New sufferer of dry eye and redness after eye infection - I need input!

[JennyS]

Hi everybody.

Here's a quick story for background. I'm 22 years old, female. About three weeks ago I had a small case of bacterial conjunctivitis on my right eye, diagnosed by an optometrist. She prescribed to me polymyxin B sulfate / trimethoprim ophthalmic solution. I started taking it on Thursday and didn't wear my regular contacts; however, I had my graduation ceremony on Sunday so I asked if I could wear them just for 4 hours that day. She said yes and gave me 1-Day Acuvue Moist for Astigmatism (yellow box). On Sunday I wore one pair of these, which hurt my eyes a bit to wear but it wasn't that bad. After the ceremony I took them out and I experienced an extreme burning/stinging sensation as I took them off, as if my eyes had dried up. I didn't take the eyedrops that day. After Sunday, I took the eyedrops again till Thursday in which I saw my optometrist again. She said to stop taking the drops and take eyedrops like Blink instead so the redness would go away.
But ever since that time period I have noticed extremely red, ugly veins trailing from the right side of my right eye toward my iris, and my eyes have been extremely dry ever since. I haven't been able to wear contacts at all since then (I normally wear BioInfinity Toric for Astigmatism).
I've been trying to use Zaditor recommended by an opthamologist because when I went in to see him he told me the veins and redness were due to eye allergy, which I never had before (I do have regular hay fever almost every day though). I've also been using Blink eyedrops very often but they seem to make my eyes drier after a small period of time. The veins are very red, very visible and aren't going away at all. I'm to the point where I'm becoming depressed because I already had such low self-esteem and hated how I looked, and now my eyes are making it so much worse. I normally spend a lot of time playing video games or being on the computer but I make sure to take breaks every now and then.

Does anyone have any tips, anything that can help me with this? I'm wearing glasses now which I have been forced to do, and I don't care for glasses very much. I'm so afraid people will see how horrible my eye looks. I just don't know what to do anymore, or why these veins have appeared so suddenly. Could wearing those contacts for 4 hours have done all this? Is Blink and Zaditor making it worse?

[elbliss]

I just want to say you're not alone. Almost two months ago I had an incident from overwearing my contacts and found my eyes blood shot red. (My story here: http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/forum...tart-of-things) Ever since, my right eye has a web of blood vessels that have not gone away. Since then, I have been diagnosed with dry eye and have been on Lotemax + Restasis and lower plugs, and I've been slowly getting better even though it's still early (almost 4 weeks with this regimen). The red veins in my eyes are still there and look worse in the mornings, but are starting to look acceptable throughout the day. I am hoping this improves with time. I just want to say hang in there. If you have to see a different eye doc to make sure it's allergies or not, I would try that. It seems you got some inflammation going on perhaps from the initial infection + the contacts. I was told that I probably had dry eye for a while and overwearing my contacts + excess computer use, etc.. made me finally reach my tipping point, and my eyes became super inflamed as a result which made them extremely dry. Hope you find out your answer and what works for you soon.

[Evergreen]

Try preservative eye drops which helped mine as I had similar situation. Refresh celluvisc works good

[Evergreen]

Meant to say preservative free

[JennyS]

Thank you both. elbliss, do you think I should see an allergist to see if he could correctly diagnose me with eye allergies or not? It just seems very out of the blue for this to happen. I never abused wearing my contacts even though I have worn them for 5-6 years already (I tried to take them out after 5-6 hours each day, if possible) because they irritated my eyes any longer than that. I wonder if I had dry eye syndrome for a long time and just never had any serious symptoms until now. I'm just very worried because I know that a lot of these veins can become permanent and that really worries me because I don't want to have these ugly veins the rest of my life... they are a little painful on my right side.
Do you think that the one incident with wearing those contacts on Sunday could have caused all of these veins to pop up? I only had them in about 4-5 hours and then took them out right after. The prescription eyedrops made my eyes very dry so I wonder if those contacts caused the blood vessels to come to the surface and become inflamed. Most of my family thinks it is just an allergic reaction but after reading so much about the connection between dryness and these veins, that really worries me. I'm not sure if I should keep using Blink or Zaditor, either.
I really do hope the plugs and Lotemax/Restasis work for you. I am glad they are helping.

Evergreen, I will switch to preservative free eyedrops. It seems all of the eyedrops I have used irritate my eyes.

I have begun taking omega-3 and taurine supplements.

[elbliss]

It doesn't hurt to seek a second opinion, maybe even from another ophthalmologist to make sure allergies are the main cause of the dry eye and veins. For me, it seemed very out of the blue also, but the fact that over the past year I've been a bit less tolerant to contacts (they'd be uncomfortable after a long time wearing them - this never happened before and I've been wearing contacts since I was 13 years old), was a clue that I was developing dry eye, just not with terrible symptoms yet until two months ago where I guess my eyes just gave up on me. I think once the cause of the dry eye is relieved then it would probably take some time for the blood vessels to become smaller and less inflamed therefore less noticeable. I wouldn't freak out about permanent veins yet. I am trying to not think about the permanence of the blood vessels in my eyes, and am trying to focus on the small improvements i have made in the past few weeks from addressing the inflammation, and so far i am happy with the small improvement and hope to continue to improve. Reading the word "permanent" on this forum and on other forums only freaked me out and fed my depression, so I would try to not focus on that and see how you can find a way to improve. Take preservative free drops. I bought so many different types the past month and the only ones that don't irritate my eyes have been Similisan and the Oasis drops that I ordered online so I use both. I have been having good days so the past two days I am happy to report I have barely had to put in any drops except in the mornings and at night and a couple of times during the day. Oddly my right eye (the one with the web of blood vessels) feels almost normal throughout the day and i feel dryer in my left eye (the whiter eye) now.