How does it feel to blink?

[hopeful_hiker]

Does blinking relieve your symptoms? Is it irritating, painful or rough? Sticky? Do you feel friction/skidding?
Or does blinking feel normal/smooth? Do you notice when you blink?


To Doctors: Have your patients ever complained about blinking?

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I posted about this before but my thread was very focused on my symptoms. I am curious how others feel because I am starting to feel like I am the only one who hates blinking. Basically, my TBUT is not normal but not non-existent: 6-7 seconds. My open and closed eyes are ok mostly but blinking is the worst. Healthy corneas, a bit aqueous deficient, too.

[Hokucat]

When I used to have severely dry eyes, I felt friction/skidding when I blinked, both with and without my scleral lenses. And of course I constantly had debilitating pain, but not necessarily because of blinking, but that may have contributed to my sandpaper surfaced eyes. I had to constantly use drops while wearing the lenses, and without the lenses (which eventually ended up being 100% of the time) Severe Dry Eye Gel was the only OTC drop/gel that made my eyes feel moist and soothed and my blinks smooth for more than just a few minutes.

Now that I’m managing better, blinking does seem to give my eyes some moisture, especially blinking exercises.

MGD1701 posted an informative article on lid wiper issues today, perhaps also something for you to consider:

http://forum.dryeyezone.com/forum/dr...k-milner/page4

[hopeful_hiker]

When I used to have severely dry eyes, I felt friction/skidding when I blinked, both with and without my scleral lenses.

Thank you for the response! The thing is that I do have some tear film. Maybe not perfect and short lasting but it is there so I am confused why I actually feel pain or just corneal sensations that are very weird.

My doctor said I had some cell loss but not obvious LWE.

What are your parameters like now? I know you use sclerals for the residual dryness.

[farmgirl]

You know how we often have symptoms that are difficult to articulate like your corneal sensations. For me it is not so much how the blink feels, cause mostly that feels pretty normal except when I really need a drop and then it is almost panic state if I can't find one because my eye feels like cardboard, for me it is my lash line. My lash line just feels weird when my eye is really needing lubrication and there is nothing that I can think of that compares to describe the feeling. I guess I could say it feels kinda tight like it is made of string.

I don't even know how to describe it except to say that if I have any lubrication on them blinking is OK. It may be for only a few blinks but it will get me through until I can locate a drop. What I find helps is if I have any water around like in a drinking bottle I can dip my finger in it and rub it on the lash line or in the absence of that I will often just lick my fingertips and rub them on the lash line. That will keep me for about a minute. Actual water will hold me off for about 2 minutes.

Does anybody experience anything similar?

[hopeful_hiker]

farmgirl, I’’’ve experienced somewhat similar results with plain water. Basically, if I was my face (with eyes closed shut, of course), and pat it dry with my eyes still closed, I feel as if I put in a small eye drop. However, if I just shut my eyes, I do not feel the same relief.

I have also felt my eyelid margin dry out on a few occasions but not my lash line.

It is crazy how the same disease can manifest itself in dozens of ways!

[optimusdryeyes]

Does blinking relieve your symptoms? Is it irritating, painful or rough? Sticky? Do you feel friction/skidding?
Or does blinking feel normal/smooth? Do you notice when you blink?


To Doctors: Have your patients ever complained about blinking?

---

I posted about this before but my thread was very focused on my symptoms. I am curious how others feel because I am starting to feel like I am the only one who hates blinking. Basically, my TBUT is not normal but not non-existent: 6-7 seconds. My open and closed eyes are ok mostly but blinking is the worst. Healthy corneas, a bit aqueous deficient, too.

Sometimes it feels sticky, and if my eyes are really dry, it feels like rubbing them against sandpaper. By the way 6-7 is not horrible. I checked mine today and the right was 3 and the left was 4. But last week, the right was 1 and the left was 2 so I am happy there is some sort of improvement.

[optimusdryeyes]

You know how we often have symptoms that are difficult to articulate like your corneal sensations. For me it is not so much how the blink feels, cause mostly that feels pretty normal except when I really need a drop and then it is almost panic state if I can't find one because my eye feels like cardboard, for me it is my lash line. My lash line just feels weird when my eye is really needing lubrication and there is nothing that I can think of that compares to describe the feeling. I guess I could say it feels kinda tight like it is made of string.

I don't even know how to describe it except to say that if I have any lubrication on them blinking is OK. It may be for only a few blinks but it will get me through until I can locate a drop. What I find helps is if I have any water around like in a drinking bottle I can dip my finger in it and rub it on the lash line or in the absence of that I will often just lick my fingertips and rub them on the lash line. That will keep me for about a minute. Actual water will hold me off for about 2 minutes.

Does anybody experience anything similar?

Yeah I do feel something like that, especially recently. Before, it was just the burning, gritty feeling with foreign object sensation. My guess why we feel this is that the oil glands are clogged so the extra oil makes your lids feel heavier and tighter. One thing that can help is to get manual probing of the glands done by your eye doctor, which will help unclog the glands.

[diydry]

Great question!

When my eyes are very dry, I not only feel the dry friction when I blink but I can even hear the blink! It’s crazy and unsettling, I can actually hear the eyelid rub against something during the down blink and up blink.

The other thing I notice in my dryer eye is a need to blink harder, it’s almost like I have an incomplete blink; however, no doctor has mentioned lagopthalmis(sp?) to me. If I blink hard or do blinking exercises, I actually feel temporarily relief from something wet on the eye, which i’m wondering if that’s the meibum bring excreted from the blocked glands due to the force of the blink.

My TBUT is similar to yours.

[farmgirl]

farmgirl, I’’’ve experienced somewhat similar results with plain water. Basically, if I was my face (with eyes closed shut, of course), and pat it dry with my eyes still closed, I feel as if I put in a small eye drop. However, if I just shut my eyes, I do not feel the same relief.

I have also felt my eyelid margin dry out on a few occasions but not my lash line.

It is crazy how the same disease can manifest itself in dozens of ways!

Exactly.... not sure why that is. So what is the difference between eyelid margin and lash line. Aren't they kinda the same thing?

[hopeful_hiker]

farmgirl hmm, when I think of eyelid margin, I am referring to the place right above the lower eyelashes, or right below the upper ones. We are probably talking about the same thing though

diydry thank you for your response! Makes me feel less crazy. I definitely agree about dryness marking blinking harder. I have heard the sound, too, pretty sure it is somehow in my head.

[PG]

When my dry eye was bad, I had no friction or pain or roughness when blinking. I also had no relief when blinking, except when I blinked hard repeatedly while using a warm compress to get oil flowing.

[Guest]

So weird reading everyone's different experiences. When I try blinking more and harder, my eyes get more dry. It's like I'm dipping in that tear well and draining it, my tears then evaporate and I'm left with nothing....and now I'm more dry. It also feels like my eyes are swollen or bulging so I can't physically close them all the way without extreme pressure. My eyes twitch if I blink hard, got a lot of crazy stuff going on lol.

[farmgirl]

If my eyes feel like that I for sure need to put in a drop (almost puts me in a panic state if I can't find one) of some kind and yes if I need a drop and try to squeeze out oils it makes it worse.