Mild erosions

[kitty]

At least 3 times in the past week I have awakened with a foreign body sensation in one eye (my drier of the two) that won't clear with drops. There is mild to moderate pain in the area, made worse by any drop that has preservative, wind, blinking, etc. It generally resolves within a day or two. Might I be experiencing mild erosions? I am using the same night regimen that I always have.

[liz56]

Hi, Kitty.

Sorry to hear about this discomfort. Do your eyes ever stick in the morning, leaving you to feel like you cannot open them without really exerting your energy? That is often a signal that an erosion may be happening.

Here are my symptoms, and sometimes I cannot really tell if I have an erosion or not, and other times, there is just no question about it:

1. I awaken to uncontrolled tearing in the eye and pain, raw, bad pain.
2. My vision is blurred, and I often have a sensitivity to light. (Of course, if the erosion happens outside of the pupil, then this point would not matter.)
3. A foreign-object feeling happens after the pain, later in the day.

It is possible that an erosion can happen at night and that the foreign-object sensation in the morning is happening in the morning after the episode.

For me, lately, since my erosions are slowing and becoming more minor, I cannot always be sure if I had one or not. The burning of dry eyes can feel just like a small erosion.

What do you think is going on with your eyes?

It's so hard to get a doctor to see rce. They tend to diagnose from patient history, so be sure to log every symptom that you notice and run it by your eye doctor.

Please keep me updated,
Liz

[kitty]

Thanks Liz. Yes, my eyes are generally stuck together when I wake up in the morning. I use saline to get them to open all the way. I did forget to mention that I have excess tearing when I have the pain. I have read online that erosions can cause little to no pain, or can be extremely painful. I was just curious what others experience. I always have problems with blurred vision and sensitivity to light (since the onset of the DES), but those are worse when I have these episodes. I just saw my eye doc a month or so ago, of course before all of this started. I mentioned to him that I have been getting a lot of sties, he did not seem too interested in that. His big thing was the cataract and morning blurred vision that I have in the other eye. Couldn't find much other than the cataract but of course he will see me back in 6 months. It never stops!

[liz56]

Hi, Kitty.

I'm really no doctor, and I am not even in the medical profession.

I am a person who suffers from rce's, and your experience sounds a lot like mine. Maybe you could keep a log and explain to your doctor (in fewer than six months) what is happening. It also may be good to see a corneal specialist (not just someone who is a refractive surgeon but someone who specializes in diseases of the cornea, not at all that I think that you have a disease). Corneal specialists are trained to see things that other eye doctors can miss.

Dwelle eye drops help me a lot, and I use them daily. It took two months for me to see real improvement that suggested that I may get back to normal some day. However, I got relief from too-frequent erosions in just a couple of weeks. Muro 128 5% is something that some doctors prescribe, and Dr. Holly posted on when to use it and when to use Dwelle in his forum. You may want to consider what he says.

--Liz

[kitty]

Thanks very much, Liz.