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I'm hitting a low point and hoping to hear some encouraging words from others who have been through this. My other posts explain my whole story (and thank you to anyone who responded to those a few months ago - it helped). The nutshell is I still have post-LASIK dry eye. Surgery was Oct. 4, 2013.
Right eye is much worse and that eye had a flap wrinkle immediately after surgery that had to be smoothed the morning after surgery and that eye just never has seemed to heal right still.
Should I give up hope of that eye healing if it hasn't yet?
Right now it is so bad in my right eye it's painful most of the time. I do think the dry eye is the cause of my pain.
To add insult to injury, the same eye is slightly under corrected with slight astigmatism so I see blurry still from that eye with halos around lights, unless I wear glasses or a contact lens and even then there's a bit of halo.
If both eyes were like my left eye, I would still have very slight dry eye symptoms, but it would barely impact how I live.
I'm feeling so frustrated, like this is endless.
It's only been 5 months and I feel like my life has been permanently altered. The hope that it will get better has gradually slipped away. Is this my new forever reality?!
I feel annoyed, impatient and tired all the time, like I want to shut my eyes. This is affecting my entire family. My children are affected because I feel like I'm in a constant state of distraction, discomfort and irritation, which makes it difficult to focus and I am less patient. Going to the grocery store is not as hard as it was at first, but it's still pretty miserable if I'm there longer than 30 minutes. The air and the lights make my one eye go crazy - it gets so irritated I can't even explain the feeling.
Sometimes I hesitate to make plans because I worry my eyes will hurt if there's too much light, if it's cold, if there's dust in the air, if anyone is smoking anywhere within a mile radius...the list goes on.
I'm sick of thinking about my eyes and all of this, I'm sick of eye drops, I'm sick of the whole thing.
My eye hurts a lot. It doesn't see well most of the time. The difference in vision between the two eyes still drives me crazy and gives me headaches.
The glasses give me headaches so I hardly wear them. The contact lens is uncomfortable and gets cloudy after just a few hours of wear (presumably b/c of the dry eye).
My eye allergies are bad right now, too, so my eyes burn and itch and look red.
I look tired or sick all the time.
I know my dry eye is not as severe as what happens to a lot of people because my eyes can tear up and I can cry. My eyelids don't get stuck.
But I still have so much discomfort and pain. Could it be caused by something else besides dry eye? Is it "nerve pain" from the surgery? I kind of think not because the pain and comfort seems to get a little better on days when the dry eye gets a little better, and also right after putting in drops.
I can't figure out if eye strain also has something to do with my pain? I only have -.50 correction and other eye is plano, so I don't bother with the glasses much b/c they give me headaches.
I keep wondering if not wearing the corrective lens (either glasses or contact lens) might be better so my eye muscles can just work harder at focusing b/c I read that sometimes the muscles can compensate for this small of a difference over time. Or is this just myth?
I had a few days last week where all of a sudden the vision in that eye seemed to sharpen a little, so that gave me hope, but as you all know it's a roller coaster.
That didn't last, but it did seem like the dry eye got a little better and that made me think the dry eye is causing part of my vision frustration. I could read words better at a distance for those few days and the halos were reduced to almost nothing.
I have the option for a free "enhancement" surgery, but mainly b/c of advice offered here, I have put that on hold (I have up to 2 years to do it). The frustration with the visual symptoms some days makes me feel inclined to do it though.
I also feel like the difference during those few days when vision improved might have had to do with being able to comfortably keep my eyes open long enough to focus on things, b/c my eye was less dry, so I was able to stare at objects for a few seconds without blinking for the first time in months.
Maybe it will happen again when the allergens decrease? Around here that happens in late March-early April. Another month of allergy hell at least.
I've been on Restasis for 4 months, I am taking vitamin D and an eye support nutrition supplement that has fish oil + lots of other vitamins and minerals in it.
I think I'm going to try hitting the D and fish oil a little harder. What dosage do people take of these two things for dry eye therapy? There are so many posts about this, but few that indicate the dosage people are taking.
I'm doing lid scrubs wipes and still occasionally using Refresh PF drops. When I try to cut back on the drops too much I get worse, but I also seem to get worse when I use them too much.
I sleep with a humidifier.
The fact that this is consuming so much of my life and time is starting to piss me off. I guess I've reached the anger stage of dealing with this.
Someone, please tell me this will get better...or different...or someday feel like less of a burden...something, anything encouraging?
Also, I'm so overwhelmed with the information out there about the different therapies, and I already spend so much time on the computer for work (not a choice), I just cannot bear to read everything I come across.
If anyone can please let me know what the recommendation is for the vitamin D and fish oil and any other simple dietary supplements that would be great. I can also go to a really great natural pharmacy in my area and ask, but I don't expect them to be dry eye experts so they might just give me the standard recommendation.
Most of all I just need encouragement. Nobody else "gets it" except one other friend I have who has been through it. (Weirdly enough LASIK cured her of dry eye!)
