Schirmer's Test

[amberjolie1]

Went to an opthamologist today since I had been on Plaquenil and the rheumy (the good one about to retire) wanted me to get checked out.  Everything was good.  He did the schirmer's test, which I hadn't had before.  He said my eyes were a little dry, but not bad (I kind of figured that, based on other people's posts here, that my eyes weren't that bad).

Anyways, I found the test somewhat uncomfortable.  And when he pulled the paper off, it seemed to stick and hurt a bit when he pulled it off (so I was wondering if my eyes were particularly dry, but they weren't).  Is that how the test normally feels, or was it only because I had that yellow stingy gunk in my eyes from that eye pressure test that the schirmer test felt that uncomfortable? 

(Not to scare anyone off getting the test - it wasn't that bad, I guess I was just expecting something super quick)

[Carebear]

When I speak about my Shirmer's test, I often refer to it as a form of torture.     It was extremely painful both during and after.  It felt like I had a couple of broken twigs stuck in my eyes. 

But then I had zero readings for both eyes so that's not a surprise.   And I would do it again if asked by the ophthalmologist.

[Patze]

Double ouch Amberjolie!  That does sound painful!

As I still have tears, I've not had a Schirmer's test done, but have evaporation testing done on them several times and did test at zero at one instance (normal is anything above a 12 and neither eye has tested above an eight at best).

Take care of yourself -

Patze

[eyeamdry]

I've had many Schirmer's tests done.  My reading has always been zero for at least the past 5 years in both eyes.  To me, the test is like a blink of the eye and I cannot find any torture involved.  Compared to other eye stuff I've had done, this is nothing.

I believe people when they say "it pulled" as the docs are sometimes less than gentle.  One other problem is that people expect some sort of "exact reading" from a Schirmer's test.  A Schirmer's test is subjective.  You can bring up a nice reading with reflex tears and there is no way of telling this is "reflex tears" and not healthy tears. 

I always think it's good to have a baseline Schirmers and then you have something to compare it to.  It's sort of comparing how low is your tire with air?  It's better than the one on the other side and worse than another.  People should not be afraid of Schirmer's test and they should not expect a printout of what "their numbers" are.  At worst, you'll find out nothing.  Lucy