Dissapointing optho appintment, dry eyes and scared...

[angelab]

Hello Everyone,
I'm new here and this is my first posting. Lately I have not been doing so good and my eyes are not helping. About 4 weeks ago midday I got a feeling of cold blowning into my eyes when I touched my itchy eyelids. I panicked and went to see an optometrist, who made a thorough exam, said my TBUT is 5, and took pictures of my upper eyelids and showed me that there is some debris on eyelashes. His diagnosis clogged MGD due to probably blepharitis. Told me to do warm compresses and wash my eyelids.
Fast forward to four weeks later, I made another appointment to an ophthalmologist this time because I suspected something serious is going on. This was by far the worst appointment I had and now I am freaking out. During my appointment the assistant put dilating drops then numbing drops and did the Schirmer test. My eyes started to hurt and my heart raced like crazy. The Schirmer test was 1 in one eye and 5 in the other. I have never had any problems with dry eyes until 4 weeks ago. I don't understand what could cause it. So, I broke in tears after the test and had a major panic. Now, I'm convinced this is due to autoimmune condition for sure. I'm also still, after 4 days, feeling the side effects of those damn drops they put in.
Can someone shed some light on this? I probably need referral to rheumy.... I'm in so much frustration and anxiety right now it's unbelievable. Thank you,
Agnela

[Klee]

A doctor i went to said he doesnt believe in any of those tests his nurse did a schirmers but he wouldnt give me the result as he said he doesnt believe in them

[Klee]

Main thing is try and get the glands open. Then your dry eye should feel better. I know what you mean though,ive been stressed every day over this. Each day is different,so unpredictable. I am now very sensitive to light and have alot of blurry vision.

[angelab]

Klee, thank you for your reply. I was so worried about the schirmer test. And the drops that the assistant put in literary dried my eyeballs for few days. Little bit better today, but the whole dry eye situation makes me very anxious. Before my optho appointment I did not have that gritty feeling in my eye just a feeling of a cold wind blowing, which the optometrist diagnosed as oil glands not functioning properly. These past few days were horrible, I should have gone for a follow up visit to that optometrist instead of the optho and now suffer like this. My condition was kind of manageable before and now it's worst. I hope the drops will wear off soon. It's been 5 days since that appointment. You're right the stress level with dry eyes is horrendous. I never thought this will affect me so much. I'm trying to pin point what caused my dry eyes and I know I was under extreme stress for the past couple months and had poor hygiene of eyes and that definitely may contribute to it. I'm just afraid it's something more serious like auto immune, I'm freaking out.

[LaDiva]

If your eye doctor prescribed warm compresses, they must be done religiously day after day after day. You cannot let-up on the routine or things get bad very quickly. I've been using warm compresses three times a day for five years. If the surface of your eye is damaged, the drops the eye doctor uses sticks to the surface of the eye, and it is difficult to get rid of it. Saline eyewash helps. As my eyes have gotten better, I don't have trouble with this anymore, but the dye used by the doctor used to cling to my eye for several days. Buy some Dust Busters, or goggles. They help contain moisture, and your eyes will feel much better. If you don't like the way they look, at least wear them at home. If you have ocular Rosacea, monitoring foods will also help. http://www.rosacea.org/patients/materials/triggers.php

There are many types of dry eye caused by many different things. Unfortunately, we must experiment to find strategies that work. I've found that TheraPearls eye masks provide the best contact to the eyelid surface, and stay warm longer than washcloths. Also, they are plastic and can be quickly washed with soap and water daily. If your doctor told you to express the lids, the best way (for me) was to gently pinch the skin between thumb and pointing finger starting with the outside edge of the top lid and gently massage for ten seconds at each pinch all the way around the eye, top and bottom. (About 3 spots of "pinching" on the top and bottom, from edge to edge.) Best of luck to you.

[Klee]

If your eye doctor prescribed warm compresses, they must be done religiously day after day after day. You cannot let-up on the routine or things get bad very quickly. I've been using warm compresses three times a day for five years. If the surface of your eye is damaged, the drops the eye doctor uses sticks to the surface of the eye, and it is difficult to get rid of it. Saline eyewash helps. As my eyes have gotten better, I don't have trouble with this anymore, but the dye used by the doctor used to cling to my eye for several days. Buy some Dust Busters, or goggles. They help contain moisture, and your eyes will feel much better. If you don't like the way they look, at least wear them at home. If you have ocular Rosacea, monitoring foods will also help. http://www.rosacea.org/patients/materials/triggers.php

There are many types of dry eye caused by many different things. Unfortunately, we must experiment to find strategies that work. I've found that TheraPearls eye masks provide the best contact to the eyelid surface, and stay warm longer than washcloths. Also, they are plastic and can be quickly washed with soap and water daily. If your doctor told you to express the lids, the best way (for me) was to gently pinch the skin between thumb and pointing finger starting with the outside edge of the top lid and gently massage for ten seconds at each pinch all the way around the eye, top and bottom. (About 3 spots of "pinching" on the top and bottom, from edge to edge.) Best of luck to you.

