What is your diagnosis (or diagnoses if you have more than one)?
Sjogren's & Scleroderma & Graves
How long have you had it?
24 years
What do you wish more people understood about dry eye (or eye pain if that's your main issue) and how it affects people's lives?
the amount of pain daily and time to tend to my eyes
What has helped you the most?
I use drops but heat compresses and moisture goggles are a must and can be use with contacts if windy outside conditions. Watch for inflammation in magnifying mirror or more issue will trouble you. Address pain, get doctors to understand how disabling it can be.. Using Scleral contacts can be life saving, if well trained and fitting done with experts! No one thing works for all the issues, rather an overall approach to problems. One thing is morning issue of residue on eyes from drops, cleaning eyes with care in the mornings with warm water then drops of single no preservatives buffered saline for dry eyes to do my the final rinse. Just a bit later I do contact insertion. I check eyes and often realize my medication is affecting different vision abilities in mornings. (Graves) I have multiple eye glasses of different strength for eyes. Weak glasses in morning fit me best. Afternoon is a short nap with heat, massage eye wear charged/battery operated 20 mins. With contacts removed of course. Drops are use if needed, gel singles if I have them in supply. After single eye drops preservative free use and glasses for a few hours. Then reinsert contacts for evening TV watching. Remove them at bedtime clean and store, warm water on eyes with compress and or drops of gel if needed. Winter heat on in home demands more care as dose spring pollens, or irritation of debris such as potting soil while I nurture plants. Also this survey print is very blurry/small I cannot see my typing, just saying one of many struggles enlarging my screen print but surveys sometimes won’t let you… Your’s did. :)
Are there any dry eye resources you'd like to recommend?
Dry eyes shop and YouTube’s they produce are spot on for education as well as the non-profit you support!