You can try using a mild steroid drops for the first few weeks of treatment to ease of transition. Restasis does have pretty good science behind it and decent results can be obtained after 6 or 12 months of continuous treatment. Talk to your ophthalmolgist about restarting treatment. Also ask if the plugs are still in and consider getting new ones if needed. Try adding oral omega 3 fish oil and flax seed oil and modify lifestyle to reduce reading and computer work some.
I am concerned because from what I can understand Restasis works through the auto immune system. I am in week 38 of standard treatment and since week 16 of treatment have had a hypothyroid. Any advice? I also was told this morning to increase Procrit from 20,000 to 40,000 a week because Hgb was only 8.5 on this weeks lab. Totally unrelated probably but added just in case.
Had silver nitrate treatment x 2. Now am on 1% Cyclosporin, which burns like acid. Nothing has even begun to work.He said the next step was to have ocular surgery where the mast cells are literally scraped off, but he said it's not always successful.
I continue to have extreme photophobia and feel like I have gravel under my eye lids. Please advise as to treatment, as am one miserable and discouraged woman.
I'm on restasis, my wife is on restasis, I use restasis in my practice. the medicine does not cause floaters. Floaters can occur at any time. If they start and you are doing something else like mowing the yard, reading a book or starting restasis the relationship is COINCIDENTAL. On the other hand if you are hit in the eye with a fist and note floaters the relationship is CAUSATIVE.
If you use up all the restasis in each dropperette before opening a new one you will reduce your costs by 50-75%
Still, I will reconsider the Restasis and give it more than 3 months. Perhaps a generic Restasis comes along. 110/mo for years will be quite an investment. I do hope that your wife continues to have relief from this horrible condition, and thank you again. There is a website dryeyezone.com. Perhaps this advise and your blog would be of benefit there. I'll include it in my next post. All the best.
s syndrome on steroids for long periods. Most of my patients with your problems I treat with Restasis twice daily for the rest of their life. I have said this before but both my wife and I have bad dry eyes and my wife has been on restasis with good results for about 15 years and me for about 10 years. Note it takes 4-6 months for Restasis to kick in and work fully. There are too other drops that are in this family.
Taking fish oil capsules and getting punctal plugs as suggested by Dr. Ray above helped me. I have both dry eyes and bleph. It seems to me that my dry eyes have also been helped by my bleph treatment. In addition to using Soothe eyedrops, which are preservative free, I wash my eyelids once or twice a day using the suds from an anti bacterial dial soap bar. This is a tip which I got previously got on medhelp. While it may seem as if it is difficult to do, it is not.
On my patients I use tear duct plugs only AFTER a 4-6 month trial of ReStasis. ReStasis is a revolutionary eyedrop that has changed the treatment of dry eyes world wide for the better. In the USA it is the second most widely prescribed medication. My wife and many of our friends are on restasis.
Also recent studies indicate that 2 or 3 Omega 3 (enteric coated fish oil) greatlyhelp dry eyes. Takes 3-4 months to kick in.
Dr Hagan, is the Restasis contact friendly? if not, i may have to give up the contacts and start using my glasses on a full time basis. Being I am in the Cleveland area I have the best Dr''s too choose from. My eyes are severly dry & Restasis seems to be the best treatment option for me. Also I will starrt taking the Omega -3 suppl. as you suggested.
thankx again for your comments
take care
j.
Hi. Last week I started Restasis for dry eyes. I tried temporary collagen plugs but they did not help.. My dry eyes just seemed to come out of the blue last month. (I've had minor dry eye problems for many years). Now, it's all I think about. My main problem is a windy feeling to my eyes, even in my own home. I am actually dealing with that right now. My eyes actually feel better when they have a dry feeling, if that makes sense.
I have been lately diagnosed with blepharospasm which was earlier misdiagnosed by dry eye syndrome. My neurologist ordered MRI which showed white plaque areas but no other signs of MS. the main reason i started seeing Dr because i was feeling a great deal of irritation in my both eyes & makes my eyes blink forcefully. it is very annoying uncomfortable condition & makes my eyes tired sometimes slightly puffy eye lids too.
I know how you fell. I had itchy dry eyes for months on triple. I started out using Systane Balance which was very soothing. Towards the end of treatment I had to go to the prescription Restasis. I'm finished with treatment and happy to say my eyes are back to normal. Good luck!
Pazeo is an allergy eye drop that is new and is meant to replace Pataday which is the #1 prescription allergy eye drops. restasis is the definitive treatment for moderate or severe dry eyes but it takes 5-6 months to work and often strings when starting out. My wife and I both take restasis and have for several years.
I tried OTC preservative free drops, lotemax, restasis, omega 3 fish oil, and am drinking a lot of water. My remedies are helping but this condition is awful and I'm not sure if I'm doing enough to reduce the symptoms. Is there anything else I can try to help my condition? I know that my pink eye had something to do with my tear production so I was hoping someone else had a similar experience and had a successful remedy to deal with this.
I tried a short course of steriod drops which relieved my symptoms, but they returned as soon as I stopped. Restasis for three months has offered no improvement. Pataday and Acular provide no benefit either. I am at a loss as to what to do next. I would greatly appreciate any direction or ideas.
A careful history, artificial tears, tear duct pugs, omega 3 use, environmental modification, and if needed Restasis (the new Xiidra is wildly expensive) can handle 99% of the patients. Below is a previous post on dry eyes:
General Information on Dry Eyes-Now known as Tears Dysfunction Syndrome or Ocular Surface Disorder.
a Schirmer test of zero indicates that you have severe dry eyes.
I just got back from my optomologist & he prescribed for me Restasis. He mentioned that once you're on Restasis, it's an on going thing it's not really temporary. Is that the case, do I have to stay on it. I was hoping that once my eye is feeling better, I could just use artificial tears to keep my eyes from drying so badly. He also changed my contact lenses to Acuvue Oasys. Any advice or info would be great.............................
My ophthalmologist recently prescribed restasis for dry eyes. I read that cyclosporin can causes cancer. Is this true? Are these drops safe?
Rare anyone to be too sensitive to restasis. My wife and I have been on restasis for many years with fabulous results. restasis works with both forms of dry eyes. Many people have stinging with restasis for several weeks which can be helped by using steroid drops for a couple of weeks. there is a new medication that works like restasis called Xidra it is supposed to kick in faster (3-4 months) than restasis (4-6 months) but has not been shown to be better than restasis and is more costly.
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