Daily Check-In

[Delilah]

Hi Everyone!!

Well I haven't done the warm compresses in ages because it did nothing for me. Wanted to tell everyone hello and to let you all know that Im doing okay, eyes are still the same but Im just living with it. I do have some bad news for ya'll, I re-took my board exams for social work for the 3rd time and failed again I studied my guts out and got the same score as I did the 2nd time a 65, 5 points away from passing. It sucks having a degree I can't use so now I just have to wait another 3 months and see if for the 4th time I will pass Spring is in the air here in Idaho and it's nice, I feed my wild squirrells lots of peanuts, makes me happy to see them get fatter lol I love animals As far as that everything is going good in my life except for my dry goopy eyes and not passing my board exams. I wish everyone a Happy Mardi Gras and wish you all good health. Your friend D

[kitty]

Well I haven't done the warm compresses in ages because it did nothing for me. Wanted to tell everyone hello and to let you all know that Im doing okay, eyes are still the same but Im just living with it. I do have some bad news for ya'll, I re-took my board exams for social work for the 3rd time and failed again I studied my guts out and got the same score as I did the 2nd time a 65, 5 points away from passing. It sucks having a degree I can't use so now I just have to wait another 3 months and see if for the 4th time I will pass Spring is in the air here in Idaho and it's nice, I feed my wild squirrells lots of peanuts, makes me happy to see them get fatter lol I love animals As far as that everything is going good in my life except for my dry goopy eyes and not passing my board exams. I wish everyone a Happy Mardi Gras and wish you all good health. Your friend D

So sorry to hear about the board results. Two things I learned from the nursing boards is this: 1. The tests seem to test your test-taking ability more than they test your knowledge of your course of study. 2. Don't study too much, especially right before the exam. Delilah, next time, make it a rule of no study 5 days prior to the exam (and no partying either). If you don't know it by then, you never will. Use the time to pamper yourself, get lots of rest and do all you can to not think about the exam. Over the next three months, read some books on test taking skills. There are lots of tricks you can use to help you squeeze out those 5 points! Things like, when in doubt, choose "B". If you have a choice of 4 questions, rule out two. If you don't know the answer, you have a 50/50 shot of getting it right this way. More can be found in those books! Good luck to you.

[AccutaneJay]

This weekend has been pretty good for me! I feel so fortunate to have had a good weekend - especially with the holiday. No severe burning, just mild dryness here and there

It's back to work tomorrow, so, I'm keeping my fingers crossed things will stay at least OK, but I have to be prepared that things will get worse in a little while. In the mean time, it's drops @ night and a warm compress before bed!

[Judy]

Hi,

I was not sure where to post this, so thought this might work. Just a quick story, I had a root canal ( my first and hopefully last one) yesterday at 11 a.m. Once the doc numbed me up with novacaine and I was waiting for the root canal surgery, my left eye (my very dry sad messed up eye) would not close which was an affect of the novacaine. It started dripping like crazy and the bright lights for the surgery were NOT HELPING. Of course they gave me kleenex and dark glasses. I was able to force my eye closed with a kleenex and my hand, but after a few minutes it would creep open. This was a major nuisance and painful... I just want to say to all of you out there whose eyes don't close all the way while you are sleeping (or at any time) that I can definitely empathize with you WAY MORE THAN BEFORE this happened to me. My eye is okay today (my tooth too). God Bless everyone. Judy

[Julie1]

I feel kind of sad today. I had a recent doctor's appointment in which I was tested a second time for autoimmune diseases, thyroid, hormones, arthritis, etc again. I am thankful that everything came back clear w/o any borderline test results. It was my conversation with my doctor made me feel very sad. He said that he did not feel that the meds caused my dry eye and that my dry eye was idiopathic. He also said that he did not think it would get better and that I would have to live with chronic dry eye for the rest of my life. I also felt that he downplayed my symptoms because he said that I was not the only one with dry eye and that I should try using some artificial tears. I'm way beyond that... and I feel kind of hopeless right now. I'm trying to be positive, but I am only human. I wish my doctor could walk a day in my shoes (or anyone else on this board's shoes) and just understand what we go tnrough.

