Healthy as I (eye) can be

I couldn't resist the play on words. 

As fire season gets underway here in Central Oregon a little PTSD is kicking in for most people I know that lived through the smoke of last year. The air quality was in the very unhealthy to hazardous zones for at least two full months. Just opening your front door would feel like you were standing one foot away from a camp fire and then your whole house would fill with smoke. The gym even put notices out about exercising in the smoke because try as they might smoke was sneaking in every single time a door opened to the outside, and in Bend, that's a lot. Friends forwent outside exercise or opted for the early hours when the air quality hadn't reached peak yuck. I did a few afternoon runs pushing the stroller on the not so bad days because my kids were going stir crazy and getting the oldest on a bike and making a couple miles around the neighborhood seemed better than nothing. I am here to admit it was a terrible idea! And I am not even sure about the long term effects it might have on our children but my eyes have suffered.

Our bodies have their own microbial balance. Babies that pass through the birth canal pick up a host of healthy bacteria that can set them up for life but this micro biome can be altered by taking antibiotics or catching a cold or experiencing stress and so forth. But did you know that your eyes also have their own micro biome and can be altered in ways that can make life fairly miserable. Coming from first hand experience I am going to show you my experience with the eye micro biome being knocked out of function. 

I feel like one of the lucky few that have an eye doctor that took my concerns seriously. I've been wearing contacts for 25 years. I've always been particular about keeping them clean (I do monthly replaceables these days) and taking them out every single night (except those times I did 24+ hour relays or paced someone through the night). In all these years I got pink eye one time at age 15 when pretty much everyone else on my basketball team got it. I've never had a stye or any other issues. 

In October of last year as the fire season was dying down my eye inflammation was increasing. I felt like I was getting pink eye as my eyes were irritated and producing greater secretions at night. I wash my face (including eyes) morning and night. A lump started to develop, and naturally I thought I would ask a nurse friend before making a Dr. appointment. She said it looked like a stye and I should do warm compresses. Fair enough. I looked up some stye care on Google and accepted the fact that it would take a few weeks. But it got worse. And the pain surged. Something was not right. I couldn't bend over because the pressure in my eye was so great. I went to urgent care. The manipulation of my lid caused it to release a ton of white oily oozy stuff. The Dr. gave me an eye drop for the pain. I lived in my glasses and hoped that I didn't look contagious. My eye got worse and then it was in the other eye. I was referred to Dr. Lewis, an ophthalmologist at In Focus . If I could insert an emoji with the heavens opening and glorious golden light pouring down, I would. While the Dr. at urgent care didn't seem keen to accept that anything other than a stye was happening in my eye, Dr. Lewis spent time asking me questions about my eye health and history. It was time for an antibiotic and also some talk about probiotics because of the antibiotic but also because new research is investigating causes of dry eye (I do not have but developed symptoms of as well as blepharitis) as I struggled to clear the meibomian gland blockage/infection which was being caused by my own imbalance of eye bacteria. Surprisingly, the "infection" in my eyes were not contagious but certainly from an overgrowth of my own staph bacteria likely thrown off from the air quality. However, it's important to note that stress in general can have an impact on health, including your eyes. Do we really need reminders to take care of ourselves? Yes, some of us do.

Just like a teenager that takes an antibiotic for acne, I am taking an antibiotic for eye bacteria. The first two months have gone well but my eyes are not completely repaired and I have one meibomian blemish that is being stubborn. I still have 3 to 6 months of the antibiotic use but my gut health is suffering and I am using Probiotics as a treatment, hopefully someday I will be able to use probiotics straight into the eye and perhaps skip the whole antibiotic usage. 

Below you will see three photos of inflammation. Some of the swelling really pooled in my lower lid and down into the upper cheek area. Sometimes the inflammation was in the inner lid. 

Do you suffer from dry eye, blepharitis, meibomian gland dysfunction or other eye issues? What have you done for treatment?

Any PTSD about forest fires?