My experience with chronic dry eye

In fall of 1998 I was at a conference and my right eye kept watering. I called my family physician to make an appointment fearing conjunctivitis. My doctor felt certain it was pink eye and so prescribed sodium sulfacet. This seemed to do the trick. Over the next ten years I had sporadic similar episodes and used left over eye drops and it seemed to go away every time.

By 2008 my right eye would water for days at a time and then be fine for weeks. That spring I was seeing a retinal specialist and was diagnosed with Basal Laminar Drusen (which was quite worse in my right eye). I asked if my eye could be watering as a response to the drusen. The doctor said no and explained to me that it was most likely chronic dry eye. He said that it may seem counterintuitive, but when the eye does not generate enough of any of the three substances that usually keep the eye moist, the tear ducts will go into over-drive to try to fill the void. He gave me a referral to a tear specialist that I never followed up on.

By January of 2010 I felt I was really suffering and I was about to travel to Arizona for a fifteen day convention. I panicked and called an eye doctor and made an appointment. She diagnosed me as having chronic dry eye and prescribed Restasis warning me that it takes a minimum of six weeks to see results and that not everyone sees results. She also recommended I start taking fish oil. She said it was unusual to have it more in one eye, and also informed me that the dryness of winter often made dry eye worse. I started my drops, went on my trip, waited the six weeks, and no relief. I gave up on the Restasis. By the time April rolled around my eye was back to being tolerable, most likely because of the increase in humidity due to the change in seasons. My husband started taking fish oil after his annual physical so I started taking it with him in hopes it would improve my dry eye. I saw no improvement.

Fall set in and my eye started to get worse as the air started to dry out. At my physical I asked my family doctor about it and she said try taking more fish oil and give it at least two weeks to see if the increase in fish oil helped. We had been taking a fish oil that had 600 mg of omegas, so I started taking two putting me at 1200 mg. I waited the two weeks and saw no improvement so went back to just one gel cap. Winter set in and my eye got worse and worse, watering all the time with no break. The corner of my eye was red and raw and hurting from dabbing away tears. I even was having trouble driving, my eye would be blurry with tears and I would constantly have my hand in front my face dabbing at the tears. I could feel my eye lids stuck to my eye balls at night, and in the mornings I would wake with mucous sealing my eyes shut.

By January I was getting desperate and suffering every minute of every day and worried about my annual upcoming trade show in Arizona. I was about ready to call the tear specialist when the lady who manages the natural foods department at my local Cashwise grocery store told me that for omegas to have an anti-inflamitory effect one had to take a minimum of 1200 mg but most likely more than that. I also had a friend going through chemotherapy who had her blood tested for deficiencies and she was told by her doctor that she needed to be taking 1800 mg of omegas. So, I decided to try a higher fish oil dose again, only this time I went to three gel caps a day for a total of 1800 mg of omegas.

Within a mere four days my dry eye symptoms were completely gone. I was amazed and so thankful. To this day I still take 1800 mgs of omegas and am still free from dry eye symptoms. I am not saying that this will work for everyone, but it worked for me. I wanted to share my story in hopes that it might help even just one more dry eye sufferer as it is an easy and inexpensive remedy to try. Best of luck!