I decided to go to an eye doctor that I used to see when I was younger. A very good doctor. I have to drive a bit farther but I saw no point in seeing the same eye doctor that did not want to put me on Restasis.
Well he seems to be gearing towards the restasis. My eyes are way past dry at the moment. I have a bunch of cyst in my eye lids. Chalzion is the name for these cyst. Very annoying and uncomfortable. I know he said one eye has seven of them. I am not sure if the other eye has more or less in it.
Always seems to be something new to learn with this way of life. Every day it is a new body part and a new condition to add to the list.
I have some pads to wipe my eye lid edges with. Do not get it in your eye. Thats sort of imposible. Sort of like stridex pads. I do it before showering so I can rinse it all out of my eyes afterwards.
So we talked about the plugs. He gave me this discouraging speech about how Restasis does not work for everyone. Said it takes three months to work and then after all of the waiting sometimes you are just left disappointed. Really I coud have gone without that speech at the moment because my eyes hurt and it was like being told there is no such thing as Santa ClausI see my eye dr. monthly due to chronic iritis and reoccurent scleritis. Both of which are caused by the RA. Restasis did not work for me, but we have gotten the eyes under control. I have the plugs and they have helped. You will probably get temp. ones first to see if they make a difference. Don't be discouraged if Restasis doesn't work out. Your dr. should be able to find relief in other ways. If it does work--yay!!!! Regardless, I hope you get some relief. Eye complications are a pain! Thanks for the encouragement. The doctor said for me more likely we would be using the plugs. He said with my allergies to meds and to pollens along with the Sjorgrens I would never get back to the way I was when I was 19. LOL My eyes have been swelling up scince I was four.
All of this over the counter eye stuff is hard on my pocket book. Also scrubbing my eyes and putting eye drops in all of the time is difficult when you have RA. I need to get a robot to do all of the work for me.
I tryed a few new products today. i found a night time gel that did not have preservatives in it. The heater is zapping all of the moisture out of the air and I can really feel it. So I walked out of the drug store with a large bag of products for the eyes and sinuses ect.
Wow. I had no idea how great my life was when I was 19. Not only do you have the butt and boobs of a 19 year old, you also have their joints and eyes! Body snatching anyone? Who's with me?
I can't imagine how uncomfortable this must be for both of you. I'm really sorry.
And milly you are right about the emoticon. Where's the one for crying on the inside?
Milly, It's not all bad news
Well I hold out hope for myself. LOL The doctor just thinks i have so many strikes against me allergies and what not. So it is a wait and see game. I go back on the 15th. I bought a big bottle of baby shampoo to scrub my eyes out also. Plus it helps to rinse with the baby shampoo after I use the pads on my eyes. The cyst block the glands in my eye lids and that is what is causing all of the swelling in my eyes. Well some of it anyway. The glands behind my eyes are swelling also.
There is so much to learn about Sjorgrens. Two years ago when things first got really bad I did not know about the preservetives drying your eyes out worse. This being the winter I now see a patern. The dry air is murder on my eyes. At least I have more knowledge and I hope to have a more comfortable winter then last year.
I am finding that the saline solution helps my sinuses better than the Nasonex I am sure everyone is different. I guess I could use both? For now I am pretty happy with the saline solution. LOL My son said it sounded like something to use on a car. He saw it in the cabnet and picked it up and read the ingredients.
This doctor for now has me using something with glyserine in it. I think it burns a little but maybe that can help with the cyst some. Anyway he says it last three minutes instead of two minutes. I said well if you say so. When I am at the really dry stage it seems like the drops evaporate as soon as I put them in my eyes. The night time gel works really well to get the stinging feelling out of my eyes so I can drift off to sleep better.
Also the doctor told me to take fishoil which I already do.
I think most of the people with the plugs like them? I guess others could chime in. I can not recall of anyone having bad things to say about them.
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