So I've been having a nasty flare-up lately.
It's all my own fault. I've been working long hours, and over-wearing my scleral lenses by... I don't even want to say how many hours.
But at any rate, my eyes are sore as heck and dry and painful and just unhappy a lot.
So, my daughter, who has been having some dry eye issues of her own, has been after me to take better care of my eyes. She recently started using Tranquileyes overnight when her eyes are acting up. Nag... nag... nag.... I mean, I stock them, surely I can get one for myself. I finally buckled and brought one one.
I used Tranquileyes many, many years ago when my eyes were particularly dry. Loved it, but left it when Quartz silicone shields emerged, because I'm all about no-hassle, easy, convenient, and the foamless shields are more practical for me. But I think the real clincher was moving back to the Pacific Northwest. For much of the year, I really didn't need anything over my eyes at night - just in the coldest part of the winter with the heat on. Especially when we moved to our off-grid tinyhome. Heating with a wood stove is not very dry eye friendly.
Anyway, it felt odd to use Tranquileyes for the first time after so many years. I pulled it out... duly soaked the pads in cold water. Laid down and put it on.
The cold pads felt so good. I really don't remember that part from when I had used it before. It was just so soothing on hot, sore eyes.
The first night, I woke up in the morning and couldn't even find my Tranqulieyes for a little while. I have no idea when it came off.
The second night, I remember waking up and finding it on my eyes but the strap not really on my head.
Since then, it's been staying on fine. I'm starting to remember now, what it was like when I used it so many years ago. It's an adjustment process.
Interestingly, since I started using it again I'm finding it easier to get my sclerals in comfortably in the morning. When my eyes are very dry, I often put my lenses in not once but twice, maybe three times... they fog up quickly, I take them out and rinse and re-insert. But it seems like the first time is working better now.
What really amuses me about resuming use of Tranquileyes is to think about all the moisture goggle advice I've been doling out for years. I think I was just plain out of practice and wrong about some things. Here is what I think I have been getting most wrong:
- No, Eyeseals isn't really better than Tranquileyes. - I mean, I've been pushing Eyeseals instead of Tranquileyes for very good reasons: It's foamless, it's less hassle, it has no parts to replace (well, except the strap) and most of all it doesn't touch the lids. But... oddly enough, I actually like Tranqulieyes touching my lids. And I'm one of the lucky ones where it fits right out of the box. When my daughter tried it, I had to trim her pads down so that they didn't press on her eyes. Also... while it's really nice to have something clear like Quartz or Eyeseals so you can get up in the night and not have to take it off, personally, I rarely get up in the night and I actually seem to find a benefit from an opaque shield in terms of sleeping well.
- Tranquileyes XL might actually be good for night use! For years, I've always told people that the XL size Tranquileyes is too big and bulky to be comfortable overnight unless (a) you have reallly large orbits or hat size and/or (b) you sleep on your back. But... guess what. I'm now longing for an XL. The regular size doesn't feel large enough for me. I'm just waiting for a return so I can snag an XL goggle to try. The idea, especially, of nice cold pads in that larger size all over my lids sounds really good, and I think an XL might stay in place better for me. We'll see!
I'll post again when I've been using it longer.