My tears are sticky

[herefishy]

Does this sound familiar to any of you? I have periodic blurring that is only relieved temporarily by warm rice baggies or more temporarily, by closing my eyes for 10 minutes or so. The blurring can be sort of wiped away, but the tears that I wipe away are thicker and stickier than normal tears. Do Meibomian glands ever overact? Like put too much oil out? I can see fine in the morning when I wake up, for about 2 hours, then the blurring sets in and I fight it the rest of the day. My eyelids stick together, but I don't get "sand". Rubbing my eyes helps a bit, but obviously they get sore after a bit. Seems like the tears just get thick and form a film.
My dry eyes have been around 2 years but have only the last few months caused the blurriness.

[LaDiva]

Hi Fishy,
It sounds like your tear film is bad. I have sticky tears too, and yes, it can be due to the quality of your oil. Do you use warm compresses? If not, that might help.Sending good wishes.

[herefishy]

Thanks, LaDiva, I'm increasing the frequency of my compresses. Do you have the feeling that there is a film over your eye? It almost seems like I can wipe it off my eye. Should I use more drops, or less? Any kind of drops? Do you stay away from ointment? It seems like it has gotten worse since I've used ointment.

[LaDiva]

You are welcome, Fishy. Yes, my eyes feel gooey and I would describe it as "glop". My glop got better after my tear ducts were plugged and I had more tears, but the tear film is still gloppy. I use TheraTears unpreserved vials as it is supposed to help balance the tear film. When my eyes were very bad, more drops=more glop, but you've got to use enough to keep your eyes hydrated. I can't use those tears with polymers at all, probably because my eyes are so dry. I only used ointment when I had photophobia. Are your eyes plugged? I use warm compresses three times a day. Any less, and the glands plug.

[herefishy]

I think I have the opposite problem LaDiva, my optho says my tear drain is blocked, so my tears irritate the eye because they aren't "refreshed". They want to do DCR surgery, but that scares me. The blurrry vision that I'm having is driving me crazy, so am hoping for an improvement today with the 4 compresses yesterday and no ointment. The vision problems started about 2 months ago, and nothing I've tried has helped. Do you have blurriness?

[LaDiva]

I have trouble seeing, and sometimes blurriness, but it can be from mucous or too many tears. (My left eye waters sometimes.) It sounds like you have too many tears. I had a friend whose dad had his ducts cleaned out, and it worked. Hope this is the solution for you as well.

[herefishy]

Thanks - i am going to investigate the irrigation before I think about surgery, as I use a machine for sleep apnea that might blow air out my tear duct and I worry that that could interfere with the healing of the surgery. I had the irrigation before to see if the duct was plugged, and it was easy peasy. I am thinking that my blurriness almost always shows up a mucus string, but am hoping the frequent warm compresses will thin the mucus. I ordered the Thera Tears to see if they would be better than the ones I've been using.

[herefishy]

Just an update in case it helps someone else - my vision is slowly improving after a round of antibiotics and copious amounts of lubricant drops, plus rice baggies at least 6 times a day. I figure I can cut back on the drops if and when I get my vision straightened out. The stickiness of the tears has improved also. Oh, and another thing that has helped, I use the nighttime lubricant ointment all over my lids and surrounding tissue, so it doesn't get so irritated by my rubbing the eyes.

[xpro]

Try nac supplements