Wednesday, August 29, 2007

2nd Blog Today - The Eyes Have It


I forgot to tell what I learned at my opthamology appointment yesterday. The good news is, there is no evidence of cancer or macular degeneration. My problems (dryness and poor vision) are being caused by extreme dry eyes due to the chemo.

What I have found out about tears and lubricating eyes is interesting. Our eyes do not only produce tears, but also a lubricating agent - an oily like substance. Drugs can diminish or stop the production of this lubricant. Without the lubricant, the eye becomes sticky and vision decreases. There are cases of people who have excessive tearing - which can also be a part of the dry eye syndrome - because the eye is producing tears, but no lubrication.
The doc said mine was a fairly severe case, and has put me on 4x a day steroid drops and liquid tears every two hours. Basically, I need to put something in my eye almost every hour. I am HORRIBLE at remembering to take medicines, etc, so this should be interesting. His plan is to get my eyes back in working condition and then putting me on a different drug - Restatsis. I look forward to that as it is just used twice a day - a bit more doable than the regime I am on right now. However, I already notice a difference with my vision, so it seems to be working!

2 comments:

Melanie D. said...

Oh - I hope that it all goes well with the drops. I'll bet you'll remember them because it will feel so good!

Rosebud said...

I see says the blind girl..rosebud