Plus, I'm also sick with a cold and sore throat, so everything else seems worse now.

[calli66]

Take care, dear Julie. I know how depressing the visits to the doctor can be. Just the fact that he suggested you "use drops" proves that he CAN'T know what you experience OR what's in store for your future improvement....

So many people here on this forum have improved, and so will you.

Thinking of you...
C66

[skygoddess]

Hi Julie1
Sounds like a refesher course in bedside manner is in order.
Is this your G.P., or an Opthamologist? It sounds like a G.P. I would suggest you get to a good opthamologist if so.

I do not think dry eye comes out of thin air. There has to be a root cause, it just may take some time to find it.
Idiopathic is just someones spin for "I have no clue"

I struggled for well over a year, before I found the cause of my dry eye ( occular rosacea)
I just knew , that something was wrong, and all the eye problems I was suddenly having, couldn't be normal.

If it were not for all the info I found here, I bet I still would not have a definitive diagnosis.

My life is very different than a year ago, but the challenges of a chronic condition are now part of my normal routine. I won't claim to be happy about it. I have had to give up a lot of activities to accomodate my limitations. But I am moving forward. You can't look back.

(Yesterday, I took a leap of faith and splurged on new paints, I plan on using them someday soon)

Don't give up, and don't take "Idiopathic " for a answer.

[Julie1]

Thanks, Calli and Skygoddess. It was my PCP that I was referring to in my earlier post, and I agree that he needs to take a refresher course in bedside manner. I felt very sad and hopeless after I got off the phone with the PCP.

I do see a corneal specialist and am using Restasis, warm compresses 2x/day, Thera Tears Nutrition, lid scrubs, 200 mgs minocycline, and I have lower plugs and upper flow controller plugs. Although my eyes have improved, I am still very much symptomatic. I'm still not quite sure what caused my dry eye, and my opthamalogist thinks that the medication may have triggered some underlying condition. He doesn't know what that underlying condition is... I guess he also would say that it's idiopathic. Maybe I do have ocular rosacea, even if I do not have any signs of facial rosacea. It just seems so strange that I would have such a sudden onset and I could hurt so much.

Thanks again for your encouragement. It means a lot to me!

-Julie

[Julie1]

P.S. I really like this "Daily Check In" thread!

[Dotanne]

I've been going through a bad spell. And our computer was down too(It's had a new heart transplant and we are going to go on Broadband) Terrible face pain(like toothache and inflamed back of nose) on one side almost every day. I was so pleased to get an answer to my query from Dr Latkany. My eyes were looking even more inflamed yesterday (and I was also extremely thirsty) so we went off to OD again about 6 pm (1 1/4 hours drive away) and he has now given me some antibiotic and taken a swab as he thinks there is some sort of virus or infection. Today I did not have any face pain in my cheek and I am less thirsty though my eyes are quite sore tonight. Maybe the antibiotic is doing something. It is chloramphenicol EY 0.5% and the preservative is Phenyl mercuric something. Doesn't sound great but its Not BAK. I'm already taking antibiotic tablets to keep infection away from a 'growth' thing on my shin so they can do a biopsy on it on Monday. One thing - they aren't making my eyes any worse and they weren't the cause of the other flareup as I only started taking them yesterday.
This opthalmologist (he does heaps of cataract ops) is very good in that he will take you at the end of the day after he has been doing ops and he has talked to me over the phone too. He is getting me to do blood tests for Sjogrens now too. The Lasik guy (over 2 hours away) was always away on holiday or examining opth students to be able to fit me in straight away and I did not have any faith in him after he wanted to cauterise my punctum before trying plugs 3 mths after Lasik.
I am longing for some rainy days now and must get that humidifier from Amazon now we are on Internet again. Can't get them in NZ and a local agent tried all the car places for a car one too.
Cheers all and God Bless.

