Lacrilube eye ointment

[Catpin]

Hello! I was hoping for a bit of advice about looking after eyes - when I first got RHS my eye didn't completely shut at night so I used lacrilube every night and hycosan eye drops during the day. I am now lucky enough to be able to shut my eye, I still don't have a blink reflex, but I can make tears (not as much as before though). My question is, do I still need to be using the lacrilube at night? (I use hycosan all day). I appreciate I should ask an eye specialist but my optician tells me to keep using it to be on the safe side and I would like to stop as it makes my eyelid puff up and I can't wear makeup (silly as it sounds, being able to wear make up again would represent another step closer to recognising my previous self) so I was hoping for some idea of others' experiences.

Thanks!

Cat

[Jessic93]

Hi Cat,

I feel your pain on the make up front, I wear make up every day and have to carefully clean off any lacri that seeps onto my face, it seems to just spread every where!. I use a toner to clean off any excess around the eye before putting my face cream and make up on, it seems to do the trick. Personally I would still use a little at night to be safe until you see your dr, even just a little dab in the corner. I've never used hycosan, what is it? I use celluvisc during the day, I have to use it all the time though.

Best wishes,

Jess

X

[Catpin in reply to Jessic93]

Hi Jess - thanks for your reply! I'll give the toner a go, and maybe vary the amounts of lacrilube I squeeze into my eye. I wear liquid eye liner and it just refuses to adhere! I've been wearing it for about 25 years, so getting used to myself without it has been interesting....! Hycosan is a preservative free eye drop, none of my doctors told me what I should be using, I tried a few and this seems to work best for me, just found it in Boots!

Thanks so much for the advice,

Cat x

[Catpin in reply to Jessic93]

Hi Jess, just wanted to say a big thank you - I tried the toner and my make up went on just fine! A little bit of myself came back, thanks so much x

[Jessic93 in reply to Catpin]

This makes me so happy! Glad you've managed to get a bit more of your old self back xxx

[BaldieBaldwin]

Hi Cat,

That's pretty much the same as me, can't close my eye properly during the day, although I don't wear make-up what I get on well with is HYLO-Tears during the day and at night just one drop of HYLO-Forte (slightly thicker than the Tears, not that I've noticed mind), personally I never got on with the lacrilube as it was a pain both the mornings and to apply — both of the HYLO products have a decent dispenser as well

Andy

[Catpin]

Hi Andy

Cool, I'll give those a go, my eye is very tender in the morning so I'm wondering if it's just had enough of the lacrilube, I do find it weirdly addictive though. Thanks for your reply!

Cat x

[Purpletop]

Wow, I didn't realise that you can get to close the eye but not blink! My husband, whose facial palsy started 7 weeks ago, is using lacrilube too but he's been told by a facial palsy specialist to use Hylo tears during the day and Hylo Forte during the night.

He finds the inability to open his eye the most irritating of all, because you can't really protect the eye without it.

Do you mind my asking how long it took you to be able to close the eye? I know everyone is different but it would be good for him to hear some positive news, he's so down since this happened.

He's been offered Botox to close the eye fully but he's not keen on those - he just wants to get better on his own.

[Loskav in reply to Purpletop]

Hi, I am in my 9th week of recovery from BP. I was able to shut my eye in the shower (without using my hand/finger to do so) about 10days ago! I was very pleased by that, I stopped taping my eye shut at night about 3 weeks ago. I believe it can vary from person to person . If only everything else would recover now, my eye still doesn't always focus properly yet though!

[Catpin]

Hi! Thanks for the advice, I'm definitely going to try the Hylo tears and forte. Initially I found I could close my eyelid a little by rolling my eye up, which was after about four weeks but I suppose it wasn't til about 6/7 weeks that various little movements starting coming back, like squinting, which helped me shut the eye, and then maybe week 10 that a good eyelid movement came back. At week 16 I still don't have any strength in it, I can't wink and I can only blink if I make myself do it, I'm making a conscious effort to move everything as much as possible although sometimes it feels like you're pushing a brick wall! I hope your husband gets better soon, it is a horrid thing to happen, it's the people around you that make it bearable x