Diagnosis: Dry Eye Syndrome with Recurrent Corneal Erosion

Okay who thinks this post is about Walter's eyes - show of hands? I'm afraid not this time.

A couple months ago I wrote about my fear of putting eye drops in my eyes. I was trying to get over that because I was having a problem with pain and dryness in my eye and knew that at some point I must go to the eye doctor - something I always dread.

I've been doing pretty well the last 6 weeks putting in artificial tear drops twice a day. I no longer need to lie down, I can do it sitting up or standing. But I still have to put the drops in the corner of my eye with the eye closed and then open the eye and blink to distribute the drop. My anxiety level has decreased though.

My eyes have continued to feel dry and itchy. The last straw was yesterday morning. Yesterday I woke up, opened my eyes and experienced severe pain in the right one. Yowsa! Upon hearing my yell Walter asked “what did you step on?” I replied “Nothing, I just opened my eye!”

This has happened 3 or 4 times in the recent past. It’s quite painful at first and gets slightly better after putting about 10 drops of artificial tears in the eye. But it remains uncomfortable for the rest of the day. Walter suggested that maybe my eyes were so dry my eyelid was sticking to the cornea.

This morning I went to the eye doctor and sure enough, Walter was right! I have dry eye syndrome and sometimes when I open my eye in the morning the lid is stuck and it scratches the cornea when I open it - hence the recurrent corneal erosion.

The solution? Lots of artificial tear eye drops (3 or 4 times a day), more breaks from the computer screen, and putting an ointment in my eye before I go to bed. An ointment??! Yes. The doctor said if I really can't do it to let him know and he will prescribe more of a gel type eye drop, but the ointment would be most successful.

He's a very patient doctor and showed me some great tips for getting the drops and ointment in there. I'm going to give it a try. Not waking up in severe pain will be worth it. Wish me luck.