With my eye condition, I have found that it takes time to reflect and figure out what to do next. Like any journey, sometimes I will just camp out for a while and stay right where I am.
I know that moving forward at some point is still important. I want to stay hopeful about finding a place where my eyes aren’t at the forefront of my mind because of the discomfort.
In February, an outside doctor told me that my inflamed eyelids were a result of an allergy. From that point forward, he had little advice for me. For three months, I wondered what to do with that information other than stop all of my regimens.
When I was able to get the exact steroid drop from my regular doctor – the one that seemed to make a difference (Durezol), I was disappointed. My eyes didn’t feel wonderful like they did when I had used it three months earlier. Overall, they were still better, though.
I made a connection. Perhaps it wasn’t the steroid eye drop that helped. Instead, just stopping the regimen of eyelid wipes, artificial tears and compresses made the difference. Those very things were the irritants, and that was why I found relief.
I did ask my regular doctor for an appointment for allergy testing. I waited two months for an appointment. I contacted him to find out why it was taking so long and it turned out that he had simply ordered blood tests. The next day I had my blood drawn. He told me if I wanted to see an allergy specialist, it was a self-referral.
All of the results were normal. I was glad, but it gave me no answers. I called to make an appointment with an allergy doctor. There was a cancellation and I scheduled an appointment for the next day.
When I met the allergy doctor, he seemed kind and thoughtful. I told him my reasons for exploring an allergy were due to my irritated eyelids. I mentioned that I also had an outbreak of hives recently.
He prescribed an allergy eye drop (Olopatadine). It was safer than using a steroid drop. I had concerns, though, because I heard that it could dry my eye out even more.
Then this doctor ordered much more involved blood tests. He didn’t think scratch testing would yield as much information. He said he wanted to cover a lot of possible dust mite allergies. And he wanted to retest me for Sjogren’s, even though I was negative two years earlier. It seemed like my issues could be autoimmune.
Only a few days before, I ordered special pillowcases that were dust-mite proof. I decided I would get the mattress cover once the tests came back.
This new road I am following perhaps will lead me to some relief. I will share more once I get results.
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