Dry eyes at night - why?

glimmerofhope

I have taken most of the different kinds of chemo currently aimed at metastatic colon cancer to my lungs and liver. I have also had the colon surgery, liver surgery, and surgery on both lungs and also 4 stents placed in my bile duct. All of this began about 3 years ago.

I wake up to go to the bathroom most night at about 4:00 AM. My eyes are always dry. Some nights my eyes are so dry that I can barely open them. None of my docs seem to know what has caused this... This is a minor nuisance compared to other things I'm dealing with, but I was curious if anyone else has experienced this. I just put some Visine tears in them each night.

P.S. I don't think I sleep with my eyes open and my eyes don't get dry at all during the day.

nanuk

although there are probably many reasons as there are people for dry eyes, I echo Tara's comments about Visine; I use Bouch & lombe or Equate-(cheaper;@Wal mart) artificial tears. You might also try scrubbing your eye lids-a lot of irritating material can collect on them and add to irritation. Nanuk

taraHK

This is just a thought but I wonder if you might want to check out alternatives to Visine. I think I remember hearing once that Visine is good for getting rid of redness but ?? not so good for rehydrating. Maybe there is an alternative that helps? Good luck with this.

joenlisa500

I don't know if it is the same as yours but my mom would wake up every morning with dry burning eyes, sometimes so bad her eyes would be pasted shut. not listed as a side effect of her treatments, but didn't start until she started treatments again. She started to take clatitin(sp?) in the morning and that made a big diffference. She can really tell when she forgets to take it for a day or two. Good luck finding something that works.

Lisa

glimmerofhope

taraHK said:

This is just a thought but I wonder if you might want to check out alternatives to Visine. I think I remember hearing once that Visine is good for getting rid of redness but ?? not so good for rehydrating. Maybe there is an alternative that helps? Good luck with this.

I agree. Getting the red out is probably not healthy and I avoid the regular Visine.

The Visine Tears that I take is not the regular Visine, but something that is supposed to closely simulate tears. I still might be better off with just a saline solution.

Thanks for your suggestion!

Tony

oneagleswings

Hi-and sorry I can't add to your question of dry eyes but I must tell you that you have put a smile on my face to hear "3 years and mets to lungs and liver" in the same sentence...bless you.
Bev

glimmerofhope

oneagleswings said:

Hi-and sorry I can't add to your question of dry eyes but I must tell you that you have put a smile on my face to hear "3 years and mets to lungs and liver" in the same sentence...bless you.
Bev

I may not be here tomorrow, but today I'm not only still here, but I feel almost normal....

The blood test that I had taken on 12/5/05 showed my hemoglobin is back up to the normal range! (even after 5 months of Avastin and 5FU and ammonium tetrathiomolybdate)

Every time I get told by a Dr. that there is nothing further they can do... I go in another direction.... That just tells me that what they are doing doesn't work!

optimist

I would try the lid scrubs at night and day with warm water on a q-tip. Try Systane, it's a fairly new over the counter drug by Alcon. People say its fantastic. Nutritionally, research says that fish oils in salmon may help with dry eyes.