Does dry eye "recovery" follow a path?

[rubyslippers]

I know that the word "recovery" might not be the best one to use. Maybe I should use "improvement". I started with all of this on Christmas eve with my infection, so I am only (seems like forever) 4 months into this. I am not nearly as bad as I was 3 months ago, and somewhat better than I was 2 months ago, but I am worse than I was 5 weeks ago. I got to the point where I was wearing my RGP's 14-15 hours a day and probably only using drops a couple of times a day. There were 4 days in a row where I had no DES symptoms whatsoever. Now I have anywhere from a lousy day, but nothing like it was several months ago where I could not cope most of the time, to a day like yesterday that was pretty good, especially when I was occupied and not thinking about it. Today was a little worse again. I guess my question is, is it typical to feel cured for a week or two at a time and then get worse and back and forth. Do I expect that this is pretty much what I am up against. I got punctal plugs last Friday and I can tell that without them I would be having a pretty rough time. With them it is tolerable to pretty good at times. As the years go on what should I expect. They have decided this is not Sjogrens after all as my other 2 main symptoms were diagnosed as something else, so even symptomatically I don't fit even mild Sjogrens. Also my bloodwork was as close to ideal as you can get and I know that doesn't mean everything, but the overall picture tells the rheumatologist that it is very, very unlikely that my DES is Sjogrens.

[skygoddess]

I wouldn't call mine a path, more like a trail of clues.

Over the past couple of years I have discovered :

I am allergic to nail polish, have Ocular Rosacea, and probably do not close my eyes completely while sleeping.

Each clue has led me a bit closer to recovery.
Sometimes it feels like two steps forward, one back, but as long as I keep going in the right direction,
I remind myself how far I have come, and keep searching for answers.

[brd888]

Cycles

I think you have to get used to recurring periods of dry eye symptoms. A few times I seem to have worked out a treatment regime which works only to find after a few days or weeks I am back to square one. This can be very frustrating after many months even years not finding the elusive permanent "fix".