My eyes are very sore all the time. My eye... - PSP Association
My eyes are very sore all the time. My eye doctor says I don't blink enough. Has anyone found drops that work - I have tried the tear drops.
We thought that Geoff was being very lazy by not having his eyes open enough but the eye specialist said that the eyes go into spasm with PSP, he niow has botox around his eyes and it has made a huge difference. His eyes were also very sore and light sensitive so I encourage him to wear wrap around sunglasses even when indoors and that seems to help. Good luck and keep smiling x
From what I've read, the muscles that control the eyes grow increasingly weaker, causing among other things, decreased blinking, hence dry eyes. My sister's ophthalmologist instructed her to use Thera Tears preservative free eye drops 5 to 6 times a day. You can use as many drops as you want without any complications. Doesn't solve the problem but it certainly helps. There is a whole selection of lubricating eye drops out there, Maybe they would make a difference. Good luck !
Hi Lynda
Some sufferers with PSP will experience "Blepharospasm".... which is a condition in which there is sustained, forced, involuntary closing of the eyelids. Others experience the inability to close their eyes, that results in "dry eye" condition. While eye drops form a temporary relief (the action only lasts a short time), I think an ophthalmologist might also suggest the liquid (and white soft) paraffin formulations (with lanolin) like LacriLube (Ircal). They are longer lasting.
Others have noted the slow blink rate, that causes dry eye. The use of botox is sometimes needed, as suggested above. Hope you'll find these suggestions helpful.
Take care.
Mum used viscose tears via her GP and this helped but she felt it did make her eyes feel a bit blurry! In a toss up between blurry and sore she preferred a bit blurry. We used dark glasses in sunny rooms , lamps rather than main lights and curtains pulled some of the way across in the bedroom on very lit up days. We had the same response from an optician pre-diagnosis-that mum wasn't blinking enough. It would be good if opticians were included in a need to know about PSP symptoms as in Mum;s case it would have been helpful towards earlier diagnosis because it was mums eyes that bothered her first onc the falls had already started.
My Mum uses Lacrilube which has helped. Her eyes are still sore but it has stopped the dryness and redness.
Maggie uses "Isop to Alkaline" it is prescribed by the doctor and its caused by blinking less and very slow. She is ver light sensitive and uses reactive prescription glasses when out. Hope the answer helps.
Hi
My dad has the same trouble he gets isopto plain (hypromellose ) 0.5 % drops from the doctor, they work great for him as he can use them all day when needed ,hope this is of some help x
The GP can prescribe eye drops but you can also try bathing them at least twice a day with a weak solution of baby wash and a drop of oil . This well help stop them drying out .
When the eyes are tired , picky /sore , place cold damp tea bags over the eye . works like a dream . The old remedies are very often the best .
It could be that you suffer from blepharitis. see also the NHS website on the subject:
nhs.uk/Conditions/Blepharit...
Many people suffer from it, my wife also. It is very annoying and there is very little that can be done about it. However, my wife saw an eye specialist at the hospital as her optician recommended some laser surgery thinking that her tear duct was restricting the flow of the liquid. The eye specialist checked this out and rejected her verdict and instead recommended the following:
Use boiled water and heat it to about 50 degrees. Then dissolve in it a quantity of sodium bicarbonate BP. The dip some cotton wool into the liquid and move it across closed eyes from the inside to the outside. five times at the top of the eye and five times at the bottom of the eye. do this treatment for each eye. Make sure the cotton wool is drenched sufficiently with the sodium bicarbonate solution. Try to use the solution as hot as possible.
Then use a MGD eye bag. you can buy this either from 'The EyeBAg' company:
Or easier, buy it from Amazon: amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_no...
After that use eye drops. The product to use is Celluvisc which again you can buy from Amazon:
amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_no...
Buy the 1% w/v solution.
Celluvisc does not contain any preservatives contrary to most other products. it comes in single dose containers, so there is no risk of contamination. It is very important to use a product that does not contain any preservatives, because they often cause irritation and / or sensitisation. So stay away from any of those.
The above procedure you can repeat two to three times per day if necessary. Or whenever the eyes feel sore. It all depends on the severity of the condition.
It has worked wonders for my wife and finally resolved a problem that she was struggling with before and when she used all sorts of eye drops that Boots of other pharmacies recommended. And none of them worked.
Hope this helps.
By the way, blepharitis has nothing to do with PSP, it is a condition many people suffer from
Mom used Restasis drops prescribed by and opthomologist two times per day (the maximum dosage) along with lubricating eyedrops four times a day.
I think there may be confusion between blepharitis and eyelid apraxia?
My husband has eyelid apraxia, his eyes just close involuntarily. He is having Botox and has lindy loop glasses.
The Botox means his eyes don't totally close at night, and that was causing more dryness. He has artificial tears, and now he sleeps in a sleep mask, which has really helped.
He is extremely light sensitive. Wrap around dark glasses help, but we now have blackout blinds in the living room.
EYES WIDE SHUT!
Lest we forget that the 'S' in PSP ;'SUPRANUCLEAR' is an opthalmic term, it comes around and visits PSP patients eyes sooner or later. Many of the replies recommend some form of liquid tears which will help.My late bride used eyedrops that had been prescribed to her when her PSP was for years being wrongly treated as Sjorgrens Syndrome aka "Dry eyes Syndrome ". She also had Botox injections round the eyes twice which were very effective for about three months and changed her outlook enormously. Worth trying.
But more importantly I would like to pick up on daughterNo1's message where she says "it would be good" if
Eye Doctors and Opticians could be brought into the loop of raising PSP's profile within the Healthcare Community.
Not only good, In my view it's absolutely ESSENTIALl! It's a MUST. And I am sure our PSPA's Sharon Shillerstrom will put them right on top of her list. When my bride was a patient in the Neuroscience Dept.of a University Hospital having a multitude of tests to find out what her weird gait,constant falls and double vision could come from,had the Eye Doctor she consulted known about PSP we'd have found out two years earlier. So would the Chief Neurologist!
On my brides very last visit to another University Hospital for her eye problems I tried to persuade the Neurologist to invite the students in the Opthalmo Dept. to see and talk to someone with PSP.
Unfortunately to no avail ,his reply was "What for? They can't help her". The point he didn't take was to let these budding Eye Doctors find out they can't do anything for certain patients....because it could be PSP. QED.
So please keep those eye drops flowing,all you carers. Every little drop helps keep your loved ones comfortable!
Best,b
I have v dry eyes as I do not blink enough especially when using the computer.
I have a good Optometrist but have bee signed off at the hospital as despite having the Psp dx s they r no longer interested as the eye pressure is ok again
What a short sighted view to take " "!!! I'm v short sighted so that s. a joke
Lol jill
We found that optrex actimist 2in1 works.
Thank you all for replying. You have given us some good suggestions to try out and I really appreciate it. I will keep you posted on how it goes.
When you don't blink enough, you can possibly benefit from an application that does blink training or you can also think of it as a kind of biofeedback training for blinking more.
The application is called VisionProtect, and it uses your real time blink rate to notify if it falls below a healthy level. This way, over time, you can learn to blink a healthy amount.
You can download VisionProtect from here:
