how has DES impacted your working life?

[Meike]

I've been wanting to ask this question for a while. I'm wondering what dry eyes has done to others in their professional lives. To what extent are you still able to do your work and how has it developed over months/years?

I've suffered from severe dry eyes for a year now and have been unable to work for quite some time now. Right now I'm back at 2-3 hours work per day. My work consists mainly of reading and PC work. I have arranged a humifidier in my office as well as a larger screen, which has made it somewhat manageable, but so far this is really the maximum of what I'm able to do.

I'm optimistic though and hope it will still improve somewhat. But since this is probably caused by Sjögrens, I wonder where it ends. I don't have a clue and that's frustrating sometimes. I love(d) my work!

Thanks for sharing.
Meike - 28 years old and ambitious.

[Tanner]

Meike,

I have been having eye problems for a year and am unable to work right now because of them. I am 30 and loved my job.

[faithfully]

Finally with the combination of Sclerals and plugs I can be on the computer more and read though still painful just not as bad.
I work part time and try to take breaks from the computer.

[LaDiva]

Sorry Meiki! I retired. The last year of work was very difficult. I am worn out with people asking "dont' you use eyedrops?" Goggles help quite a bit. Good luck to you. Hope your situation improves.

[bakunin]

I wear moisture chamber glasses at work, and worked only 6 hour/day (not the 8 hour i was used to).

I'm going to another job, for professional reasons, and there i will have to do 8 hour/day.

[patrick]

Hi meike,

I've been working in an office environment for the last few years and it has become more and more difficult to do my job properly.
It is very hard to stay focussed when you're in constant pain.
The building i work in is relatively new so you'd expect the climate control is state of the art,but that is not the case though.
The system is broken since day one and nobody seems to be able to fix the damn system because of its complexity.
Summer or winter the temperature has never been under 25! Degrees (that's celcius of course). Relative humidity is around 20-22%. this sort of environment is just killing for a person with tbut between 4 and 6 seconds like me.
In my freetime i work a lot in the little bodyshop i own where i do classic car restorations. Relative humidity there has never been under 40%. temperature around 18-20 degrees.you can guess this place is just heaven for my eyes compared to the office i work in 36 hours per week.

Patrick...

[robster]

I was made redundant last August I then used my redundancy money to pay for LASIK and due to dry eye I haven't worked since! Spent my entire working life in an office but thinking about it now I never really enjoyed it and often had very bad Monday morning blues.

I'm currently trying to work out what I want to do work wise as I still have a lot of my work life ahead of me(I'm 34) and I feel for anyone who is struggling to do a job they love because of there eyes. Trying to take the positives out of my situation and have thought about getting another degree but am wary of all the PC use that will entail. When I first went to University it was considered a major deal that the campus I was on had two IT rooms!

Hope your situation improves and you can carry on doing what you love.

[Meike]

Thanks for the replies.

@Bakunin: good luck with your new job. Hope the 8 hrs will be doable with your eyes.
@Tanner: All the best for your improvement! For me, it has gone slowly, but I do feel better and experience less pain than half a year ago. I hope you will be able to work again in not too long; even if it's only a few hours per week.
@ Robster, good luck with your studies! I hope it will work well for you. It's great to hear that you're making the best out of the situation.
@ Patrick: your work climate sounds awful - hope they'll still fix it, better late than never - , but good that there's a place like heaven in your freetime :-)

For me, there might still be some things left to try at work like moisture chamber glasses, and maybe at some point, sclerals (but they're really expensive, right? - I will look around here for some more stories on sclerals).

About moisture chamber glasses; I use two types of glasses normally; reading/PC glasses and normal glasses (distance) when I'm not reading/doing PC work. Anyone who could advise me about which moisture chamber glasses would suit best with prescription for reading/PC work?

[HYPERHEAD]

It's made my life hell as I used to be so happy and healthy and working full time ! Last 6 months I had to reduce my work hours (graphic designer) due to have given all my energy to this condition as i keep developing new symptoms which then makes me focused on the condition again and again ! I can't be bothered stressing over this no more as I love my life and this crap ain't gonna hold me back any longer even I f do look stoned all the time...ahahahahaa!

[mgshutterbug]

Meike, I use moisture chamber glasses from 7eye. I use the "Air Shield" line of glasses, for transitional glasses, my general glasses, my bifocal computer glasses, and transition sunglasses. They all have removable inserts. The black foam inserts make you look like you're wearing goggles, but when your eyes are so dry and in so much pain, who cares what you look like. I wore mine at work and they helped alot. But when I do much computer work, such as doing documentation when you're on the computer usually for 2 hrs or more straight, I have to stop frequently and take breaks. If I don't, I soon reach the point that I can't do the PC work at all. One place I worked had tiny tablets, the size of and iPhone, that you were expected to do all the daily documentation on (I'm in medical field). There was absolutely no way I could see the Lilliputian keyboard! I told my boss that, and she reacted nastily, said "you should have told me that before I hired you". I was temping, had no idea that's what everyone was expected to use. There was only 1 PC available for 9 of us to use, and it was only available sometimes from 2 pm on. So I worked alot of very late nites so I could use the PC. So, yes, DES has definitely had a huge impact on my work life. I have RCEs mainly in L eye, tho have corneal dystrophy in both eyes causing blurry vision anyway, and R eye is also very dry, have MGD and damaged nerve to lacrimal glands. In R eye, which was my "better" eye, I have a macular hole that is healing after surgery, but I've not gotten any return of my vision because the hole was there so long (almost a year). At this point, 6 mos. post-op, no further improvement in vision is expected.

I'm unemployed right now; I have to work to see asilver lining in that - and that would be I'd have a heck of a time holding a job down right about now because of my eyes.

[AprilShowers]

Terrible and involving a great loss of confidence. I'm in sales and I twitch and nod my head a great deal, no one minds mind you, but I fib a little and say I'm developing Parkinson Disease which works a treat. I was pulled up by the Police and was scared he'd investigate my fitness to drive, he didn't, he thought I was nervous at being pulled up by the Police and that was the reason. Others have remarked when I'm busy or speaking to a group it all stops, but when I relax at home it butts in. I pull the curtains a lot, sit in the shade a lot and wonder dare I go abroad to a warmer clime. England's cloudy and grey most days esp right now so that helps. I put a computer glare screen inside my car to keep out the sun and that was a boon. Its stuck into the mirror visor and hangs down 10 inches or so, a great idea we should all copy. All in all it's not how I want to end my days and to be remembered by. Strange as it seems I'm in perfect health otherwise.

[rm14dp]

Hello. I have had DES MGD Blepharitis for 7 months now, I have had to give up my job as I cant spend the 8 hours I used to at a computer - I can spend about an hour at the computer now before the pain gets too much for me, I hope over time things improve. My consultant is talking about inserting plugs to help with the pain, so thats my next step. From reading other feedback there is hope out there, but its a slow process so I live in hope. Never give up.