Update on my dry eye/CPAP situation

[MrRandom]

Hi everyone. I had punctal plugs put in all 4 of my tear ducts. Unfortunately, that caused my eyes to water all day long and they became very irritated as did the skin around them, so I had the doctor take them back out.

At that time he gave me a trial of a new eye lubricating product called Lacrisert. They are small gel-like pellets that you stick under the eyelid and they last 12 hours. They did lubricate my eyes, but they blurred my vision. I slept the whole night without much problem. Unfortunately, I was traveling at the time and since it is a special order item I was unable to get the prescription filled during my trip.

I had left my home state to have surgery. While away in another state, in a very large city (I live very rural in my home state), my eye problem completely cleared up. Note that I *did* still feel the air from the CPAP traveling up my upper tear ducts and blowing onto my eyes, however while in this other state/city it did not cause enough irritation to bother me and I was able to sleep through the night with my CPAP with no need for any eye drops.

When I started for home, a little while after crossing the state line my eyes began to burn and feel dry. I stayed overnight about 200 miles from home and that night I was unable to sleep well because my eyes dried out and became so inflamed I had to get up twice to use wetting drops.

The next day my eyes were a bit dry but not bad, however, when I got within 50 miles of my home, they became completely dried out and inflamed.

Where I live there are tons and tons of trees and lots of vegetation. Where I was for my surgery, not much trees or vegetation at all, it was a large city. IMO the problem is pollen in the air compounded by the CPAP air traveling up my tear ducts.

So I guess this is good news and bad news. Good news is obviously the CPAP is not a complete bust. I can tolerate it provided I'm not in an environment filled with certain allergens. Perhaps whatever is pollinating right now will stop soon and that will be that. I have tried antihistimine drops in my eyes so far it has not worked. I have gone to the pharmacy today to order the Lacrisert, which will be here Monday. I'm going to go see the sleep doctor soon and possibly the eye doctor again to ask for advice on how to fix this problem.

So I thought I'd let everyone know. I know some people here have dry eye and this Lacrisert product might just help. It really does keep lubricating the eye with a fairly thick lubricant for about 12-14 hours. It's kind of expensive, tho, about $110 for a 30 day supply. Thankfully my insurance is covering with a $25 copay. If you want, I will let you know how it works out for me. I'm happy it's not really my CPAP causing the entire problem and hopefully I can work it out with the right meds or even moving to a larger city.

[pjwalman]

Wonderful news, MrRandom, that it's not the CPAP as the sole culprit. I hope whatever is in the air will exit soon and you'll be back to feeling decent!

Peggy

[sleepycarol]

I often end up taking Zyrtec and Singulair for allergies. I do not use the Singulair in the winter time and put off getting it this spring. My eyes for a couple of days drove me nuts. I, too, live rural with lots of trees and grass, plus crop farms. I made a trip to get the Singulair and eye problem cleared up.

Have you tried antihistimines? You may need more than one to help combat the problem.

[MrRandom]

Oh yes, I've been on every antihistimine known to man. Both singulair and zytec are completely useless. Some antihistimines I've tried actually made the dry eye worse. The unfortunate thing is that there really aren't that many truly different antihistimines on the market. When a pharmaceutical giant runs out of patent, they simply change a molecule or two and repatent effectively the same thing (search clarinex and claritin, as an example).

[sleepycarol]

Are you under the care of an allergist?

Have you tried the nasal rinses? They help allergies by flushing out the allergens out of your nasal passages.

Some allergist are better than others. If you haven't had success with one you might try another. Have you tried different combinations of anti-histimines together? One is not effective for me during spring, summer, and fall. I have to add others in combination to get relief. Many springs I end up having Zyrtec, Singulair, a steriod nasal spray, prescription allergy eye drops to combat my allergy symptoms and still am not 100% symptom free. Allergy shots, in my case, are a waste of money and do not help.

[ozij]

Thanks for the update, Mr. Random.
I remember you mentioned lots of filter systems at home - but can you keep your cpap machine in an an airtight container during the day? (Wipe it off with a dust collecting cloths (eg. Pledge D&G) in the morning and put it in the box?) I would say ditto for storing hose and mask, but those have to dry out sometimes, so I'm not sure that's feasible. And then, before bedtime wipe the area where you keep the cpap for the night, and before connecting hose and mask to your face, have the machine blow things out of the hose for a while?

I'm glad there's hope for when the pollen settles.

O.

[pd]

Just a suggestion if you think that pollen or other air borne contaminates are causing most of your problems and that the leaks are just the carriers; Respironics makes an inline bacterial filter that connects between the PAP and the hose. Using the fine disposable machine filter for the PAP and one of these disposable inline filters just might help. You also might consider one of the old pass over humidifiers (Oasis) that have the internal air baffles that maximize water exposure in an effort to help precipitate out any air borne junk.

Good luck.

[zorrro13]

Do you need to live where you live? One of the reasons I freelance out of Bangkok is that there are no trees (pretty much) so zero hay fever for me and I suffered terribly. The pollution may kill me first though