Ocular cea? I need help!!!

June 14, 2001

Hi all,

I had a rather negative experience with an opthalmologist yesterday, and I'm

hoping some of you on this list can help clarify things for me. He certainly

couldn't. Over the past year, I've had an increasing amount of redness,

burning and stinging in my eyes. I've assumed, since I have rosacea, that

these eye problems were a manifestation of ocular rosacea. But up to now, I

had not gone to an opthalmologist to have it diagnosed and treated. My

problems are exacerbated by the fact that my job required me to be in front

of a computer all day (there is virtually no part of my job that is not done

on computer), and I get eyestrain. By the end of each workday, my eyes are a

mess. I got special glasses to wear in front of the computer (over my

contacts), and wear them religiously, but my problems have only gotten

worse.

Tuesday night when I got home from work, my eyes were much worse than usual.

Very red. When I took out my contacts, my eyes were burning. I put a warm,

damp washcloth over my eyes for a while before bedtime. When I removed it,

my vision was very blurry, as if I had vaseline over my eyes. The next

morning, the redness had subsided just a little. What was disturbing was

that I now had swelling on my eyeball. It looked like the part over the iris

was raised up - you could see a ridge around the edge of the colored part.

This scared me, so I called a nearby medical center, and got in to see an

opthalmologist that morning.

He was less than helpful. He said that he had no idea what was causing my

eye irritation, but that he didn't see any signs of rosacea. He claimed that

with rosacea, there will be irritation on the eyelids, and irritation on the

eyeball is secondary to that. My eyelids are fine - no redness, no swelling,

no irritation, perfectly normal. So according to him, that means my eye

irritation is from something else (although he offered no alternative

suggestions as to what that might be, and when I pressed him for possible

causes, he ended up yelling at me, " I don't know! I don't know! I don't

know! " and stormed off).

My question: Do all of you ocular rosacea sufferers out there have symptoms

on your eyelids? Or is it possible to have ocular rosacea only affecting the

surface of the eye itself?

Next question: Since this guy is no help - how do I go about finding a

better doctor? I recall that some of you have sought out a cornea

specialist - how do find a cornea specialist? I haven't been able to find

any listing of opthalmologists that breaks them down by specialty.

Any other suggestions about how to get a good diagnosis & treatment, rosacea

or not, for eye problems would be greatly appreciated. My frustration level

is at an all-time high.

Thanks,

June 14, 2001

,

I know exactly where your coming from when it comes to doctors

and the frustration. I saw many doctors before I found one that recognized

what I was going through. I have problems with my eyelids yes. That's where

the problem started then moved to the eyeball eventually. When I was trying

everything to try to clear the problem up I used warm washcloths on my eyes

too and they made my eyes very blurry right after also. From my experience

using anything warm on my eyes flared them up. I now wash my eyes with cool

water. To be honest with you there are so many things that could be wrong

with your eyes it could be allergies it could be ocular rosacea it could be

eye strain from your computer. I have to tell you though that my gut instinct

is allergy to your contact lens solution. Trust me on this one I had the same

feeling when I would take my contacts out. My eyes would feel just hot. I had

used the same saline for 15 years and it seemed like gradually my eyes would

hurt more and more over the years after I took my contacts out. I wrote a

contact lens place online about the situation and they said I should try

using a special saline solution that you can get anywhere Unisol 4 has no

preservatives in it. I was unable to wear my contacts at all for many months

before that until I tried it. It's made by Alcon. I buy it at Walgreens. I

notice it's sold out at alot of places I go so must be popular. It comes with

three little bottles of saline instead of one big one. Because there are no

preservatives you throw it away after a certain amount of time if you haven't

used it all up. I usually use them up pretty quickly. When I used my old

solution I seemed to have a reaction to I noticed my eyeball was raised in

spots. When I would put my contact in within an hour I could see red

splotches forming and raised spots on the white. My friend at work has

allergies really bad and when she uses something she is allergic to her

eyeball swells up looks really bad. It's kindof alarming but nothing to get

too bent out of shape over. I also was allergic to my mascara all of the

sudden that I had been using for about 5 years. I now use Almay

hypo-allergenic. I would suggest to you to try the Alcon Unisol 4 saline and

the Alcon Pliagel cleaning solution for your contacts. I also use the Alcon

Opti-free Enzymatic cleaner especially for sensitive eyes. I make sure to

soak them for about a day in saline after using any enzyme cleaner because I

have always had a problem with it burning if I don't. That stuff is kindof

expensive but well worth it compared to the money we spend trying different

things in here to find something that works.

Another thing I wanted to mention is I used to have a major reaction to my

computer also. I work on a computer all day at work and seem to be fine now.

I switched alot of things and am not really sure to this day what really the

problem was but I don't care since it all seems to be good now with my eyes.

I take flax oil pills which I strongly suggests to you. I am not normally

into any kind of homeopathic remedy's so I was skeptical about doing this but

then I read information about it and it's just healthy fats our bodies need.

There are also other kinds of oil pills that I am sure help too. My eyes get

dry and hurt at work sometimes from looking at the computer and I keep a

bottle of Flax oil pills in my drawyer and when I take them it's almost like

I took a pain pill the pain goes away. It makes my face oily too but it's the

price to pay for your eyes to feel good.

Sorry this is so long but there are so many things that can be wrong when it

comes to eyes that's why doctors have such a hard time pinpointing the

problem so try some of these things and let me know how it works out but I

remember the burning feeling after taking my contacts out very well and now

it doesn't burn at all anymore so try that saline solution.

Just to give you background on what my eye looked like it was very very red

and people at work would ask me who punched me. It would usually end up that

way right after I tried to wear my contacts again. Right now I am having

problems with my skin but that's another story.

Cindy

June 14, 2001