red eye veins

[niteyorkie]

I have many red veins in the white part of my eyes. They seem to be getting more numerous. I no longer wear my contacts, use artifical tears, and Restasis.
Has anyone else had experience with this? I know that ocular rosacea can lead to vision loss. Has anyone had vision loss with rosacea? What is the best way to prevent this? I am very nervous as I seem to be getting more of these veins. I am also confused about doing warm compresses as it seems to make my rosacea worse.
Any suggestions?

[IowaDavid]

I REALLY hate my ocular rosacea. You can do laser for your face, RLT for your face, etc.

Have you used eyelid scrubs? Those help quite a bit.

I'm annoyed that I've tried to go off of antibiotics, because my face can handle it, but my eyes can't due to the anti-inflammatory systemic effect of antibiotics on ocular rosacea. :(

I'm trying to work out using Evening Primrose Oil (High gamma linolienic acid content) that brings down ocular inflammation, with a combination of RLT and lid scrubs, but I haven't quite found it.

I may try out Patanol, just as I really don't want to be on antibiotics long term.

[jennfran]

I thought antibiotics are for ocular rosacea? I went to my new Derm, which again was not very good but he said he wanted me to see a eye Dr. for the ocular rosacea. He said that they treat ocular rosacea with antibiotics which he said is very treatable. Of course I do understand that Dr.'s do not have a clue about this disease. My eyes are not red at all but my eyelids do get red, my eyeballs are only get dry at times. He feels I have mild rosacea but do not want this to get worse, as I do not have any redness to eyeballs. I do lid scrubs daily and take flax seed and borage oil which I hear is good for rosacea. I only use wetting drops for the dry eyes and been taking zyrtec which has kept inflammation of eyelids down, although my rosacea is very good now but feel that is because I do not have my heat on inside due to summer.

Can we do laser on our eyes if they get bad? I only say this because people get laser on their eyes for eye correction and glaucoma? Sorry if silly question...Jenn

[niteyorkie]

My eye doc has talked about doing doxycycline. I took minocycline a long time ago and had a small rash from it. So I have been a little scared to try doxycycline. I told my derm about the rash to mino, so he recommended erythromycin. I didn't tell my eye doc about the rash, because I knew he wouldn't write for doxy and I don't want to never get to try it.
I am going to try to get a little more compliant with the lid scrubs.

[PA Dancer]

My eyes have been as you described, mostly during allergy season, and if I wore my contacts too long.

From what I understand, the vessells in your eyes are there to get oxygen. If your eyes are getting red when wearing contacts, maybe ask your doc for a different for a different type of lens. (I only wear my for a few hours at a time)

I think vision loss only happens when you don't take care of your eyes. Keep up with your eye doc and regular checkups.

I got scared a few weeks ago driving in my car. I was seeing double vision out of one eye. I went right to my eye doc, and he didn't see anything wrong with my eye. We figured it was from dry eye.

Good luck,
Ann

[Sdavis]

I know this post is old but I took doxycycline
and the whites of my eyes were the most white they had ever been! However I do not want to take that stuff for very long so I only took the one prescription and did not get a free fill.

[namfr]

Hi there,

I am curious to know what dosage of doxycycline you take to clear eyes that have red veins.
My eyes conditions have worsened since a few weeks while I am already on a long term 50mg/day doxycycline routine.
I am getting a lot of red veins in my eyes, and the interior bottom corner of my eyes display flesh rather than my actual eye. (sorry for the description)

I wonder if going to 100mg/day for a few weeks could help or not.

[bentherebefore]

Hi there,

I am curious to know what dosage of doxycycline you take to clear eyes that have red veins.
My eyes conditions have worsened since a few weeks while I am already on a long term 50mg/day doxycycline routine.
I am getting a lot of red veins in my eyes, and the interior bottom corner of my eyes display flesh rather than my actual eye. (sorry for the description)

I wonder if going to 100mg/day for a few weeks could help or not.

Possible. Low dose has been shown to be just as effective for P&Ps, but for ocular, it is possible that high dose might be better. There have been no studies regarding this, but try higher dose to see if it works.

I, too, have had ocular symptoms of late. I have been on Restasis for over a month.

[LavenderVA]

I am wondering - anybody still feel dryness on eyes after taking Restasis for 1-2 month? What your eye doctor told you about bloodshot in the eye?

This my history,

Jan 08 - I did not feel dry eye at all but just the soreness bothered me on the left eye. Went to see eye dr and told her that I was suspecting this was related to skin rosacea).
diagnosis: dye eyes caused by MDG and she saw excess oil sticking on my eyelids.
treatment: steroid eye drop for 5 days; and then started Restasis in the middle of Jan + Warm compressing.

follow up visit on the 1st week of Restasis – felt sore on right eye and started to see some bloodshot on eyes which worried me
diagnosis: dry eye casued by MDG. Bloodshot are caused by irritation, bloodshot are not dilated vessels in eyes.
treatment: continue on Restasis + Warm compressing

follow up visit on the 3rd week of Restasis - still felt sore from time to time during the day; sometime left eye and sometime the right one. Bloodshot remained the same
diagnosis: situation is being improved and less oil were sticky on eyelids
treatment: continue on Restasis + Warm compressing

I have been on Restasis for 7 weeks by now. However, I started to feel dry on eyes on the 4th week and I saw more veins on the eyes last night after shower.

I am not sure if I am on the right track. I trust my eye dr but want to see what you guys experience on the Restasis.

BTW, I am on erythromycin and maybe it is because of its poor efficienciness on calming down the inflammation on the eye surface that's why I got more red eyes????

Crystal

[Melissa W]

Hi Crystal,

Why don't you add preservative free rewetting drops to the mix with your restasis and warm compresses? Every hour or two instill some preserv-free drops to help with your dry eye. You might just need a little extra help. It does take restasis at least a month to start working and maybe a little longer with some people.