[kakinda]

Hi Dotanne,
I'm sorry to hear about your bad spell. Just one small precision, BAK is a problem because of its overwhelming use in ocular preparations, which unfortunately doesn't mean that others like EDTA and organic-mercurial derivatives like the one you mention are not a problem as well...
The main and most frequent problem with the latter group is contact allergy, while with quartenary ammonions you have more cytotoxic effects (cell death, tear film disruption, etc). So you must comply with your prescription (very imporant it is an antibiotic!) but maybe mention any local reaction to your doc.
I'm also investigating sinuses and face pain that i think have an impact on my case as well so I let you know but it's surprising to see that so many people complain about this type of pain and yet receive so little interest from docs...
Do you suffer from allergy (i've heard that many Kiwi and Aussies suffer from that and France is number 4 in the world after you 2)? maybe i already asked you this? but when i get my allergy under control the pain decreases regardless of the dryness so maybe -possibly nothing to do with your case- but worth investigating...
Best regards from the lands "Up Above",
take good care

[Dotanne]

Face pain

Hi Kakinda
Thanks for your reply. I find this face pain really debilitating and it knocks me terribly - tips me over the edge depression wise. It is back today yet I don't think my eyes are very dry. Every time I go to the OD he says my tear film is quite good. I didn't think I have any allergies but I did have a hair analysis a while ago and they mentioned I should avoid things like dairy products, soy and things in the tomato/potato family and bean family. It is terribly hard to stick to such a diet if one has to eliminate every bit of the product (like milk) and I am a bit dubious about the ability of a hair test to work out allergies??? I have tried to stick to the diet but it doesn't seem to make any difference. BUT we do grab at anything that may help. I have booked to see an ENT guy but I have a feeling he will pass it back to the OD - I am feeling very negative at the mo. It would be great to learn more about the cause of this face pain. It feels as though the inflammation is affecting my face tissue, back of nose, tooth nerves and even the back of my tongue and panadols do not help. I get some relief from putting in more eyedrops, Codalgin, sleep with wet compress. It is strange how it is on the one side so maybe ENT man may find something. My increase in thirstiness is a worry too so maybe the blood tests may come up with something.
God bless you Kakinda. Keep up the good work. I did pass on my thoughts and desires about BAK and preservatives in general to Alcon when they were communicating with me re Systane recall. They refunded me with pf product.
Take care
Dot

[Silverlady]

Dry mouth

Dot,
Are they testing you for Sjogren's?

Billye

[Dotanne]

Hi Billye
I had blood tests taken yesterday for Sjogrens. I suggested it to the eye Dr. I had a couple of good days after using the antibiotic eye drops the OD gave me last Wed night - yesterday was better too but i was very preoccupied with my leg - had a strange fast growing lump taken out of my shin in the morning and it was very sore last night. It is feeling a lot better this morning but my eyes seem to be cracking up a bit again. Not enough exercise because of my leg maybe? The antibiotics make me feel nauseated and depressed too. I feel using my Wiley Xs with the gasket all the time helps my eyes heaps. Just taking 5 htp for depression but I am going to a health lady on Friday (is a pharmacist) and I am hoping she can help me with hormone balance etc too. She has had experience in USA. I cannot take SSRIs as they give me awful agitation - hypo me up. Not keen on the dry eye/mouth side effects either. Does anyone know about Sam-e for depression?

[Delilah]

Happy St. Patty's Day1

Hello everyone I know I don't post as often as I use to but all of you are always in my heart and I feel for everyone and Im still so grateful for finding this site when my eye troubles first started Spring is here in Idaho which means the flowers will start to do their thing and my allergies will explode lol and my eyes will water and it's just oh so lovely, but it's a nice change from the dry winters we see here. I want to thank everyone who responds to my posts and thanks for all of you support. Have a great weekend and a fun and safe St. Patty's Day Your buddy D