How to stop recurrent corneal erosions

[hayly]

I’ve had RCES in both eyes for 12 years now. It happened spontaneously, with no apparent reason. I get my attacks in the dead of night, between 3-5am and it always wakes me up with a start. In the beginning I only got attacks once every few months, but at it’s worst I had attacks several times/week (6 times in 1 week was my record). There are a couple of things I have found very helpful to deal with my RCES, the first is a wheat bag eye mask (I came up with this a couple of years ago). I made this myself with two thick elastic straps around the back of my head to keep it in place and one elastic strap across the front (to keep the pressure on when I roll over on my side during sleep). The eye mask is filled with buckwheat. I sleep with it on at night. The weight of it reduces the amount my eyes can move during REM sleep and I have noticed a reduction in the occurrence of attacks since using it (about 1 attack/month became the new norm). Also once I’ve had an attack the weight of it on my eye is actually quite soothing and stops me going to move my eye around (I can even fall asleep again). The second thing that has helped me is eggs. In doing research I discovered that RCES is more commonly a third world problem, which made me draw the conclusion that it could be a nutrition issue that is contributing to RCES. Apparently the cornea is made up largely from albumen. I thought to myself albumen – that’s what eggs are made from! So from the start of January this year I decided I would religiously eat 2 eggs minimum every day (I always hated eggs as a kid, so I’ve never had a lot of them). I had a very bad attack on the 4th of January – both eyes (that was a horrible first for me), then on the 8th of February I had a moderately severe attack in one eye, then on the 7th of March I had a really mild attack (I could open my eye comfortably immediately). At the beginning of April I had a couple of slightly blurry mornings – no pain. Then nothing since then. This has been the longest stretch in recent history that I have gone without an attack and I am quite excited at the thought that it may be the eggs that are helping my eyes. I will certainly be continuing with my 2 eggs minimum/day and I will report in later on to let you know if this good streak continues.

[hayly]

More success

I’ve had RCES in both eyes for 12 years now. It happened spontaneously, with no apparent reason. I get my attacks in the dead of night, between 3-5am and it always wakes me up with a start. In the beginning I only got attacks once every few months, but at it’s worst I had attacks several times/week (6 times in 1 week was my record). There are a couple of things I have found very helpful to deal with my RCES, the first is a wheat bag eye mask (I came up with this a couple of years ago). I made this myself with two thick elastic straps around the back of my head to keep it in place and one elastic strap across the front (to keep the pressure on when I roll over on my side during sleep). The eye mask is filled with buckwheat. I sleep with it on at night. The weight of it reduces the amount my eyes can move during REM sleep and I have noticed a reduction in the occurrence of attacks since using it (about 1 attack/month became the new norm). Also once I’ve had an attack the weight of it on my eye is actually quite soothing and stops me going to move my eye around (I can even fall asleep again). The second thing that has helped me is eggs. In doing research I discovered that RCES is more commonly a third world problem, which made me draw the conclusion that it could be a nutrition issue that is contributing to RCES. Apparently the cornea is made up largely from albumen. I thought to myself albumen – that’s what eggs are made from! So from the start of January this year I decided I would religiously eat 2 eggs minimum every day (I always hated eggs as a kid, so I’ve never had a lot of them). I had a very bad attack on the 4th of January – both eyes (that was a horrible first for me), then on the 8th of February I had a moderately severe attack in one eye, then on the 7th of March I had a really mild attack (I could open my eye comfortably immediately). At the beginning of April I had a couple of slightly blurry mornings – no pain. Then nothing since then. This has been the longest stretch in recent history that I have gone without an attack and I am quite excited at the thought that it may be the eggs that are helping my eyes. I will certainly be continuing with my 2 eggs minimum/day and I will report in later on to let you know if this good streak continues.

Hi, I just wanted to follow up with the continuation of my success story above. I have had a couple of very minor episodes since writing the above, but nothing compared with what it has been in the past. After doing more nutrition research I found the connection between Vitamin C being linked to your bodies ability to use collagen (albumen). So I've started taking 1g of Vitamin C every day in addition to my 2 eggs/day. The easiest way to show the results I've had is to paste in my eye diary. This is up to date as of 10/8/13 and I've kept it all this year. So here it is -


EYE DIARY

Date Eye Pain (1-10) Blurriness remained Comments

4/1/13 R & L Eyes L 9, R6 approx 2 weeks Couldn’t open L 2 days

14/1/13 Started eating 2 eggs EVERY day

8/2/13 R eye 7 12 days Couldn’t open all day

7/3/13 L Eye 1 1 day Opened eye waking up

2/4/13 L Eye 0 1 day No pain, just blurriness

4/4/13 L Eye 0 1 day No pain, just blurriness

10/5/13 R Eye 1 2 days Opened eye waking up

10/5/13 Started taking Vitamin c EVERY day

16/5/13 L Eye 2 1 day Opened eye waking up

4/6/13 R Eye 1 1 day Opened eye waking up



I would love to hear if anyone else has had success with nutrition.

[rswisley]

After much experimenting and diligent graphing of my progress, I have discovered a way to stop the life changing RCE condition I have had. I won't bore you with the detail - because many on this site have very accurately described the excruciating pain and randomness with which this occurs. I had PRK 9.5 months ago, which made the condition MUCH WORSE until I began a diet and supplement regimen 5.5 months ago. A year ago, I erosion to some degree an average of every night. Now that average is every 3-4 days. A year ago, the bad nights that left me incapacitated for days afterward averaged every 4-5 days - many times I hadn't recovered from the last bad bout before I had another. Now that average is 2-3 weeks and continuing to improve. In summary, I have had a chronic yeast infection for over 20 years which caused a breakdown of my immune system, which caused RCE and eventually hypothyroidism, which caused adrenal malfunction. I continue to document my travails and have enough confidence now to post my advice to those who can benefit at http://waysoflifethatwork.com/2013/0...st-overgrowth/. You can also to to www.waysoflifethatwork.com and click on the Dry Eye tab. Bottom line is I eliminated sugar, additional yeast (bread, beer, etc), antibiotics (non-organic meat & diary), and simple carbs (white flour) from my diet. It is clear it's making a difference and I'll continue to chronicle. Please don't settle for giving up your quality of life and don't accept it when people tell you that you have to learn to live with this. It will take immense discipline, but not that much cost and after a year or so, you may be able to ease up on the diet a bit.