Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Dry eye and scleral lens user tips from readers!

From Elizabeth, about a lid cleansing product making a difference for her severe dry eyes:
Since 2008 I have had severe dry eyes. I have been through many routes and still am living a normal life managing my dry eye symptoms. In the beginning 2 years, I had to wear goggles 24/7 and was in constant pain. One thing that had been if inestimable help is using the ( unfortunately very expensive ) Theratear eye wash product twice a day.  It is a strange product, faintly foamy snd smell is strange but it's a natural product (Tea tree oil?) whose characteristics I wish I could duplicate through home made, as it is $24 and the bottle only lasts 10 days. But it has made a world of difference for me, and when I forgo it even for a day I am in much worse shape. 
From Lynn, about lens wetting drops:
...Let’s keep wishing and hopefully one day (soon) someone will manufacture a preservative-free contact lens drop for scleral lens. 
Before my scleral lens, I  was a piggy-back contact lens wearer and tried using BLINK CONTACTS but it seemed to leave a film over the hard lens.  I’m not giving up on BLINK CONTACTS as I do plan on trying it with my scleral lens. I do like BLINK-N-CLEAN contact lens  eye drops and have no problem using it while wearing my scleral lens. 

From Dave, about how he keeps his eyes protected overnight:
I went back to my eye specialist and told him how i manage my dry eye syndrome ( as shown below ) . He said , you shouldnt have to do that , i know that but its the only thing that works for me 
My nightime regime is  as follows 
BEDTIME 
1. Clean eyes and eye lids with preservative free ' eye wipes ' 
2. Ensure hands are very clean 
3. Apply two small blobs on  Allergan ' Lacri-lube' eye ointment to left index finger 
4. Using my right index finger i put one blob into my eye and gently spread it around covering as much of the cornea as possible 
5. Then grab the eye lashes on the same eye lid and spread / pull this around and over the eye ball to coat the inside surface of the eye lid 
6. Repeat this with the other eye 
7. Apply a reasonable amount of Vaseline ' petroleum jelly ' to each eye where the upper and lower eye lids meet ( this acts like mortar betweens two bricks ) 
8. Next , using a tube of Xailin ' eye gel ' squirt a decent amount up inside each eye lid 
9. Close both eyes to keep the eye gel in position 
10. Gently  massage round the outside of each eye lid with eyes closed over the eye ball 
11.This adds more lubrication inside the closed eye 
12. Lastly , spread more Vaseline petroleum jelly over the entire closed eye socket to keep everything in place 
13, And be careful as you stagger back to the bed , and try not to trip over anything 
Note ... I have found over the last few years that everything i use in my eyes has to be ' Preservative free' or problems and soreness ( extremely red eyes ) occurs very quickly 
Ive been carrying out this long winded procedure since early 2016 and have had a lot of success and some decent nights sleep 
ive have had no more severe eye infections partly due to ensuring lubrication at night which stops any Cornea damage , which in turn can lead to eye infections 
its a real pain in the back side to do , but it has  become part of my life 
Hope this can help someone who reads this 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Dave,
That is a great tip (lift the top eye lid) for trying to get a bit more lube into the eye at night.

I use VitA-Pos ointment (https://www.aftpharm.com/products/non-prescription/vita-pos/) in my right eye as the vitamin A is a good thing and it doesn't stain the sheets.
Unfortunately this isn't viscus enough for my left eye, in which I use the Refresh Lacri-lube - which has the more attractive name in Australia "Refresh Night Time". I find this product does stain the sheets / pillow cases& just won't come out in the wash.

Like you I just started putting lube around the eye at night - it just seams to stop the eye ointment "leaking" out of the eye.

HERE ARE MY TIP

1) Eye Ointment about the eye - to avoid skin irritation from drops.
I use lots of single use drops during the day (http://www.refreshbrand.com/Products/refresh-plus) and find that the constant overflow of saline on my irratates and dries the skin around the eye. Again I put eye oientment around the eye a couple of times per day to act as a buffer - my skin no longer burns from all that salt.

2) Explore Scleral lenses - just for the pain relief.
I've got Corneal Hyperalgesia (amongst other things) and it took me years till I found someone who thought to recommend Scleral lenses. I've got medication in them now but even during the fitting cycle (it took me many versions to get something that I could wear for 10+ hours per day) - the pain relief was wonderful.

Regards,
Garry

Anonymous said...

PROSE lenses from the Boston Foundation for Sight is worth every cent if you have to pay any out of pocket expenses. I was basically doing what Dave did - but all day! My quality of life has been exponentially enhanced, and the PROSE allowed me to work virtually pain free for the last two years of my 36 year career. I'm no longer miserable or depressed. The fist of sand feeling in my eyes are no more.

Theresa