Dry eye, CPAP, and Speedo swim goggles

Hi guys, been a while since I checked in, but still using CPAP and my S9,
about 3 years into it now, and it has greatly helped my life.

As we all know it takes a lot of support, help, advice, and tips to make CPAP work
(and sometimes I think an engineering degree helps too).

My latest difficulty might help some, so I thought a post was in order.
And if anyone else has had similar issues I would love to hear about it.

I developed dry-eye-like symptoms within 3 months of starting CPAP.
I would wake up in the mornings and my eyes would be filled with gook like I had pink-eye.
The worst part was my vision started getting blurry in my left eye and I developed a double-vision-like
thing, a faint ghost image, especially noticable at night.

Went to an opthamologist and he said my oil glands might not be working properly
causing my eyes to dry out at night. So I started using nighttime ointment before bed,
pretty much overkill on oil there.

But my vision still continued to decline, I am having double vision now in both eyes.
My belief is that the faint breeze CPAP causes around the eyes causes the eyes to dry
out at night, or makes an existing condition worse.

The point is I can feel the breeze from my mask at night, and I notice that since I sleep
on my right side, the left eye gets more breeze, and it is the one with the greater vision problems.

So, not wanting my vision to get any worse, and hoping to actually restore my vision,
I started looking around for what people do when they sleep with dry-eye.
And it turns out that there are many products available,
all of which cover the eyes, some of which contain moistened sponges,
and others are goggle-like that you can see through.

So I bought a few pairs of speedo swim goggles, adapted the strap so it wasn't too tight to sleep with,
it took both straps from two pairs to make one long enough to have no tension.
I also cut some holes in them, I read you should not deprive your eyes of oxygen for prolonged periods of time,
good to know since my goal is to heal, not cause more harm.

The good news is the goggles I bought fit nicely under the CPAP mask.
And when I woke up this morning the goggles were fogged, a good sign.

But one night wasn't enough to cure 3 yrs of accumulated vision problems,
so I'll repost when I have had a few days to see if my vision improves.
I hope the damage isn't permanent, I still have decent vision in one eye
and the other eye comes and goes, some days are better than others, hoping it can heal itself
given some time without the dry stress at night.

The downside is nobody should ever be forced to see what I look like with goggles and a CPAP mask.

Well isn't this an eerie post. As I sit here wiping gook away from my left eye. I woke up with it swollen and red and gooky and it's persisted all day. Certainly wouldn't call it DRY, but it does make me wonder (after reading your post) if last night I somehow got into a funky position and blew air on it all night. It's 3 pm and it's still not cleared up. And I did wash it out thoroughly in the shower this morning.

Keep us posted on your swim goggles experiment. You know that's gonna benefit more than just you. Thanks for posting it!!!

Cheers,
B.

If there is a breeze in your eyes then your mask is leaking. You might want to try nasal pillows or any mask that does not come across the bridge of your nose.

I have the same issue with masks across my nose. I could have sworn my quatro did not leak near my eyes but I noticed my eyes would be very cold if I teared up. With the hybrid I don't have this problem at all.

I took a pair of swim goggles, replaced the strap with stretchy swimsuit fabric (like on the Onyix and Quartz eye shields)
and then I used a very small hole punch to make a tiny hole in the flange near the outside part of each eyebrow,
(just to eliminate suction on my eyes, without allowing airflow from my cpap)
My Wisp has good enough seal to not need the goggles, but they are very welcome when I wear my Elan.
Note to Babette: I use artificial tears when I wake up, and carry them in my purse in the dry season. Cheap, and effective.

I needed some goggles like that but wanted them black-out style. I'm still getting used to them but it looks promising. Check this link about Onyix goggles from the Dry Eye Shop:

http://www.dryeyeshop.com/onyixquartz-s ... -c101.aspx

EDIT: My eyes were getting too moist inside the Onyix goggles so I used a hole punch (for punching holes in notebook paper) and made the one hole in each side furthest from my nose... kind of nine and three o'clock, if that makes sense. They seem perfect now and mostly I don't even realize I am wearing them.

