Re: Dry eyes...CHRISTINE

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I have severe dry eye/conjunctivitis sicca and Sjogrens, among other

things. What you need to do is go to an Opthamologist, preferably one

who knows about these syndromes, and have them plug your tear ducts. I

know it sounds weird, but it helps. I've had mine done a few years ago

and it does help. He first put temp plugs in my upper and lower ducts

but they kept falling out so he put in permanent plugs (they laser them

in the ducts or something like that...it did hurt!) I also use a gel the

Opthamologist gave me when I go to bed. Mine are very, severely

dry...I'm a bad case. My eyes water all day long and it makes my makeup

run, the skin around my eyes get red from wiping the tears all day long,

etc . Hopefully this will help you out and I wish you luck in finding

relief.

Dawn

ReA, FMS, Sjogrens, IBS, GERD, Conj. Sicca, Connective Tissue Disorder,

RLS, sleep apnea and the list goes on and on and on.....

[Guest guest]

Hi Dawn,

Thanks for the advice. Plugs had been placed in my tear ducts years ago, but

I should ask the doctor next time if they're still in place, since they can fall

out, as you say. I've never heard of plugs that can be inserted permanently

though. I'll have to ask my doctor about that. I'm currently seeing a corneal

ophthalmologist since I've also had cornea transplants in both eyes. I was

reading somewhere about dry eyes that said that sometimes the eye doesn't

produce enough mucus for the tears to stay in the eye, which causes the tears to

run off the eyes all the time. That may be why your eyes are constantly tearing

all the time. As for me, I seem to have the opposite problem. My eyes don't

tear at all unless I'm crying. I seem to produce more mucus then water. I've

had dry eyes bad enough in which the mucus has congealed into filaments on the

eye. The ophthalmologist has to remove them with tweezers. In the meantime,

the filaments feel like a foreign body in

the eye. However, I have found a strange blessing in this. My husband noticed

I can cut a whole onion without shedding a tear! We both like to cook, but he

always gives me the job of chopping up the onions! It doesn't affect me at all!

I guess there's a silver lining in everything! :-) But because they don't

water much at all, they get very easily irritated with the slightest speck of

dust or pollen in the air. If there is any irritant in the air at all, they

will become scratchy with blurred vision. It's annoying. But my cornea

specialist says I have tears with the consistency of vinegar, so it wouldn't

matter how much they'd water from irritants. It'd be like pouring vinegar or

salt on a wound. He said it's probably hereditary. For right now, I'm taking

Genteel every hour, Methylprednisolone 4x a day, and Restasis twice a day. I've

gone two weeks without the bandage lens and I must say, my eye feels better then

it did. However, now it seems more sensitive

to allergies... Arrrr, I can't win!

God Bless and thanks again!

Dawners <paco1@...> wrote:

Hi ,

I have severe dry eye/conjunctivitis sicca and Sjogrens, among other

things.