired and dry then start to weep, sting, become red and my eyedlids swell up and make me look like my eyes are half shut. Usually this affects one eye worse than the other but which eye is affected appears to be random.
Putting eye drops or cold water in my eye provides releif but this is only temporary and the symptoms return worse than ever. Putting something cold on my eyelids also helps but this is very short lived too.
Eventually, my eyes get so bad that I have to go home sick which is really embarassing and then it takes a few days of pain for them to get back to normal.
I am absolutely at my wits end with this horrible stupid condition and I just want to be 'normal'. I went home sick yesterday with bad eyes after holding out for as long as I could, it was painful just keeping my eyes open. I went to bed, expecting to find my eyes much better in the morning as a good night's sleep usually helps and they were almost as bad as before. Right now my eyes are stinging, very tired and inflamed (actually only my left eye is, my right one is OK apart from generating above usual amounts of mucus and looking a bit red.
I have never actually been diagnosed with dry eye snydrome but my symptoms exactly match those listed on Wikipedia and this website. The hospital said it was all related to hayfever and prescribed me Olopatadine (which I still take) and various other mast cell stabilisers but they don't seem to have much effect. I also tried hydromellose artificial tears but they also didn't help much. I have tried every kind of over-the-counter eye drops you can get and not found anything beneficial. The only eye drops I have found to help were Predsol but the doctors will not give me them again. I really wish I could have a bottle only to use in emergencies but they won't do it.
I do suffer from eczema, asthma and hayfever, I am on 10mg Methotrexate per week to control my eczema but it doesn't seem to make my eyes any better. I used to be on Cyclosporin for the eczema. Not sure if the eye problems are related to eczema but the eczema is pretty well controlled.
I just don't know what to do. My eye problems are making me avoid a lot of things. I absolutely hate meetings. If they're less than an hour I can get away with it as my eyes don't have chance to get really bad but meetings longer than that are guaranteed to make my eyes flare up. I also try and avoid training courses (unless they involve looking at a screen all the time, in which case I'm OK) but I have to go on various seminars and things occasionally as part of my job.
The only thing I can do which helps a bit is drinking alcohol - this dopes my nervous system down and can usually prevent me from getting my weird nervous dry eye symptoms although once my eyes are bad it makes no difference. I have to go on a course tomorrow, now I really want to go on the one hand because it will be extremely useful but on the other hand I am seriously tempted to just not turn up because I know it is highly likely I will have to go home sick and embarass myself in front of important people.
My condition also has a terrible negative effect on my self esteem. I have never been in a romantic relationship, probably because I am afraid of somebody finding out about my weird eye condition and rejecting me. I don't really have any close friends either as doing anything other than being in a pub and drinking alcohol is destined to cause disaster on the eye front.
Any suggestions? Maybe there is some wonderful cure for this or perhaps something mental I can do? I have got to my GP next week anyway and intend to bring up this issue, so any information I have will help me greatly because doctors have always dismissed my problem as hayfever or 'allergic conjunctivitis' in the past. I'm sure my atopy doesn't help but it is definitely not the only cause and not even the primary cause I think. If I could avoid the flare-ups I get then that would help me to live again. I have been suffering in silence for too long and to be honest I have been denying how much of a problem this is causing me for too long as it is embarassing and nobody understands me.
I found this site after Googling 'mucus fishing', as this is another thing I do a lot of the time. My eyes often feel dry and like there is something in them which is very irritating and it's like having something constantly in the corner of my vision so I go and look in the mirror and pull the bottom of my eye down and sure enough, there is stringy white stuff in there. I pull it out but it is often difficult to get out and gets stuck to the eyeball.
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