Anyone have anything to say that will help me break out of this negative damn mood!
Thank you!
Right eye is much worse and that eye had a flap wrinkle immediately after surgery that had to be smoothed the morning after surgery and that eye just never has seemed to heal right still.
Should I give up hope of that eye healing if it hasn't yet?
Right now it is so bad in my right eye it's painful most of the time. I do think the dry eye is the cause of my pain.
To add insult to injury, the same eye is slightly under corrected with slight astigmatism so I see blurry still from that eye with halos around lights, unless I wear glasses or a contact lens and even then there's a bit of halo.
If both eyes were like my left eye, I would still have very slight dry eye symptoms, but it would barely impact how I live.
I'm feeling so frustrated, like this is endless.
It's only been 5 months and I feel like my life has been permanently altered. The hope that it will get better has gradually slipped away. Is this my new forever reality?!
I feel annoyed, impatient and tired all the time, like I want to shut my eyes. This is affecting my entire family. My children are affected because I feel like I'm in a constant state of distraction, discomfort and irritation, which makes it difficult to focus and I am less patient. Going to the grocery store is not as hard as it was at first, but it's still pretty miserable if I'm there longer than 30 minutes. The air and the lights make my one eye go crazy - it gets so irritated I can't even explain the feeling.
Sometimes I hesitate to make plans because I worry my eyes will hurt if there's too much light, if it's cold, if there's dust in the air, if anyone is smoking anywhere within a mile radius...the list goes on.
I'm sick of thinking about my eyes and all of this, I'm sick of eye drops, I'm sick of the whole thing.
My eye hurts a lot. It doesn't see well most of the time. The difference in vision between the two eyes still drives me crazy and gives me headaches.
The glasses give me headaches so I hardly wear them. The contact lens is uncomfortable and gets cloudy after just a few hours of wear (presumably b/c of the dry eye).
My eye allergies are bad right now, too, so my eyes burn and itch and look red.
I look tired or sick all the time.
I know my dry eye is not as severe as what happens to a lot of people because my eyes can tear up and I can cry. My eyelids don't get stuck.
But I still have so much discomfort and pain. Could it be caused by something else besides dry eye? Is it "nerve pain" from the surgery? I kind of think not because the pain and comfort seems to get a little better on days when the dry eye gets a little better, and also right after putting in drops.
I can't figure out if eye strain also has something to do with my pain? I only have -.50 correction and other eye is plano, so I don't bother with the glasses much b/c they give me headaches.
I keep wondering if not wearing the corrective lens (either glasses or contact lens) might be better so my eye muscles can just work harder at focusing b/c I read that sometimes the muscles can compensate for this small of a difference over time. Or is this just myth?
I had a few days last week where all of a sudden the vision in that eye seemed to sharpen a little, so that gave me hope, but as you all know it's a roller coaster.
That didn't last, but it did seem like the dry eye got a little better and that made me think the dry eye is causing part of my vision frustration. I could read words better at a distance for those few days and the halos were reduced to almost nothing.
I have the option for a free "enhancement" surgery, but mainly b/c of advice offered here, I have put that on hold (I have up to 2 years to do it). The frustration with the visual symptoms some days makes me feel inclined to do it though.
I also feel like the difference during those few days when vision improved might have had to do with being able to comfortably keep my eyes open long enough to focus on things, b/c my eye was less dry, so I was able to stare at objects for a few seconds without blinking for the first time in months.
Maybe it will happen again when the allergens decrease? Around here that happens in late March-early April. Another month of allergy hell at least.
I've been on Restasis for 4 months, I am taking vitamin D and an eye support nutrition supplement that has fish oil + lots of other vitamins and minerals in it.
I think I'm going to try hitting the D and fish oil a little harder. What dosage do people take of these two things for dry eye therapy? There are so many posts about this, but few that indicate the dosage people are taking.
I'm doing lid scrubs wipes and still occasionally using Refresh PF drops. When I try to cut back on the drops too much I get worse, but I also seem to get worse when I use them too much.
I sleep with a humidifier.
The fact that this is consuming so much of my life and time is starting to piss me off. I guess I've reached the anger stage of dealing with this.
Someone, please tell me this will get better...or different...or someday feel like less of a burden...something, anything encouraging?
Also, I'm so overwhelmed with the information out there about the different therapies, and I already spend so much time on the computer for work (not a choice), I just cannot bear to read everything I come across.
If anyone can please let me know what the recommendation is for the vitamin D and fish oil and any other simple dietary supplements that would be great. I can also go to a really great natural pharmacy in my area and ask, but I don't expect them to be dry eye experts so they might just give me the standard recommendation.
Most of all I just need encouragement. Nobody else "gets it" except one other friend I have who has been through it. (Weirdly enough LASIK cured her of dry eye!)
Anyone have anything to say that will help me break out of this negative damn mood!
Thank you!
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