I was diagnosed with RA about 3.5
years ago and for the most part appear to have it under control via the
use of Methotrexate.
It appears as though I have developed Dry Eye Syndrome, which is
actually an oxymoron because your eyes arent actually dry, they
constantly tear due to the tear ducts overcompensating for the dry
eyes.
I tried just about every drop,gel or other product on the market with no success.
I had my eye doctor put in duct plugs in the bottom tear ducts and that
seemed to work for about 4 or 5 months but its simply reappeared and is
driving me nuts. My eyes water constantly.
Has anyone had the same issue, and if so have you had any success whatsoever with anything that reduces the tears.
I was just diagnosed with this about 2 weeks ago, but I also
have an eye infection, so my eyes are very dry. There are
others on here who have had the plugs put in. Let me know if
you find anything that helps for you!There are at least two types of tears (I think technically there are three but we will simplify). We tend to say "tear ducts" as a general term, but there are really different kinds and functions. There is an oily tear and aqueous or watery tear. The oily tear is the culprit in dry eye syndrome. You don't produce enough either because the tear ducts are not working right or they are clogged (like with RASara82's eye infection). When they don't get good coverage your eyes begin to be irritated and the watery tears start working overtime. They can actually do more harm than good at that point because they are washing the eyes to try to get whatever is irritating them out and can further reduce the oily layer. The plugs are supposed to help the oily tears build up. If whatever is wrong is not producing enough oily tears then it may not work long term. That made so much sense. Thank you bullwinkle. :) It's always nice when someone can simplify something for us! :) yay!
Inflamation (from the RA) definitely can cause it. Mine actually went away temporarily when I was on some cortisone shots (Prednisone didn't touch it though). I have duct plugs also but only for about a month and a half now so I don't know if they will work long term. I'm not on MTX but on Sulfasalazine so that probably won't answer your question anyway. (This is more of a shared suffering thing at this point
Also my Rheumy told me that Restasis was probably their next step if the plugs didn't work.
It is an RA thing with me. It only goes away when my RA is really under control. My RA is only somewhat controlled most of the time - I use an otc tear drop. It does help a bit.Thanks once again...I too am very interested to hear if others with RA and on MTX suffer from this issue.I've only been on it for about 4 weeks so it's still an unknown. I have a lot of reflux with it so the Dr has reduced my dosage (this week). We will see how it works. Only recently diagnosed although I have had symptoms for years. RA and Lupus run in the family (both sides) so it wasn't a shock but I did live in denial for quite a while. Longer than I should have in hindsight. My PCP was actually enabling that with NSAIDs and pretty much ignoring the symptoms (flares, bi-lateral joint involvement, high RF, extreme fatigue, pain/stiffness, mouth sores). My eye problems finally woke me up so I switched PCP's and pushed to see a Rheumy.
This is a good place to share information. I do appreciate the attitudes here, it is very refreshing compared with many places on the net.