#1 ·
Hey doctors! 🙂
So, look, I’ve had super sensitive eyes for as long as I can remember. My old primary care doctor—the one I’d been seeing forever—finally retired, and this new young lady took over. When she first saw me, she immediately goes, "Oh, you have blue eyes? Those are the absolute worst when it comes to sensitivity and inflammation." Like, wow, thanks for the unsolicited diagnosis, I guess? She basically assumed she knew my whole medical history just by looking at my eye color.
Anyway, like I was saying, my eyes have always been a massive pain in the neck. A couple of years ago, I went to LensCrafters to get my prescription checked, and they told me I was a zero in both eyes, which I totally expected because even though my vision felt fine, my eyes were constantly dealing with heavy discharge, wind sensitivity, redness, peeling skin on my eyelids, and eyelashes falling out all over the place.
Every time I visited my old doctor, he’d just hand me some Maxitrol drops and tell me everything would be fine. While I was actually using the drops, things like the redness, the peeling, and the gunkiness would definitely improve quite a bit. But the second I stopped using them? Boom. Everything would go right back to being a total mess.
Last time I saw him, he also gave me some Claritin because he suspected it might be an allergy thing. I took that too, but honestly, it didn't really do much for me.
So, leaning on this new doctor and her "fresh" expertise, I went back to see what she had to say about it all.
Basically, here’s the deal with my symptoms: I’m incredibly sensitive to the wind, my eyelids and eyes are constantly red, my eyelashes fall out daily (though they grow back just as fast so you don't really notice), my eyelid skin peels off—kind of like when you get a bad sunburn and that layer of skin starts flaking away—and there's heavy discharge even if I wash my face constantly. I mean, I was washing my face like five times a day, and I still had gunk sticking to the base of my lashes, which makes trying to clean it all out feel super clumsy, irritating, and just plain annoying.
When I mentioned the constant discharge to the doctor, she told me it wasn't an allergy, but some kind of inflammation or infection instead. Her logic was that if it were an allergy, my eyes would be irritated, but there wouldn't be any gunk.
So, she hands me the Maxitrol again (one drop, two or three times a day) and tells me to finish the whole bottle, and if things haven't improved by then, I should come back.
I've been using the drops for about 6, 7, maybe 8 days now. As far as the redness, the gunk, and the peeling eyelids go, things have actually cleared up and look pretty normal now. However, my eyes are still extremely sensitive to light and wind. I’ve even started using a separate hand towel and a separate face towel just to be safe.
The part that’s actually freaking me out, though, is that my vision is blurry. If I look at my computer monitor or anything within a meter of my face, it looks totally fine. The problem kicks in when I try to look at something about 1.5 to 2 meters away. For example, my coworker's monitor is about a meter and a half away from me, and the text on it is a complete blur; I can't make out a single word (not like I'm trying to spy on her or anything 🙂), and since she uses a black background with cyan text, the contrast is high enough that I should be able to see it easily. Even right now, I'm talking to a colleague who is three meters away, and everything is blurry, which just makes me feel stupid.
Since I’ve practically never had vision problems before, I am seriously worried. I don't want to lose my good eyesight. It’s funny how you don't realize how precious your sight is until it starts acting up.
The instructions for Maxitrol mention that blurred vision can be a side effect, so I'm hoping that's all it is, but I have no clue how long the blurriness lasts after you stop using the medication.
I also read somewhere that Maxitrol drops aren't necessarily the healthiest or best long-term solution, so I'm terrified I might be damaging my eyes with them and I'm seriously considering stopping the treatment. Has anyone else dealt with this? Any advice?
One more thing: when I suddenly look into the distance, my vision is clear for like the first 200 milliseconds, and then—bam—it goes blurry. It's like it flashes into focus and then fades out. I'm scared.
So, look, I’ve had super sensitive eyes for as long as I can remember. My old primary care doctor—the one I’d been seeing forever—finally retired, and this new young lady took over. When she first saw me, she immediately goes, "Oh, you have blue eyes? Those are the absolute worst when it comes to sensitivity and inflammation." Like, wow, thanks for the unsolicited diagnosis, I guess? She basically assumed she knew my whole medical history just by looking at my eye color.
Anyway, like I was saying, my eyes have always been a massive pain in the neck. A couple of years ago, I went to LensCrafters to get my prescription checked, and they told me I was a zero in both eyes, which I totally expected because even though my vision felt fine, my eyes were constantly dealing with heavy discharge, wind sensitivity, redness, peeling skin on my eyelids, and eyelashes falling out all over the place.
Every time I visited my old doctor, he’d just hand me some Maxitrol drops and tell me everything would be fine. While I was actually using the drops, things like the redness, the peeling, and the gunkiness would definitely improve quite a bit. But the second I stopped using them? Boom. Everything would go right back to being a total mess.
Last time I saw him, he also gave me some Claritin because he suspected it might be an allergy thing. I took that too, but honestly, it didn't really do much for me.
So, leaning on this new doctor and her "fresh" expertise, I went back to see what she had to say about it all.
Basically, here’s the deal with my symptoms: I’m incredibly sensitive to the wind, my eyelids and eyes are constantly red, my eyelashes fall out daily (though they grow back just as fast so you don't really notice), my eyelid skin peels off—kind of like when you get a bad sunburn and that layer of skin starts flaking away—and there's heavy discharge even if I wash my face constantly. I mean, I was washing my face like five times a day, and I still had gunk sticking to the base of my lashes, which makes trying to clean it all out feel super clumsy, irritating, and just plain annoying.
When I mentioned the constant discharge to the doctor, she told me it wasn't an allergy, but some kind of inflammation or infection instead. Her logic was that if it were an allergy, my eyes would be irritated, but there wouldn't be any gunk.
So, she hands me the Maxitrol again (one drop, two or three times a day) and tells me to finish the whole bottle, and if things haven't improved by then, I should come back.
I've been using the drops for about 6, 7, maybe 8 days now. As far as the redness, the gunk, and the peeling eyelids go, things have actually cleared up and look pretty normal now. However, my eyes are still extremely sensitive to light and wind. I’ve even started using a separate hand towel and a separate face towel just to be safe.
The part that’s actually freaking me out, though, is that my vision is blurry. If I look at my computer monitor or anything within a meter of my face, it looks totally fine. The problem kicks in when I try to look at something about 1.5 to 2 meters away. For example, my coworker's monitor is about a meter and a half away from me, and the text on it is a complete blur; I can't make out a single word (not like I'm trying to spy on her or anything 🙂), and since she uses a black background with cyan text, the contrast is high enough that I should be able to see it easily. Even right now, I'm talking to a colleague who is three meters away, and everything is blurry, which just makes me feel stupid.
Since I’ve practically never had vision problems before, I am seriously worried. I don't want to lose my good eyesight. It’s funny how you don't realize how precious your sight is until it starts acting up.
The instructions for Maxitrol mention that blurred vision can be a side effect, so I'm hoping that's all it is, but I have no clue how long the blurriness lasts after you stop using the medication.
I also read somewhere that Maxitrol drops aren't necessarily the healthiest or best long-term solution, so I'm terrified I might be damaging my eyes with them and I'm seriously considering stopping the treatment. Has anyone else dealt with this? Any advice?
One more thing: when I suddenly look into the distance, my vision is clear for like the first 200 milliseconds, and then—bam—it goes blurry. It's like it flashes into focus and then fades out. I'm scared.