Living with dry eye – Alison’s Story
A: Alison
VO: Voiceover
A:
I’m Alison and I’m 61 years old now. I’m a mother of two, grandmother of four. I have a dog, lead a fairly busy, active life, and lots of interests like sewing and reading.
A couple of years ago, I realised that while I was doing things that I needed concentration for, I was finding I had quite a lot of difficulty in focusing. I also noticed that my eyes were starting to weep and feel quite itchy, sore, and I felt quite tired with it. My eyes got so uncomfortable, I was finding that I was having trouble with doing my sewing, and close-up work like reading was causing me to wipe my eyes all the times. My eyes felt really gritty, quite red, almost as if there was something in them all the time. And in the end, I thought, ‘This can’t be right.’ And it was affecting my life so much that I went to get a check-up and they then diagnosed me with dry eye.
I was obviously concerned when the ophthalmologist told me that I had a dry eye syndrome, and wondered what that would mean for the future, but he did assure me that it was a condition that was perfectly treatable, although there was no cure.
The main treatment for dry eye is eye drops and I was prescribed some. Since then, I’ve tried a couple of different ones and the ones I’m on now do seem to be working for me. At first, I was taking them quite a few times a day. I do find now though that I don’t take them quite as often.
A few other things that I find are really helpful. When I’m doing my crafts and any intricate activities, I do have to now remember to blink quite a lot, especially reading and close-up sewing. I also will put in my eye drops before I start the activity, and if I’m doing it for any length of time, sometimes I have to take a break and put the eye drops in again.
I also find other things that help are eye masks and eye wipes. I have a heat-up eye mask and I find that really, really helps, just to sit back for 10 minutes with that on my eyes and it then helps to make my eyes feel much more comfortable.
I did wear contact lenses for many years – since I was 16, actually – and I’ve now realised and been told that dry eye syndrome can be caused by lengthy use of contact lenses – so I wear my glasses a lot more now, I don’t wear my contact lenses very much at all.
Dealing with dry eye syndrome has been a bit of a challenge, and at times felt quite unbearable. I do visit my optician quite regularly and he’s helped me with finding the right treatment and the right drops for me. There are many options out there and I think I’ve tried most of them, but I’ve found the ones for me now, and that, combined with the blinking frequently when doing close-up crafts and reading, and the eye masks and the eye wipes, has certainly helped alleviate the difficulties and I feel much better about it now.
For more information about dry eye and other eye conditions, visit rnib.org.uk/eyehealth or call our helpline on 0303 123 9999.
VO: RNIB – supporting people with sight loss.
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