Unable to take eye drops

[Jabberwocky]

Hi guys,

my brother used to play on computer, upload youtube videos and everything, but after coronavirus hit us, he started being very frustrated throughout the day and it traced back to him spending time at screens.

I don't know exactly if the source of the problem is in his eyes or not, but we tried limiting his time at screens and it helped to some degree.

gradually though, situation became so bad that we had to almost completely eliminate screentime from his day, except he is at the TV in mornings. He dims the light as much as he can and after an hour or so he stands up and goes to school.

Parallel to this, he has been feeling headband like pressure on his forehead (also since coronavirus), and now on top of his head too.

We tried giving him eye drops, but he says it burns really bad for like 5 minutes continuously, which is a LONG time for eye drop pain.

Ophthalmologist said there are no pathologies present, but next time we tested him they said there is allergic conjunctivitis. After a while we took him to test again to another ophthalmologist and they said there are no signs of conjunctivitis or any other eye disease, and that it could just be dry eyes. So we tried artificial tears for dryness, but it gave no relief either.

Only thing that helps him relieve his discomfort is applying cold compress (in our case, we use just kitchen silverware teaspoon that i run under cold water), but we don't understand why or how it has this effect.

I am scared to keep pushing the eye drops idea, because it causes nonstop burn and pain to him every time we tried it and it did not get less after a week even.

Another thing to mention is that we tested him for bacterias and he has high amount of h pylori bacteria in his gut (we did breath test). He also has mouth bacterias like streptococcus (high) and staphylococcus (low).

Can you help me identify, what could this be?

[Hokucat]

It can take some experimenting to find artificial tears with ingredients (make sure to only use preservative-free drops) that are most soothing. For example, my eyes sting using any drops with carboxymethylcellulose sodium, like in the popular Refresh eye drops. Drops that provide me the most comfort contain Dextron and Hypromellose, like in Genteal Tears, which are for more sensitive eyes.

You might also consider storing drops in the refrigerator before use, as cool drops can be more soothing. Especially given the cold spoon gives your brother relief.

As far as if bacteria in his gut and mouth might be related to his eyes, that’s something the ophthalmologists would need to diagnose and treat with antibiotic drops and/or other treatment. Am assuming the h pylori and mouth bacteria conditions were mentioned to the ophthalmologists, but not sure if there’s a connection. Hopefully your brother got treated for those conditions though.

Headaches and/or head pressure and needing to dim the lights can be symptoms of dry eyes, from my personal experience.

Your brother’s meibomian glands could also be blocked. All that screen time can cause less blinking or partial blinks, which limits oil being naturally expressed from the glands, causing them to get backed up over time. This is happening to more and more younger people with excessive use of electronic devices. Did either ophthalmologist press on his glands to check the oil quantity and quality? If blocked, there are treatments for that. Blocked glands or whatever else might be the issue usually need to be resolved, otherwise the eye problems could be on-going. Drops mainly address symptoms and don’t resolve the underlying issue, which can worsen over time if not addressed.

You could also try using a foam lid scrub with anti-bacterial properties to clean the eyelid margins and meibomian gland openings. Ocusoft Lid Scrub Plus Foam and Ocusoft Lid Scrub Plus Platinum Foam works well for me. But there are many different lid scrubs out there, something else might work better for your brother. The Dry Eye Shop has several available, along with descriptions that could help you select one. You can also call or text them with your brother’s condition and they can suggest a lid scrub that might be best. You may also want to ask the ophthalmologist for a recommendation based on his condition.

https://dryeyeshop.com/collections/lid-foams

Hope you find something that helps your brother soon.