The “Hill of Sorrow” and how getting better can sometimes feel like getting worse…
As a dry eye specialist, I can attest that the symptoms of dry eye disease can be wildly variable from patient to patient. The scariest patients are the ones with advanced dry eye disease and related ocular surface diseases, who have little to no symptoms. This is most often related to the slow onset of this often insidious disease. I like the analogy of adding a daily single straw to a camel’s back. From one day to the next, the camel is largely unaware he (or she) is carrying any straw at all - until one day (perhaps from a small stumble - in this analogy - but now think of what a stumble could be to a dry eye - perhaps a little allergy, or minor infection, a surgery, a new glaucoma medication or just staring at a digital screen a little too long), now the camel falls down and can’t get up again. Even worse is when the corneal nerves that serve the surface become slowly damaged from a lack of healthy tears (or other diseases like diabetes or infections like shingles). Now, as the tears get worse and the surface gets drier and more damaged, the eyes actually start to feel “better” because they are getting numb from the damage. These patients may feel worse as we start to improve their tears, and heal their surface and nerves. This can explain why some patients are being told by their doctor that they are getting better even as they feel they are getting worse. Fortunately most will eventually feel better as they get better (this has been dubbed the “Hill of Sorrow” by Dr. White of Sky Vision). The short answer is that dry eye is a complex disease with an equally complex range of findings and symptoms. Best to find a good dry eye specialist and work closely with them until you get better - and then work even harder to stay that way. Caught early, it can be pretty simple to take care of, but caught late it can be a really tough road to fix.
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Jaccoma, call Excellent Vision at either of these two dry eye offices:
(1) 155 Griffin Rd, Portsmouth, NH 03801 (603) 574-2020
(2) 3 Woodland Rd, STE 112 Stoneham, MA 02180 (near Boston) (781) 321-6463