Who has been using Flarex long term??

[vivian3090]

My eyes have been very bad lately, my eyes would sting/burn/and become red minutes after I put drops in.

I don't know what came over me, but I still had my flarex bottle from when I used to have it. I used one drop in each eye.

Ever since taking it, I haven't had to put eye drops every 15 min's. although I have been making sure to put them in at least every 30/45 mins. but it feels pretty awesome to not have to have the stinging!

And also, my eyes are actually not red anymore, they are still a bit "veiny", but its an improvement from how they've been.

I'm going to talk to my opthamologist about getting back on FML for a bit, until my eyes have a bit more time to heal from lasik....but I just have a feeling that my eyes will never be the same and once I can't use FML, my symptoms will go back to be horrible.

Have any of you been on FML or any other type of steroid drops for a long period of time, and if so have you had any major side effects like the they say happens?? IOP, cataracts, etc?

Is there any other type of drop like FML that isn't steriods?

Its just frustrating to think that the one thing that is alleviating my pain and discomfort has such bad side effects. :/

[poppy]

Done steroids for approx 12 months non stop usually 4x or more a day... started on FML went to pred minims then pred forte (one of the strongest there is)... They keep things bearable but nothing can really get my eyes under control. Once you start to reduce or stop the steroids, eyes go to hell...

Despite my steroid use never had an IOP beyond top of normal, it's reduced a bit now I'm not on steroids. No other side effects yet. I believe steroid drops, especially mild ones, are completely fine to use for a few weeks occasionally. Also believe it's better to use them for a while until it's under good control (this is backed up by docs), than to just use them occasionally here and there for symptom relief.

My opinion is it's fine to drown your eyes in steroids to get things under control initially. After tapering off, do everything you can to keep your eyes under control and keep it up forever. If that doesn't work well, at least for a while, you're kind of screwed, sorry.

Never heard of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories helping anyone here (please feel free someone to correct me if wrong) and I understand they do have side effects of their own, too. Maybe not quite as bad.

I also strongly believe that if your dry eye prevents you from working, doing normal daily activities and/or it makes you very depressed or suicidal, and steroids are the only thing that works, you SHOULD TAKE STEROIDS. Eye docs are taught that they shouldn't use steroids for this "trivial" problem, but if your dry eyes cause any of these three problems, it's not a trival problem and warrants use of steroid drops in my opinion.

[vivian3090]

If flarex makes my eyes better, do I need to be looking for a reason other than dry eye?? I've been diagnosed with aqueous deficiency; but since my eyes seem to do good on flarex, was just wondering if I need to be looking past dry eye and into something else.