I'm new to the boards and am really glad to have found this site. I'm newly diagnosed with ocular rosecea. I am terrified as to what this may mean for me in the future. My doctor has me on Blephamide and I don't know if I'm more afraid of the Blephamide causing glaucoma or the rosecea robbing my eyesight if it goes untreated. Have any of you used Blephamide for extended periods? Is there anyone out there that has had ocular rosecea for any period of time? What can I expect? Again, I'm terribly frightened about this diagnosis.

I don't really know much about ocular rosacea. But since blephamide is part steroid and you are rightfully nervous about using it, make sure that your eye dr checks your eye pressure often. That way if it does increase your pressure, you catch it early and can come right off of it.

Thanks for your reply, Purple. I'm calling my dr's office right now to get an appointment to have my pressure checked. It helps to know that I'm not "off base" about this drug.

Hi happy, can you tell me what your symptoms are with this?? Thanks! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

Hi, Yellow. At its worst, before I sought treatment or even realized what I had, it was like a severe inflamation of the eyelids, worse on the interior upper lid. In fact, even a red bump formed up under the eye lid. It is still there but since using the steriod drops, it's much better. My eyes get red and feel weak and a stye formed on my lower lid. It has not gone away (3 months) even with the eyelid hygiene routine (twice a day clean with baby shampoo with q-tip). But the very worst (scary) symptom is that when I wake up in the mornings, I can hardly get my eyes open. In fact, it scares me so much, I wake up every couple of hours during the night, just to make sure I can still open my eyes. As I understand it, no known cause, no known cure but if left untreated, in extreme cases can damage the cornea and cause blindness. So I'm torn between balancing risks. Not to mention, I'm now starting to show signs of rosecea on my face, but so far, that's very mild. Sorry to be so long winded.

If your eyes are crusted shut in the morning, you just need to use a warm compress for a few minutes to wash away the crust. If you have got a stye, are you using warm compresses during the day along with the eyelid cleaning?

Purple, they're not crusted shut. There's no real "gook" on them (that I can see). It's more like the lids are swollen and the eye itself is too dry for it to open up. I'm going today to get some Thera Tears and keep them by my bedside so I can put them in during the night to see if it makes a diference. Up to this point (I'm new to this), I haven't used any drops. Also, I posted this in another topic but since you stated you use steriod drops, how often is "often" as far as having your pressure checked? Every week, month? I'm on a declining schedule for these drops but it still scares me but I can see the difference the drops make. I'll admit, I never quite got the hang of warm compresses since my face (rosecea) responds to heat, I tried to centralize the heat just on the stye but only at night since I work during the day with eye makeup and all on. I realize I'm going to have to get better at this.