Finally a Diagnosis

So for the past three months my eyes have been red and I've been trying to figure out why. I went to my family care doctor in July and he said that it was pink eye and gave me some eye drops. I did the eye drops faithfully and it cleared up for a week or so and then came back. I called my opthamologist that specializes it retinal diseases and they said that they don't take care of diseases in the front of the eye. So I went to the optometrist and he said that they just look dry and gave me some drops for dry eyes. This didn't work either. So I went back to the family care doctor and this time he thought it was allergies. I started taking allergy medication, but that didn't help at all. So fed up and not knowing where else to turn, I bought some Visine drops at Target that get the red out. This would help for about 10 minutes and then the red would just come back. At this point I was so frustrated. I woke up Wednesday morning and looked in the mirror and not only were my eyes red, but my right eye lid was swollen and my eye sight was getting more and more blurry. So I called my opthamologist back and asked if there was any way they could see me. They said again that they don't deal with stuff like this, but that a NORMAL opthamologist does. Excuse me, a normal opthamologist? I had no idea that they were specialists or I would have called another opthamologist 3 months ago. Anyway, they referred me to one and I called and made an appoinment for 2:40 that afternoon in San Clemente which is about 25 minutes away.

I dropped the kids off with my mom and headed down to San Clemente for my appointment. At lunch Jon had showed me on a map how to get there so it seemed simple enough. I realized that my cell phone was dead on the way there, but again felt confident that I knew where I was going so didn't think that would be a problem. So I headed South on the 5 freeway and was looking for my exit. I was sure that each time I saw another sign listing the exits that mine would be on it, but alas, it never showed up. As soon as I realized that my exit didn't exist it was too late. I was now past San Clemente and apparently there isn't another exit until Camp Pedleton which was 15 minutes down the freeway. I was now stuck on the freeway and was near tears I was so frustrated. I finally got off the first exit that I could and turned around and headed 15 minutes back up the freeway. I got off at the first San Clemente exit and pulled into a 7-Eleven to use the pay phone. I looked next to me and there was a scary looking guy so I pulled out and found another pay phone. I called the doctor's office and explained what had happened and they were really nice about it. They gave me directions and told me to still come in. So at 3:30 I finally walked into the office and was able to see the doctor.

He looked in my eyes and right away said that I have MGD (Meibomian Gland Dysfunction) which is some sort of dry eye disease that is common in fair skinned blondes. The treatment is to do hot compresses on my eyes several times a day to unclog the oil ducts, to use lubricating drops and to take an antibiotic eye drop. He said that I may have to repeat this every month for a while until it gets better, but that it will get better. I can already tell a difference and am just really hoping that this is the right diagnosis and that I can finally have white eyes again!

Tonight I was sitting on the couch with a warm wash cloth on my eyes and Nathan saw me and wanted to have one on his eyes! It was pretty funny!