Warm compresses make my eyes what i would call greasy..hazy for hours after,always makes me so confused i dont know what i should do. Causes more anxiety

[LaDiva]

Not sure what to tell you Klee. We are all so different with this dry eye. My eyes are hazy right after using compresses, but this quickly goes away. I've got to use the compresses to keep the oil thinned out or my glands become completely blocked. Did you ask your eye doctor? Have you had your hormone levels checked?

[Klee]

Post menopausal. What hormones lol. I think the quality of my oil is just bad. Thinking of trying doxcyciline maybe.

[angelab]

Thank all for you comments. I've been reading the triumph stories to see if someone else had similar developments and what they used. This is all depressing, 5 weeks ago I was totally fine, this sudden onset of dry eye causes me major anxiety and panic attacks.
LaDiva: I have not been faithful to my daily routine that the optometrist suggested hoping somehow it would go away. I tried all kinds home remedies found on the internet, and mainly this site, but I feel they don't work or I did not stick around for too long with it. I'm still very worried about my Schirmer test I was hoping it was only oil problems. I hope those drops will wear off soon. Today, I'm seeing my optometrist and will see what he has to say. I'm devastated over this. I even take lots of vitamin C as I read it helps with aqua deficiencies.

[Klee]

Keep us posted. I like you have major anxiety over this. Xx

[angelab]

So I went to my optometrist and he said my TBUT has not changed. It's still 5 seconds. The dye he put in my eye has not affected me. I told him my issue with the dilating and numbing drops and he said that some people react bad to them and he recently had a guy who fainted on him after getting those drops put in. I also told him I worried about my Schirmer test and he said that my blepharitis may affect the tear production. I'm not too convinced about that but what do I know. I felt better on Friday so the drops' effect was starting to wore off. I'm still freaking out about my Schrimers and that it may be auto immune. I'm going to try and be consistent with my treatment since he told me I still have blepharitis. Compresses, eyelids cleaning, fish oil and vitamin C for tear production.

[Klee]

Hi,i am in the same boat as you. I never was given the schirmers before,just the tbt etc. I have dry eye established by schirmers and mgd. Doctor never even gave me the result,hes the one that said he didnt believe in the tests. He said if you have clogged glands you have dry eye. Anyway, I called his nurse she just said eye drops. My tbt actually wasnt bad and so i have nooo idea what to think. Guess its not that uncommon to have both. Lucky us. Xx

[farmgirl]

Hi angelab: I understand that you are upset about all of this given that it is so sudden and you have not had time to digest it. I just want to assure you that chances are you will eventually improve. Even if you have an autoimmune condition (I have Sjogrens) you will find things that help to improve your situation. It is a learning curve and you will try/find things that help and although you may never be entirely rid of the problem you will have tools to help you cope, but it will take time.

Each of us are different so I can only speak to things that have helped me, and you won't dive in and do all of these thing immediately because it is a process, but punctual plugs/cautery have helped, serum eye drops have helped, moisture chamber glasses have helped, restasis has helped and of course the eye drops Systane non-preserved. I have tried many things that helped others which I didn't find made any difference for me. Lacriserts didn't help, scleral lenses didn't help, compresses didn't help and many eye drops made it worse. I am very sensitive to gels so can't use them at all. I would treat antibiotics with caution as you can develop digestive disorders with those if your good bacteria in the gut get killed off.

Bottom line, whatever your problem turns out to be you will find things that help to make it tolerable. Hang in there....cheers...F/G

[Keely]

Just wanted to offer good wishes. If you can do the compresses regularly, it does help with blepharitis. Try timings and different compresses to see what works best for you.

I don't know if it will help you, but I was told to take Vitamin A supplements to help eyes heal. I have no idea if it is helping me at all, but I'm sticking with it in the hopes it works.

[angelab]

Thank you all for your responses. I had no idea it will be this hard to treat dry eye. Some things work for a while but then they don't work. I noticed that I benefit from warm compresses but if I do them everyday I feel worst. Yesterday, was not good. I felt ok on Sunday but Monday was horrible - itchy, red eyes. Today is so so, I just washed my eyelids. Drops are tricky - sometimes I feel good having them in and other times they sting and make things worst. Ugh.. what a nasty and long process. I developed dry eye 5 weeks ago and to me this is still debilitating symptom making me very anxious and panicky at times. I will try Vitamin A did not try that. I bought Theratears supplement after I read someone's else success story but it's only been a day and I cannot vouch for it yet. I heard that Vitamin C and iodine increases tear production. Eating tumeric is supposedly be good for eyes. I just don't know, I will have experiment.