debridement

[ringo]

Hi everyone....I used to have severe recurrent erosions and was considering debridement as well.

I just thought i would share-- as simple as it may sound, there was another solution for me. After researching medical publications on this problem, my eye doctor found that there has been huge success with a simple combination of Doxycycline and mild steroid drop like FML in addition to saline ointment at night in resolving the erosions and controlling the recurrence.

My erosions healed on this regimen. And thank God, never came back again.

[liz56]

Thanks for this! How long has it been since your erosions stopped?

--Liz

[ringo]

My erosions have not recurred since last summer.Meaning more than 1 year.

Note that i have not been on the FML or Doxy all the time- only intermittently, and for some time the last 3 months as I am trying to get rid of the dryness altogether.

I only had a few minor corneal defects around 5 months ago, but now they have healed too, thank God.

Please try this before doing anything like debridement!!!! It requires you to take very strong steroids for long time after the procedure, and it is extremely invasive.

[stella]

Hi Ringo
You mention saline ointment
What is that? Is it in soft white parrafin or petrolejm jelly ?

I am interested in using a bland emmolient at night - at present i use an antibiotic ointment at night and although it works v well for me i would prefer not to have the antibiotic content

[ringo]

Hi Stella,

Thank you for your question. i am not really sure what was the base of the ointment, but the active substance is 5 percent saline, and it is supposed to be used for healing/prevention of corneal erosions and defects, and for treatment of mucous filaments (strands) that stick to the eye surface.

It does help a lot, you never get a scratchy gritty feeling in the morning and certainly played a role in healing my erosions.

[Rebecca Petris]

I think you mean sodium chloride ointment (hypertonic) - brand name Muro 128 and there are some generics. The vehicle is lanolin, mineral oil and white petrolatum. Here's a link. It is fairly common to prescribe this in the US for recurrent erosions/ABMD. Stella, it's not available in the UK, I used to get it from the US when I lived there.

[ringo]

Thank you Rebecca,

That is exactly the medication I was given. It really helped my eyes get better.I have not used it for a few months now, because I cannot supply it any more, and i started using lubricating preservative free drops at night.

Do you think that lubricating eye drops will take care of the eyes at night, or they are not enough and I have to start another ointment?

Up to now I feel fine, although I wake up a few times in the night with dry eyes and need to instill the drops again.

I also put them in first thing in the morning before I get up from bed when I open my eyes.

Do you think this is good enough?

Regards,

[Rebecca Petris]

Well, if you're waking during the night for more lubrication it sounds like you really could use a boost of some kind - both for your eyes' sake and getting good uninterrupted sleep.

I am not a fan of lubricating ointments (the "PM" products, Lacrilube and such), personally, I find the arguments/concerns about long term use of ointments compelling. Muro is different though because the point of Muro is the hypertonicity and the ointment is just the most effective vehicle for it.

Everyone is different as regards what they need as well as what they can tolerate at night. But broadly speaking, a physical barrier (sleep mask, goggle, Tranquileyes, tape, whatever is most effective and comfortable enough to sleep in) plus an effective non greasy lubricant stronger than a standard artificial tear (Dwelle, Genteal Gel, insert your favorite product here) is pretty effective for most people.

[ringo]

Thank you so much for your reply!

I have read the posts regarding sleeping masks, but I wonder- will I be able to sleep with it on?

I have tried in airplanes, it was bothering me. Dwelle sounds like a good lubricating drop judging from the feedback of people on the forum. I tried to oredr it, but the site would not let me enter the dry eye shop because it says my IP address shows I am in the UAE.

I also cannot start a thread in the forum. I dont know why, the link stopped responding.

I want to mention that thanks to Aaron's very interesting and informative posts about Optimmune, the animal version of Restasis that contains 0.2 percent cyclosporine, I am now experiencing the biggest improvement I have ever had.

I have been on the restasis for 2 years now, and I have never had my tears flow like when i put the optimmune in my eyes. There was an immediate relief of the inflammation as well, long lasting relief, not like the dried relief of steroids, but moist relief, it was like tons of weight were lifted from my eyes! In addition to that, the medication expelled a huge amount of mucous from my worst right eye this morning....

i have had this sort of relief with the steroids and acetylcysteine, but never seen such a huge amount of mucous come out of my eye! At first I almost got scared, but after I cleaned it, the feeling was indescribably good! My eye felt light and moist and clean, the way it did when I used to be healthy...

How I managed to get the medication is another story, but let us just say Ringo was involved in it

Just can't stop wondering why the human version is such a low concentration....i might as well be dropping the vehicle only... I am a bit frustrated as well as I have spent 2 years on restasis....

Anyway, i thank God, i thank Aaron, and all the people in this forum, and I thank you Rebecca for all yout invaluable help and support. I might safely say that since I found you I am so much more optimistic. And so much less sick!

Thank you all,