ChunkyFrog, I tried that this AM. But it's not DRY, it's swollen and weeping. More liquid seems superfluous at this point.

I think I might try putting a cold pack on it tonight when I get home. After I go to Yoga class and completely squick everyone out. BWAHAHAHA!

Babette wrote:ChunkyFrog, I tried that this AM. But it's not DRY, it's swollen and weeping. More liquid seems superfluous at this point.

I think I might try putting a cold pack on it tonight when I get home. After I go to Yoga class and completely squick everyone out. BWAHAHAHA!

Not sure that what you have IS "Dry Eye".

But the symptom for "Dry Eye" is actually wetness.
i.e. the eyes try to produce more & more tears to overcome the dryness but never succeed. Therefore the "wetness".

Yeah, that's what made me sit up and notice this post.
B.

My mother has Dry Eyes and she has no wetness in her eyes except for the drops, gel, and Lacret's that she puts in. She has a really bad case of it though. She doesn't wear a cpap though. Her eyes have yellowish gunk that comes out of them and sometimes her eyes never really clear up good enough for her to see very well.

Hi, I have found Tranqileyes to be wonderful in protecting my eyes from any air leaks
http://www.dryeyeshop.com/tranquileyes- ... -p129.aspx

In my case when I get up to go to the BR I just wet my eyes with some faucet water on my fingers and rub it lightly on the closed eyes.

I go see an ophthalmologist every 6 month and I have none of the following maladies:


From: Consumer Reports on Health, Aug.2012

My side question: can Omega3 fish oil also help with DryMouth?

Well it's been over a week, and my eyes are starting to improve.

I should be seeing an opthamologist soon in any case.

At this point I am becoming convinced that I do have dry-eye of some kind
and the CPAP made it worse, so I am not blaming CPAP therapy for the condition,
but I do need to take steps, and the goggles are working well. I wish I had thought of it sooner though.

I hear that some dry-eye sufferers resort to wearing goggles all day long to reduce evaporation,
I hope it doesn't come to something like that, but I'll do what is needed to see well.

It is very nice that I am starting to be able to see clearly out of my left eye again.

My mom tends to sleep through leaks, so she gets dry eyes. She started wearing goggles to bed, and that cleared up her issue. I wake up to just about any leak, so I usually end up with an almost zero leak line. Fortunately, most leaks start as I start the machine, so most are corrected easily before I go to bed.

I have had dry eye syndrome for many years prior to my apnea diagnosis. I did various otc drops during the day and nighttime ointments prior to sleep as well as trying various herbs and fish and flax oils. What has helped me the most has been Restasis - one drop in each eye once in the morning and again at night.

It turns out my main problem is my meibomian glands are not working as well as they used to.
It is called Meibomian Gland Dysfunction, or MGD, and not much research or treatment is available:

This is the kind of stuff I find in the medical literature:
http://www.aao.org/publications/eyenet/ ... cornea.cfm

Notice that MGD is the most common cause of dry-eye, yet most therapies assume lack of liquid,
not lack of oil.

The meibomian glands secrete oil, tears are actually a 3-layer film over the eye, the top layer is a lipid
(or fatty oily) layer, with the aqueous (water) layer underneath. Lack of either enough water or enough oil
will cause dry-eye symptoms.

Something they don't tell you (at least not in plain english),
is if my eyes get dry for a while (such as overnight with CPAP), it seems to damage the cornea,
causing blurry vision, and this seems to take a while to heal, simply rewetting doesn't fix the blurry vision,
I have to keep my eyes well oiled and watered for many days for my vision to recover.
So my original goggles thing was a big step in the right direction, but I still have to use the
nightime ointment for best eye protection.

Some of the stuff I have read talks about cornea scarring, and the only cure is a cornea transplant,
I don't think I am that far gone yet, or at least I hope not, but if my vision doesn't fully
clear up I may be looking at permanent damage.

This link was the most helpful one in terms of a treatment suggestion that actually works for me.

http://www.dry.org/petrolatum.html