Bloggerel: random thoughts on a dry eye journey

This post was originally about the joy of having discovered olive oil for removing eye makeup. When I first started using it, I found the olive oil (besides taking off my eye makeup brilliantly) increased the moisture in my eyes during the day because it appeared to partially, or completely, block the tear duct in the inner corner of the eye, similar to the effect of a punctal plug.

Unfortunately, after a few weeks of using it, my eyes became progressively drier during the daytime, ...

It's been just over a year since I read Dr. Latkany's book and discovered the DEZ. A lot has happened in that year, and I've documented what I did to recover in other posts. I thought I'd take a few minutes to summarize the maintenance routine I follow, which may be useful, particularly if your DES is caused by lagophthalmos or eye closure/blinking issues:

1. Nighttime eye protection is paramount. I've discovered that, if I don't get complete protection at night, the next day is difficult, ...

In response to a Talk Board question, I decided to create a list of things that can make DES worse. Please note that things on this list may bother you (or not) depending on: 1) the cause of your DES; and 2) the current state of your eyes, including ocular surface damage, lacrimal output, eyelid margin health and meibomian gland function. Please leave a comment if I left anything out, and I'll update the post:

• Blowing air (either outside or inside from heating and air conditioning

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I've learned not to get too confident about my successes in dry eye management. I would love to be able to delete a number of my earlier posts on the Talk board, when I thought I'd found the answer(s) after a few good days or even weeks. All too many times, those good dry-eye days were followed by significant setbacks or even complete failure of what seemed to be a promising solution. And I know from reading other people's posts that I am not alone.

The problem is that dry eye management ...

I receive somewhere between 100 and 200 emails a day at work, and the volume seems to be increasing at an exponential rate. While that's the subject of a different rant, between dealing with my dreaded inbox and doing other work, as well as handling personal email at home and catching up on things that interest me on the Internet (like the DEZ), I spend a lot of time in front of a computer.

Here's my battle plan for dry eye management in the cyberworld:

• I followed

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