my mom needs help please, she has been told by dr.s that she has dry eye, and had plugs, her medicine cabinet looks like a hopital, but none of the symptons you all talk about, she doesn't think she has. her eyes she says feel like when you come up out of a swimming pool, and there a drops of beads of water on your eye lashes, she also says it starts sometimes in the outer corner of her eyes then moves all over, like there is something in her eyes all the time, but the dr.s see nothing in there.she blinks to try to make it feel better but it doesn't. she has a water softner, which seems to me has alot of salt in it. she makes her food with it, drinks it, makes her coffee with it everything and showers with it of course, could this be causing this feeling? she also works with money, could this be what causes this, or she also crochets alot could the yarn do this, she also lives in a moblil home,could this be it? she doesn't have pain or reddness or swelling, no gritty feeling, no sticky feeling, nothing like that, just this constant feeling of something in her eyes, that no one can see. please someone out there help me get my sweet mom back to normal, this makes her irratable and i feel so helpless. thank you, maggie

Probably dry eye. See a dr. Try not to stress too much.

Many prescriptions list vision problems as side effects. Could it be a med she is taking? Is she seeing an opthamologist? A complete blood test might show if water softener salt is creating a problem (i.e., sodium or other elevated levels).

I sympathize with your mom--I'm going thru my own vision problems (which my eye dr. insists is dry eye and not from the asthma inhalers I use) and also have early cataracts. I'm having the plugs inserted and hope they help. I agree your mom's condition sounds completely different from dry eye. Does she use moisturizing drops frequently and wash her eyes with baby shampoo?

p.s. I also live in a mobile home, but since it isn't new, I don't think this is a problem.

Could there be corneal damage? Both my mom and I have dry eyes. She from chemo, me from Topamax and both of us have had corneal damage as a result of dry eyes. The first time I was told I had lesions on my eye and was given a "contact lens bandaid" until it healed. Just recently had a corneal abrasian and am now on antibiotic/steroid drops. It's very painful.

My mom was told to keep her eyes lubricated every couple of hours w/ Genteal PM which has helped her cornea signficantly. Incidentally, her incompetent opthalmologist wanted her to have permanent plugs for dry eyes even though her oncologist (my mom has cancer) didn't want her to because she has a low immune system from chemo. He was very persistent, nasty, rude, offensive so my mother got another doctor who agreed that my motehr shouldn't get the plugs while on chemo. Incidentally she heard of an interesting word called "options". Turns out there are options aside from the plugs.

If your mom is still feeling pain, tell her to get a second opinion.

FYI, A water softener cleans contaminants out of the water and shouldn't be causing any problems.

Water filtering systems remove contaminants, but the softener systems that use salt can add a significant amount of sodium to the water, depending on the hardness of the water being softened.

thank you all for your replies. my mom has been putting eye drops called Similasan in her eyes and at nite she rubs Metro gel 1% across her eyes. this along with alot of prayers, seem to be helping, hopefully! she has seen 5 dr.s and has had plugs for a year and a half. it seems to get worst after she takes a shower or washs her face, she washes her eyes with the baby shampoo solution, but she can't help getting shampoo in her eyes when she showers. she has a feeling deep down that it is an allergy, but i don't know, why would all these fine specialist tell her she has dry eye? does dry eye have different symptoms for different people? does the salt from the softner dry eyes out? thank you again,maggie