Hello everyone,
This is my first post on this fantastic forum. Congratulations to the founder...it is an excellent site. Please excuse my long story ...it is stream of consciousness .... self therapy nonsense.
I am a 35 year old male from the UK. I woke up one cold winter morning in my final year at university, fifteen years ago ( i was 20!) with gritty dry eyes...and put it down to lack of sleep over the previous few nights. However it just wouldnt get any better. I recall the university Dr giving me various eye drops to no avail...and then some steroid eye drops which were amazing! I am sure i overused these drops for a couple of months at least to get through my final exams. However upon seeing a consultant opthalmologist i stopped using them. I have NEVER since found ANY relief from any eye drop, warm compress, supplement etc etc! Perhaps those steroid drops caused my condition..who knows.
Upon finishing my degree, I saw specialist after specialist... my eyes were dry because of dermatological reasons, then it was because i didnt close my eyes fully when sleeping, then it was blepharitis, then meibomiam dysfunction, then lacrimal gland etc etc etc..... Now these were THE best consultants available in the UK. They all had a different answer and they all varied in how serious my condition was. Needless to say i gave up on conventional medicine. They simply did not have a clue. I recall one of the leading opthalmologists in London...admitting this very fact....just how crude an understanding that they had of this condition.
I then threw myself into the world of the alternatives... probably because they seemed to care, gave me more time and also gave me hope. Of course they are mostly making a living out of people with chronic conditions and they mostly know that their treatment will not work. But they have a neverending stream of conventional medicine drop outs to feed upon.
At this time I was at Law School and eventually had to quit due to my eyes. It was simply impossible and I was also so confused as to what exactly was wrong with me. I would I believed return when I had cured this unbearable but surely straightforward condition. Needless to say, I am still waiting!
I have schirmer readings that average about 1 in the left eye and 2 in the right eye. After 15 years I have no idea why this is the case....it is none of the auto-immune reasons.
It has affected my career plans massively. I have stopped and started and struggled various jobs, lived all over the place (mostly in warmer climates...easier on the eyes!), studied masters etc etc. I find that I simply cant compete in the careers that I wanted to persue and I have been left rather bitter struggling with sore eyes in the jobs that are left and that I dont want to be doing. I have not handled dry eyes very well at all...I think the timing was important here. If the dry eyes had arrived when i was 30 and settled I believe that I would have coped much better.
I find that the ONLY way to control the constant eye discomfort is to wear wrap around sunglasses... however this is not really practical in most jobs and so many social situations.
It is very helpful to find this forum where people actually understand the constant struggle that life with dry eyes entails.
Rory
This is my first post on this fantastic forum. Congratulations to the founder...it is an excellent site. Please excuse my long story ...it is stream of consciousness .... self therapy nonsense.
I am a 35 year old male from the UK. I woke up one cold winter morning in my final year at university, fifteen years ago ( i was 20!) with gritty dry eyes...and put it down to lack of sleep over the previous few nights. However it just wouldnt get any better. I recall the university Dr giving me various eye drops to no avail...and then some steroid eye drops which were amazing! I am sure i overused these drops for a couple of months at least to get through my final exams. However upon seeing a consultant opthalmologist i stopped using them. I have NEVER since found ANY relief from any eye drop, warm compress, supplement etc etc! Perhaps those steroid drops caused my condition..who knows.
Upon finishing my degree, I saw specialist after specialist... my eyes were dry because of dermatological reasons, then it was because i didnt close my eyes fully when sleeping, then it was blepharitis, then meibomiam dysfunction, then lacrimal gland etc etc etc..... Now these were THE best consultants available in the UK. They all had a different answer and they all varied in how serious my condition was. Needless to say i gave up on conventional medicine. They simply did not have a clue. I recall one of the leading opthalmologists in London...admitting this very fact....just how crude an understanding that they had of this condition.
I then threw myself into the world of the alternatives... probably because they seemed to care, gave me more time and also gave me hope. Of course they are mostly making a living out of people with chronic conditions and they mostly know that their treatment will not work. But they have a neverending stream of conventional medicine drop outs to feed upon.
At this time I was at Law School and eventually had to quit due to my eyes. It was simply impossible and I was also so confused as to what exactly was wrong with me. I would I believed return when I had cured this unbearable but surely straightforward condition. Needless to say, I am still waiting!
I have schirmer readings that average about 1 in the left eye and 2 in the right eye. After 15 years I have no idea why this is the case....it is none of the auto-immune reasons.
It has affected my career plans massively. I have stopped and started and struggled various jobs, lived all over the place (mostly in warmer climates...easier on the eyes!), studied masters etc etc. I find that I simply cant compete in the careers that I wanted to persue and I have been left rather bitter struggling with sore eyes in the jobs that are left and that I dont want to be doing. I have not handled dry eyes very well at all...I think the timing was important here. If the dry eyes had arrived when i was 30 and settled I believe that I would have coped much better.
I find that the ONLY way to control the constant eye discomfort is to wear wrap around sunglasses... however this is not really practical in most jobs and so many social situations.
It is very helpful to find this forum where people actually understand the constant struggle that life with dry eyes entails.
Rory
Comment