I have been suffering from blepharitis for about 8 months.
Contacting blepharitis has been a life changing event for me. My life had been miserable ever since I got blepharitis. It's so difficult concentrate on reading and doing anything as eye irritation is too high and eyes also get so dried that many times I can't see things straight anymore. I have seen few doctors but none of them were helpful to me.
They just say clean your eyes with hot water and use cuetips.
I have tried having hot shower on my eyes, coconut oils, baby shampoos, but none of them were very helpful. (Only baby shampoos seem to give me some reliefs for a while).
Right now I stay at home and am studying something even that is very difficult to do due to my eyes. I don't have a job right now mainly due to the fear that I won't be able to perform well in society with my horribly irritating eyes. And I haven't told my family about it because my family will just blame it on using computer too much.
I have many suicidal thoughts since I just don't see how I'm going to live rest of my life like this.
How do you guys live with blepharitis? Has anyone been able to effectively kill it? I have read on this forum that few people had success with wet wipes but I'm not so sure as wet wipes can actually make your eyes worse.
Arnold -- not sure if there is one cure all that works for everyone. Reading the board it seems there are different causes for different people. I've decided mine is likely related to diet -- seems to be worse on days where I've had too many carbs/sugars. So the solution to that is to avoid carbs and eat healthy (high protein, lots of veggies). For treating symptoms I've gotten some relief from the wet ones wipes you'll see in the thread...be sure you get the ones with Benzethonium Chloride -- that appears to be the active component. If you are in the States, go to your eye doctor and ask for Avenova spray. That seems to be the most effective for me. blessings and good luck!
I know how you feel, as do our fellow sufferers on this site. I suggest you look back over the posts already written about dealing with blepharitis as there is some fantastic advice. My life changer in terms of dealing with it was taking doxycycline - it took me ages to take the decision to take them when they were prescribed but was so glad that I did. I rarely have flare-ups, now. I do have to make sure to clean my eyes thoroughly every day & I take a supplement of sea buckthorn oil every day as maintenance.
Dear Arnold, As you, and myself an RN I was baffled by the ophthomologists not having much medical information on this subject. I did find someone who is a practitioner nurse working in emergency eye at our local hospital. I was prescribed 10 ML HYLO-FORTEO P/F 0.2% EYE DROPPS TO APPLY TO BOTH EYESES FOUR TIMES A DAY FOR 2 WEEKS THEN THREE TIMES A DAY FOR THREE MONTHS. AFTER WHICH THE GP SHOULD CONTINUE THE PRESCRIPTION. The drops are for very severe dry eyes and I told that the baby newborn infant tear shampoo was very helpful. The drops were the best possible. He was happy to see I took good care of my daily cleaning.
All of us are going through the posts and checking for help as the problem seems to be exascerbated by different things on an individual basis and we each seem to find help in some way from our posts. You will find relief and will be able to work all out in the long run. Right now I know i have to be patient but also know my dry eyes will always be with me due to my age!
I must admit I see more of a problem when I am not as diligent and I am in too dry air due to heating, plus too long on computers and too long watching TV or reading too much. (These habits are difficult to change and take approx. 30 days to change.)
There are many free spoken books on the internet and I could try them or listen to the CD's I've bought and not used.
I am trying to remove anything that could also be a basis for an allergy or any type of flare-up including by not being around pets and young children. This breaks my heart but must be done. Yes, the Doxycycline did help plus cleaning with blephosol. Last night I slept in a very dry room( but on a leather bed) and now I have itching eyes. Often I need to blink and discontinue reading due to the dry eyes. The meds prescribed above help a great deal as does resting my eyes. When resting or sleeping I use the beauty eyepads for sleep (Like ones previously used in airplanes.) I am light sensitive and was told I don't totally close my eyes while asleep. I wash these beauty eyepads often. I am now beginning to think I can do more about plillows and soap pwders, etc. used in washing clothing as well. (Today I have used lavendar which is considered a natural type of antibiotic, as is tea tree oil. Only a drop of these in a cup of water is used.)
I hope this has helped. I write down the products mentioned and try what is new. Wishing you luck
Hi Avey, thanks for the advices. Do you think using computer too much has something to do with blepharitis? Because for me, whether I use computer a lot or not, the symptoms don't seem to affect at all.
I don't think my skin is that dry or greasy. I do wash my hair everyday.
I really don't know the cause of my blepharitis. My doctor said I probably had it when I was younger but didn't show due to my young age. He said blepharitis probably just showed recently because I got older.
Dont be saddened,we have all been where your at. The first initial stage where we think we caught some horrific unknown condition,then the 2nd stage where we drive ourselves nuts trying to rid ourselves of allergies and daily things we used to do,makeups,soaps,anything that we feel is causing this,and lastly the 3rd stage,where we pep talk ourselves that we are going to beat this. You are in the middle stage,your going to be ok. You will ,just know that you need too stay positive ,even though this is awful,know that many of us are dealing with and the majority of us found our happy ending! you got this
No, it is not the computer yet our eyes tire more and as you said you have dry eye syndrome . We do not blink as often when we stare at a computer, TV or even read. Blinking helps lubricate our eyes so it is important to keep our eyes lubricated. The med pprescribed does just that.
There appears to be much more of blepharitis reported lately and it would be most useful to learn how we became affected. I wonder if we can start a simple discussion on what each person considers this point.
My eyesight has been worsened again to the point that I have hard time reading these posts.
I don't know if it's due to blepharitis and lost vision but I feel very dizzy and lose my balance sometime due to it many times a day.
I get enough nutrition and I do workout so I only reason I feel dizzy seems to be due to blepharitis. There's really no way out of this.
Blepharitis is permanent for most cases and I still haven't been able to find a job because of it and feel like I should just kill myself to end my misery.
One drop of tea tree oil, no tears baby shampoo, wash face and eyes with cold water. twice a day, keep eyes closed, but even if you don't it's ok. try this. you may be pleasantly surprised.
I always had dry skin and eyes but only developed blepharitis about 1 year ago.
2 years ago I stopped using shampoo since it iritated my scalp. I switched to using the same soap for hair and body instead.
Half a year later I was working an IT job in japan in last winter when my blepharitis started. The room heaters combined with the extensive Laptop screen UV light dried my eyes out.
I look for a suitable shampoo right away. Would you recommand anything else for this specific case of blepharitis.
Hi, sorry you are feeling so miserable and despairing but there is hope that you will eventually control your bleph but it'll take time. It look me two and a half years and I a man much more comfortable now.
I take a strong antihistamine daily and 6000mgs Omega 3 capsules which have helped tremendously with inflammation. Baby shampoo helps with itching followed by heated eye mask for ten minutes morning and night.
for light sensitivity I have found reaction specs with drivesafe antiglare coating have gone a long way t
like you, only cleaning my eyes does not help. I use Fucithalmic eye drops every night before I go to bed, for 4 months already. when I wake up, I wash my eyes and use compress on my eyes that can be heated in the microwave. afterwards I clean my eyelids with eyewipes. It helps but I have to do it every day. unless I do that my eyes becomes red again.