Submitted by MentalDespairing t3_z8vcp6 in books
How many of you have dry eye, also known as Meibomian Gland Dysfunction? Books are my passions, but dry eye is making it really hard. Even when I take a 4-minute break every 20 minutes my eyes are still tired.
Incredibly jealous of people who can read for hours on end! Makes me angry almost, miss those days.
I do not want to give up on books, no matter what. Yet
I know some of you love audiobooks, but I was hoping for tips on actual reading :)
my wife is an optometrist so I asked her. Reading with dry eyes can be miserable. the first step is to get it under control. either an optometrist or a dedicated dry eye clinic is your best bet. There are over the counter treatments like drops or just a warm compress. but, you may just be putting bandaids on a more serious condition so going in to get checked is the best option.
Read lying down as much as possible. This allows you to partially close your eyelids, which should help in keeping them lubed.
You might have to spend some money on some quality, specialized, eye drops. Maybe even some eye drop of goggles that you could still see through. I dunno, tis a complicated issue an audiobook seem like the easy way out
For dry, red eyes, clear eyes is a hit
I get you! MGD and blepharitis.
It’s one reason I use audiobooks more now (plus I can listen to a book while doing one of my daily hot compresses for my eyes.)
Have you seen an ophthalmologist that specifies in assisting with those conditions? In 2018 mine got bad. Like legally-blind, couldn’t open my eyes levels of photophobia. Nightmares of my eyes burning/peeling off my face just to wake up and realise the pain was real.
I’d been to multiple ophthalmologists and a few optometrists but just kept being told “hot compresses” but this level of bad was enough that I looked for someone specialising in dry eye conditions and they got it back to manageable levels in a few months with a combination of antibiotics and steroid drops.
Also, look for good electric eye compresses. When you’re supposed to be doing them 2x/day for 20+ minutes at a time it is really worth it. Even managed, there is a whole eye care routine for maintaining MGD and/or blepharitis.
Once you get the dry eye back to manageable levels reading for hours on end - compresses aside - should be possible. But until then it’s sort of shooting yourself in the foot - you need to get your eyes’ self-lubrication back under control.
I have dry eyes and sometimes use Restasis which is a prescription drug. It works great.
Drops like artificial tears. I use ophthalmic gel since I'm terrible at putting drops in my eyes. Easy peasy
Gel eye drops are the best!
Try audio books not everyone has to visually read my dry eyes friend.
I use gel eye drops as well as a liquid one. And remember to blink more often then I naturally would.
Try audiobooks?
soup-monger t1_iydgz78 wrote
What do you do to alleviate your dry eyes? You can use drops or a heated eye mask - both of these can help.