I've been having some dryness in one of my eyes, which can happen for some time after PRK surgery. As I had PRK on one eye only, I only have one eye that has this bothersome "feature". We've tried several things and they all help some, but I wish my eye would hurry up and get back to pre-surgery hydration levels.
My eye doesn't seem dry, but I have symptoms that cause my vision to be less than ideal when dryness does occur. I get the sense there's a sort of haze that I can't quite wipe away. It's confusing because this hazy sensation isn't there all the time. When it does happen, it fools you into thinking you need to wipe or rub your eye to make it go away, only that does nothing to help.
I've learned a lot about ocular hydration as we've been working on the problem. First, we tried temporary drain duct plugs. That helped. I have permanent ones now and they help. I have drops that help with hydration that I use fairly regularly. It turns out that when your eye is dry, adding moisture right then (let's say you burst into tears and started crying because you were watching a sad movie) will help for that moment, but it doesn't solve the problem over a longer period of time. By the time the movie is over, your eyes will be dry again. You need to have a sustained amount of moisture on the eye so that the tissues can maintain the proper hydration level.
Now let's talk about oil. Not only do you have tears that keep your eye moist, you also have a film of oil produced by your eyelids that flows over the moisture from the tears. The bit about oil and water not mixing is exactly what should be happening in your eye. If everything is working well, the balance of oil to water is good and your eye stays hydrated. I was told I have "viscous oil".
It appears my oil is of the thicker variety. It can get backed up and block the pores it comes out of or flow more slowly than desired. This contributes to an overall dry eye situation. There are things you can do to help get the oil flowing more readily, such as putting a very hot towel up against your closed eyes to heat the oil.
The best suggestion though, was to literally put soap in my eyes. It sounded awful, but it turns out to be fairly easy and not painful at all. When you're in the shower, take a bit of baby shampoo on your finger tips and rub it into your lashes on the top and bottom. Then rinse. This will unclog or help the oil flow.
Remember how baby shampoo is touted as, "no more tears"? I can personally attest, it's true, it doesn't bother your eyes at all.
The Big Boy Update: Crackers. I gave my children some cheese on top of crackers yesterday. My son really liked the crackers. He wasn't as interested in the aged white cheddar cheese. He negotiated a swap with my daughter, giving her his cheese and taking her crackers.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Cheese. She liked the cheese on top of the crackers yesterday and asked for more cheese after all her crackers were bare. She loves cheese. She gladly took her brother's cheese and didn't even care that he grabbed her crackers because she was too busy stuffing the cheese into her mouth.
Fitness Update: Last night (for some strange reason) I decided I wanted to do two-hundred pushups. I did them...just not all at once, while I watched something on television. Other than that, it was a lazy weekend.
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