Dry eyes....Help!

[ajneedhams]

Hi Muchacha
I have have been plagued with dry eyes since last May. I have not been able to wear contacts comfortably since then. I miss them horribly. Please let me know if and when your eyes adjust to the gas permeables. I used to wear them a blue moon ago. When talking about the best contact lens for dry eyes, I had always heard about other soft lens brands that don't absorb water, but never GP's. Interesting!
My entire story is on this thread. I have ocular rosacea and have found some help with the RX Doxycycline, but to this day I have no idea if my problem is aquaous deficiency or oil or mucin. Why can't Drs figure this stuff out?
Keep us posted with how you are doing. Mont, how is your MDG these days?

Calibug- Hey girl, I'm still here. Trying not to think about my eyes so much. I saw your post on the other thread. How have your eyes been? Burning? I must report that my eyes don't seem quite as red or pink on the conjunctiva. I guess that is good. Still I notice dryness at certain times of the day and night. I wish I had your watery eyes! LOL
That is all for now. Do you think we will be on Doxy forever?

Amy

[calibug]

Hey Amy, hadn't see a post from you in awhile. I was hoping that you weren't getting too down with this stuff. Glad to see you are still around! Eyes have been magnificent for two or three days now. How long it will last is another story!

I am so incredibly upbeat and happy when my eyes aren't bothering me. Isn't it nice when we can think about something else than the burning!! I can't believe how much I took all that for granted. I can only imagine how much worse it must be for those that have much greater problems.

I've tried something different lately. I try to be much more careful when I clean my eyelids. I have changed to just using baby shampoo and for at least one of the cleanings, I just use my fingertips. I think I have been too agressive with the cleaning and I believe it was further irritating my eyelids. I was trying to be careful but now I'm even more.

So Amy, do you not have a lot of tears when you cry, etc...? I really think the Restasis helped me. Have you given that a try? It can take months before you get some positive results. I know once I went off of it and after a few weeks, my eyeballs felt so much drier. I went back on it and slowly I felt the dryness disappear.

Well, hope you are doing alright. I sure hope we aren't on doxy forever. I just think it may take months, maybe even years, of treatment to get rid of this stuff or, at least, get it under control. My guess though. I still don't think we are doomed forever. Have you heard anymore on the Diquafosol? Anyone? I think someone mentioned it was possibly coming out in 2005.

Take Care!

[dennis-sj]

Hi, I'm a new member. I've had dry eyes since 1993 from taking accutane. This medicine affects the meibomian (sebaceous)glands but not the lacrimal ones. I noticed around 1997 my eyes were extremely dry, almost unbearable. Since then they have regained some of their moisture. This can be a really uncomfortable condition. I'm interested in research showing that androgens like DHEA in eyedrop form can rejuvenate meibomian glands at least in rabbits. This came out of research that showed that anti-androgen medicines like Proscar and Propecia were drying out patients meibomian glands. I have only gone to the eye doctor once (11 years ago) for this condition because he told me it was just old age (I was 24 then). I know someone on another message board who says that DHEA is the best thing they tried and they tried everything. To get the drops I would have to go to the eye doctor and I just don't trust them. Right now I take Theratears maybe every hour on a bad day and sometimes not at all on a good day. Also, Amy, occular rosacea is a meibomian gland not lacrimal gland condition (at least that's what I read).

[ajneedhams]

Hi Dennis!
Welcome aboard. I am sorry to hear you've been dealing with dry eyes for such a long time and without a Dr's help. (not that they can ever seem to do much for us ) Your news about DHEA is encouraging. I'd like to hear more. I guess my situation is MGD based, but my Dr said that it also can inhibit the way the lacrimal gland functions. That would explain my slightly low schirmer scores, I guess. Have you tried Doxycycline at all? It helps some, but I certainly don't want to live my life on it. Have you heard about Diquefosol? eye drops that are supposed to be out within a year or so? Many of us are keeping our fingers crossed. I don't know what it is exactly, but it is supposed to help with oil and mucin production.
Do you do any warm compresses or lid massages? One more question......did your dry eyes come on suddenly after the accutane or gradually. Mine came on suddenly. I remember the day - May 16th, as I am coming upon the anniversary of that awful day it all started. It came on instantly after I cleared up a rather bad case of pink eye. To this day, I don't know if it was the severity of the infection that initiated the ocular rosacea symptoms. But, living with this is NOT fun.

Thanks for posting.

Amy

[ajneedhams]

Hey Calibug-
I'm just all over the board today, aren't I? You can always tell when I'm having a bad eye day because I come here because it is all so overwhelming.
Yes, I tried the Restasis quite awhile ago, (maybe 9 months ago) It seemed to dry my eyes out further. It always burned too. I gave up at 6 wks. Maybe too soon. I may try it again- who knows? I go back in 2 wks for my 3 month check. I think the Dr was hoping I'd be a lot better by now. Me too. I mean there is some progress, but I think I just want my quality of life back. I hate wearing glasses and living on eye drops day and night. Some days are better than others. Oh and yes, I do have an abundance of tears when I cry. That part is okay, but I don't seem to have the watery eyes as much when yawning or say, if I go into a smoke filled room, my eyes used to just water, now they just burn. I can cut a onion with no watering anymore.

It is good to hear you are doing well. That is great. I wish we could hear from that "Jen" who overcame this and how she is doing. She said she was back to normal. Now wouldn't that be nice?? Jen, if you're out there....I could use some more encouragement.

Amy