Just an update

[louisa]

hello
You may have seen that i have had my upper ducts plugged as well on Friday due to what i hope is a flare(and not permanent). Still irritated but the plugs are firmly in. In 2007 i had my lower ducts plugged but the difference then was that after a painful few months they were actually starting to sort themselves prior to the lower plugs going in and maybe they were plugged without the inflamation that i suspect there is at the moment. I perhaps expected INSTANT relief this time but they are super dry so maybe i have to be patient which is hard as i would just like to flop in front of the TV and relax. I have more tears, in fact they have never been so wet! But they are still trying to water and the pain, ooh. I have started putting lacrilube(greasy ointment stuff) on again at night about two weeks ago and i am wondering if that is not helping? I did suspect that this can irritate them but the gels do not help the nightime dryness so i felt i had no choice. I do not have blepharitis or blocked meiobiam glands, the tranquileyes goggles i have do not really help and i understand they are more for blepharitis so that is perhaps why. Do i have to be more patient? Have made a sleepmask and have my warm mist humidi going in the hall way next to my bedroom and am also wondering whether to keep up with the pilocarpine, started it when this attack started. Joints also quite annoying too. Wearing my ridiculous onion goggles but at least it makes Mat laugh. Cant take plaquenil as within a few days last year of beggining it i got a rash and severe stomcah pains. My opthalmic did mention steroid drops and if this goes on i will beg him for them.
And to top it all, a woman jumped three floors in the mall and landed right in front of me and my mum, nearly landed on us!!!! Poor girl, we were devastated as i think she died.
Sorry to be so full of woe, starting to think i am not coping at all with this.
Louisa x

[Ohiocat]

not sure what it is that you are using at night for your eyes,   But I use a product called Refresh PM.   It comes in a tube and it is an ointment sort of the consistency of Vaseline.   

Once I put it in, being able to really "see" is not an option, but it is a product that seems to last most of the night for me.   This is part of my daily routine, would not skip a night without putting it in.

I can't imagine having someone jumping three floors in the mall.  That is very very rough.  I have no real words to express how that would make me feel.  A combination of shock, confusion and sadness I think.  Pity that she thinks she had only one way out of her problems, while some many people are fighting things that are just as bad on a daily basis. 

As for coping, I think it is a daily thing. 

[~elizabeth~]

Can't really comment on the eye issues other to say I tried Lacrilube and I found it didn't help a lot; it seemed to sting quite a lot when I applied it, and I was still waking up at 4am with sore eyes so I stopped using it.

Sorry you had such a nasty shock, what a horrible thing to happen.

[gurs]

my eyes hurt all the time. The dryness is unbearable, however, about 6 years ago, I found a natural dry eye product (after trying several) that has really made a difference.
Its called 'Hydroeye" and you can find it on-line from the company, Science Based Health. It has some natural oils and vitamins in it. It kinda expensive, but i find it worth
every penny. I also tried several other products, but they dont work the same at all. Evening primrose oil I also take because it really helps.

It takes a few weeks to kick in...


Dawn