Dry Eye Issues

[Lee]

- that is very common for preservatives to cause problems.

Interesting . . . I did not have a problem with my eyes. But I did develop a reaction to the preservatves in the saline solution that my home nurse was using to flush my port. Saline solution with out the preseratives was not a problem (used in the hospital and oncologist office), but I was getting sick from saline with preseratives my nurse had. Once we determined the cause, changed saline solution, problem solved.

Lee

[jeanette57]

Now you all have me thinking. I have no eye lashes, and all nose hair is gone. My nose and eyes get raw but I thought that was the oxygen 24x7. I assumed that it was part of the chemo (every week for 18 months). Now thinking the raw nose and dry eyes are something Onc doc and I need to talk about.

I have a great relation with Doc as I bring him in goodies with curry. He spends more time and is willing to work with my research. I now have to figure out the dry eyes but raw nose. Oh colon cancer went into lungs - but cant call it lung cancer as that is another strain. Hum

On another note, PLEASE take dry eyes serious. My beloved heart dog as a puppy got her eyes damaged and had dry eyes all her life. I took the best care but in the end she went almost blind. It was sad to see her struggle but was well loved till the end. I did eye drop and water sprays which she loved. Now trying to take care of me.

[orcasres]

I do get a reaction to the preservatives in my glaucoma med (Latanoprost) but it is primarily redness and it is not severe enough to switch to the non-preservative brand version which would have a copay 10 times higher. I might have to switch eventually if it gets worse; hopefully the non-preservative version is generic by then. My eye doc is keeping an eye on it. With glaucoma I see him every 3-4 months.

Since I have been putting in drops every night in both eyes for four years and the bottle has to last for a month, I got pretty good at getting the drop placed and not wasting anything. But I did drip a lot at first and many of these meds do cause darkening of the skin around the eyes and skin irritaion. The other concern about using bottles instead of individual tubes is that the tip can become contaminated. They let me bring my own eye drops into the hospital when I had my colon resection, but the nurse was really worried about contamination and watched me like a hawk when I put them in.

My mother had serious dry eye problems, but she also had glaucoma and her doctor in Detroit way over medicated her which exacerbated the dry eye. The beta blocker eye drop was on was really bad. Once we moved her out here two years ago, she started going to our optometrist who spends an inordinate amount of time researching and going to glaucoma conferences because of the aging population he treats here and he got her off one of the glaucoma meds. He also got her off Restasis which was not really helping her and costing her a fortune. So other meds, both ocular and oral, can have a significant impact on dry eye.

Lois

[Jachut]

I suffer from a condition called Map Dot Fingerprint Dystophy which is apparently an inherited condition - but my dad and sister are just diagnosed with "dry eyes".

I would get tears in my corneas randomly which would put me out of action for days and I had laser surgery on both eyes where they scraped the corneas back to make them grow back with a tighter cellular structure so they were less likely to tear. They were good for a few years until chemo, when I mentioned how dry and sore my eyes were to my oncologist he said that 5FU only causes increased watering of the eyes, not sore dry eyes. He said it must just be a coincidence!

They're bothering me heaps lately too but a good lubricating eye drop is all that I really need to control it.

[mstults]

Don't blame the onc. Everyone does not have all of the hundreds of side effects that can accompany chemo. There is no way for the Drs to cover them all. You can be proactive and research, which I tend to d, or reactive and wait for the symptoms. As someone said, all people aren't allergic to the preservatives. Fortunately I have very few side effects. I am thankful for that.

[weisssoccermom]

I'm not necessarily blaming the oncs, however, when an opthamologist is very insistent that certain chemotherapy drugs, 5FU among them is known to cause dry eyes and certainly wasn't at all surprised that I had this problem....I just would have wished that the onc had said something. Now, that being said, I had my last chemo almost 7 years ago and I can't say for certain whether or not the onc did or didn't ask me about my eyes. I am fairly certain, though, that he didn't tell me about 5FU and it's known eye related issues. I trust the opthamologist when she tells me that this is a common and known problem.....and 5FU has been around for over 40 years so, yeah, I would have liked to have known but....it is what it is and nothing can be done about it now. Regardless, I would have taken the drug...side effects or not. And, as I said in my original post, there are other drugs/conditions that can aggravate the problem....of which I have two others.

Mostly, I am just glad to know about the preservatives in the eye drops. Since stopping the bottle drops and switching to the individual vials, my eyes have been vastly improved. They still have the dryness issue but...the horrid irritation isn't there any more and the skin under my eyes is healing up nicely now that the chemicals in the preservatives aren't affecting me. On a side note, I also found that Alcon (they make a lot of eye related products) have a lubricating drop (preservative free) called Bion Tears. It is supposed to be the one that most closely resembles our own real tears. I ordered some and will give that a try as well.