What has been helping me so for AQD and MGD

[hosanna13]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share my current regimen and what has been helping me. I have AQD and MGD post-lasik (8 months). I have my lower puncta plugged (made the biggest difference) and use Restasis 2x day with 100% serum tears throughout the day. Warm compresses also really help.

AM Supplements:
Progesterone cream as eye cream
Sea buckthorn oil
NAC+L-glutathione (600mg/100mg)
Vit C
Bilberry

PM Supplements:
Progesterone cream as eye cream
Sea buckthorn oil
Fish oil
Ginko

Nighttime before bed: drop of almond oil in each eyes. It doesn't sting or hurt at all. This prevents lids from sticking to my eyeballs when I wake up.

I just started the NAC/L-glut, so I don't know if it'll help longterm. I'll stick to it for 3 months to see if my MGD gets better.

I've also noticed oil flowing from my upper meibomian glands since starting sea buckthorn oil. I'm expressing about every other day, and never saw anything coming out from the uppers prior to sea buckthorn oil.

Ladies, have you noticed your eyes becoming more painful around the time of your menstruation? I feel like this is the case for me, which indicates some hormonal factor as well. I've read a dab of progesterone cream around the eyes helped someone with their lid inflammation, so might as well throw that into the gamut of treatments I'm already doing..

But the most significant contributor to my eye pain is STRESS!!! I'm a med school student, so when I get really stressed out for an exam to the point of having anxiety, my eyes flare up like crazy. It's horrible. So I think stress-management through deep breathing and exercise is also key for dry eyes

[shirchuck]

can you give specifics on the Sea buckthorn oil-what type and amount you use. Thanks

[hosanna13]

I use 500mg softgels, 2 in the morning and 2 at night. Total: 1000mg in morning and night, so 2000 mg/day.

[Faith1989]

Congrats on the improvement! I have MGD and couldn't imagine doing school right now (I have graduated) but thats amazing your doing it! What do you think helped most with the glands? Did your treatments improve redness from inflamation?

[hosanna13]

Believe me, I still have my days when my eyes hurt so bad I feel like dropping out of med school. But I know that wouldn't accomplish anything and I'd be giving in to my circumstance, so I take deep breaths and calm down. Gotta live day by day because worrying about the future doesn't help healing. I definitely have a newfound appreciation for "living in the moment" and taking nothing for granted, esp health.

I feel like serum tears and Restasis really help with the inflammation. I know some people experience burning with Restasis, but thank God I don't have that. My eyes are not too red most of the time. I'm also trying to eat really healthy by cutting out gluten, fried foods, sugar, processed foods, etc.

[DryInUpstateNY]

I am Aqueous Tear Deficient w/ no MGD.

I think the biggest contributors to me getting better are reducing stress and getting on Restasis ASAP. I was very aggressive w/ multiple consults to multiple corneal specialists to devise a plan. This website gave me a good foundation to ask the right questions, actually. got on Restasis and in 8 weeks time felt better.

STRESS = killer. It causes heart failure, cancer, you name it. It just ruins your body. I find it quite telling that my dry eye started after what was the most stressful year of my life (I was caretaking for my dying father, I had injured my back, and I was being tested and examined for Multiple Sclerosis). My stress was at an all time high. Thankfully, I don't have MS, my back healed, and unfortunately my father passed but I have closure. My body though, it was still in a state of shock. BOOM, eye troubles.

I reduced the stress by forcing myself back to working out hard (I wrestle and do judo). I exhaust myself so my brain can't get too far. I stopped working so hard (I work on a computer all day as a software engineer). I take lots of breaks and I could not care less if my production has reduced (it actually hasn't). I also eat extremely clean. No bread, no processed junk, no dairy. ONLY water. I cheat here and there but for the most part I eat very clean.

needless to say, almost 5 months after it all happened, my eyes are a lot better. This winter is worse on the eyes, but even then, i'm proactive and make sure to keep humidifiers going all the time and "lubing" my eyes up w/ Systane prior to something that could aggravate my eyes. There are times where I feel like I did before dry eyes happened. I'd say it's a ratio of 30:70, of good eye conditions to GREAT eye conditions. There are those occasions where it's a regression and I feel like I took a step back.

I'm far from cured, but I thank indrep (think that's his name) on a post where he mentioned that getting on Restasis quickly would prove best. lots of folks go a long while w/ conventional wetting drops before going that route. it prompted me to get on Restasis ASAP.

[DryInUpstateNY]

in summary:
1. Cyclosporine (Restasis) as soon as possible. I may be lucky in that I too did not experience any stinging.
2. reduced stress by:
a. Working out HARD. Get so tired and sleep well. Don't give your brain any time to go off into worrying about something.
b. sleeping at a minimum 7 hours a night. I used to use gel at night but took someone's advise and stick to just Systane. The gel was causing a slight irritation after months of use.
c. Clean eating and drink only water. cheat at times so you don't go postal. Side note, I've lost 23lbs. so far doing this as a "side effect" to trying to better my eyes this way.


Miscellaneous:
1. I take HydroEye supplement daily (4 pills in morning and 2 pills before bed).
2. I drink a ridiculous amount of water. nearly 1.5 gallons a day.
3. Positive thinking/prayer/whatever... I'm Christian but by no means "in your face" about it. All I needed was that one positive thing that put my perspective into the right frame of light. It's hard to do when your eyes burn and hurt ALL THE TIME, but I found my glimmer of hope through working out hard to exhaustion. After a bit of that, the stress reduced JUST ENOUGH for me to actually feel better. It then started a really good positive cycle. I am greek orthodox and speak it fluently. I like to say the Lord's Prayer (our father) in greek and I do it over and over such that it's almost meditative. After a time of this, I feel a lot better as well.

[hosanna13]

DryInUpstateNY,
I'm glad you're in a better place now. I agree, positive thoughts/prayer/meditation makes a BIG difference in dealing with any trial. Stress seems to be a the biggest trigger for me these days, so stress management is part of the treatment. Even though living with DES is a pain in the ass, it's helped me take nothing for granted and live a healthier lifestyle in general in regards to diet, stress management, exercise, etc.
I hope your healing continues!