Not sure if it's just dry eye. Doc's won't listen

[Yoshi]

I've been to 2 ophthalmologists in the past 3 years and they both seem to think I just need some drops.

My general symptoms:
General dryness
Can't read a book without what I consider physical pain
Computer screens hurt as well
Driving at night hurts
Bright lights hurt

When I say hurt, I don't mean "scratchy, itchy, tired eyes". I mean it physically hurts. It feels like someone is jabbing the back of my eyes with knives. Sharp piercing pain. Drops do near nothing anymore. I get maybe 3 seconds of relief. If I used non pres eye drops like I wanted to, I would go through several packs a day. To attempt to alleviate this, I sit with a cup of coffee in front of my face almost all day. It kinda helps. But not much

What I've been given:
Restasis
ofloxacin
alrex
small doses of doxycycline

What I've done:
warm compresses
lid scrubs
you name it

The second doctor just said "if your eyes hurt while reading, just look away and blink a few times". I wanted to slap him.

Is my problem truly dry eye? It feels like literal pain. Some descriptions don't match me very closely.

What I'm going to do as of today:
Lessen my coffee intake to hopefully nill (I drink about 2 pots a day)
Omega 3 fish oil pills
I read about an eye compress (tranquileyes ) Gonna give that a shot.

I'm also probably getting a third opinion. I need to find a doctor that won't just dismiss me. Think I'll try plugs.

[Rebecca Petris]

It sounds consistent with dry eye (doesn't necessarily mean it IS, of course). There are a number of people here who have what they describe as stabbing pains or at any rate symptoms that seem much more than surface pain or the classic dry, scratchy or burning symptoms.

Just to be sure, have the doctors ruled out other potential causes? If there were another obvious cause than dry eye in the cornea, iris etc they'd have said so. Have they examined your retinas too?

How is your vision? Have you had anything else going on? I just had kind of a flashback to ciliary muscle spasm pain... only other thing that comes to mind but probably very unlikely.

[Yoshi]

My vision is perfect. I have had several instances of eye injury however. I've had flash burn once (welding and catching myself without a mask) and I also had a piece of metal lodged in my cornea which then rusted (too stubborn to go to the doctor). Neither of which caused any long term damage and aren't chronologically linked with my dry eye.

Most other causes have been ruled out. EG auto immune deficiencies. But I'm not sure how thorough they have been.

No twitches, no spasms. Side from the symptoms I've described, my eyes and the rest of me are very healthy.

[Yoshi]

Figured I'd update. I'm cold turkey off of all my medications and only drink a max of 1 pot of coffee a day. Trying to get down to 4 cups max but withdrawal is worse than I expected.

I now have a humidifier at my office and use the tranquileyes warm compress at least once a day.

For now, I'm not worse. Not better. I had an afternoon where I didn't need any eye drops so that seemed like a break through. Slow and steady I guess.

[jads]

Yoshi, have you ever had your hormone levels checked out??

[Yoshi]

Nope. Guess I should?