I would also suggest you begin using lid scrubs at night to gently cleanse your lid margins. That will help clear up your lid glands that may be adding to your problem. You could buy pre-moistened lid scrubs like Theralid or Ocusoft. Quick and easy and as an added benefit it removes eye makeup like a charm!

Also, not sure if I mentioned this to you but try to get some healthy oils in your diet like fish oil, omega 3. Best to get from the fish itself vs supplements.

Lastly, you may want to consider using a humidifier in the winter to add some moisture to the air. It is a very low humidity usually in winter especially when compared to the summer months.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Best wishes,
Melissa

[LavenderVA]

Melissa,

Thanks much for these hints and advice, which is really thorough!

I did instill the TheraTears preserv-free drops as you suggested in other posts if I feel dry. If my eyes feel ok sometime then I skip the eye drop. The interesting thing is that the part where I feel dry are exactly where the visible veins are – most of the veins showing up on the outer and inner corners of the eyes, not on the central of the pupil.

The bloodshot eyes are bothering me as I look like “crying”. The ocular problem is so hard to handle than the skin problem. :-( My eye dr said the visible veins are caused by the irritation of the debris (combination of MDG and dye eye), is that true? In that case, they should disappear if MDG is under control by Restasis. I am just worried they are dilated blood vessel, and if that's the case the only help I guess would be steroid eye drop or IPL. I heard some people saying IPL did help their ocular problem and bloodshot eyes – I am wondering how. Maybe facial IPL reduced the inflammation of the eye lids as well?

Many people found it helpful to have lid scrubs as I saw in other posts. I asked my eye dr why she would not recommend lid scrubbing. She said most of my lid inflammation are deep under the lids(not on the lash or the edge of the lids) so she did not think lid scrubbing would help in my case. Have you or anybody heard this theory? But sometime when I feel “heavy” on the upper lid and feel like oil sticking on the lid (doctor explained that is because of lid swelling not the gland oil), I would use the Q-tip to touch the upper/lower eye lids and feel much better afterwards. Yes you are right, Melissa. I should continue to add lid scrubbing into my daily routine as it can only help and does hurt anyway.

I found fish oil supplement would trigger a flare up on my face, so I take ground Flaxseed(1 tbsp daily) instead. You can not believe that I bought a 7 lbs salmon fish the other day just trying to get more omega 3 from that. Poor fish….:-)

I am planning to switch my antibiotic from erthyromycine to Oracea, to see if Oracea can be more effective to clear the ocular rosacea. My eye dr said OK to switch as that is not impacting my restasis treatment. I will keep posted if Oracea can do a better job on eyes and skin.

Crystal

p/s: it is a long post to share the info also as my diary. Every day is a brand new day for Rosacean! :-)

[Melissa W]

Hi Crystal,

I think that Oracea may be a good switch for that. Let us know how you do with the Oracea for your eye symptoms.

I definitely think doing the lid scrubs is a good idea as you were noticing a difference when you cleaned your lid margins. Most people have more than one thing going on ie MGD AND dry eyes AND blepharitis. So many problems need more than one treatment. That does make them challenging for sure!

The image of the 7 lb. salmon put a smile on my face LOL. I love all living creatures and tried to go vegan for about a couple of years a while back and it was too tough for my body to handle so I now eat fish but no chicken, turkey, pork, red meat etc... But I still feel sad sometimes when I think of the poor fish that gave its life up for me to eat :( Anyway, I digress.

Flaxseed should be helpful also. Stay away from any supplements that you have a negative reaction to. It seems a lot of people (I'm just discovering) do not react well to fish oil or omega 3 supplements. I wonder if it is due to preservatives in the supplements.

I wonder if vit D3 might be helpful for you. If I have time I'll try to find the link for you. I am taking 2000 IU of vit D3 and I am not having any adverse reactions. Our bodies need more D3 than was previously thought.

Good luck Crystal!
Melissa

[LavenderVA]

Melissa,

Are you taking vit D3 on top of multi-vitamins? Yes women usually get benefit of talking Vit D. I am interested in hearing more about the vit D3 benefit. I do take multi-vitamins as daily routine.

Yes dr did said I have “MGD AND dry eyes AND blepharitis”. You are definitely right. So basically lid scrubbing is for blepharitis?

It is very healthy to eat more fishes than meat. I guess the fishes would feel happy in any case. :-) Regarding some of us reacted negatively to the fish oil, my guess is that as fish oil/omega 3 are usually good for heart by promoting blood circulation, it makes blood circulation on face also flow faster than usual which would cause problem for us – I am just guessing. Before I developed Rosacea, I did not have any problem in taking fish oil/omega 3.

Crystal

[Alba]

Dear Melissa:

As usual you are heaps of help.

Im having the same problem as Crystal, funny mine started also in January 2008. Optometrist gave me Restasis.

I’ve been on 10mg twice a week accutane for the past 3 months, and I think this is making my eye situation worse. Tomorrow I think im going to tell my derm im going to have to cut my dose from 10mg twice a week to once a week. Yesterday I saw an optomologist and he said I have blepharitis eye lid inflammation. Its really bad, he put me on doxiclyne 10 mg 2x a day. Need to pick up medicine today. I hope it helps along with warm compresses, lubricating eye drops and steroid eye drops.

The 10mg dose twice a week accutane really wasn’t helping me much with the flushing. I don’t really have bumps this is good but the flushing and heat on my cheeks is horrible. Who knows maybe the 10mg once a week will help better with the flushing.

Question: Last night I used the ocusoft cleaning pads and this morning I m sore on top of my eyelids by the eyelashes. Do you know of an ointment for the top eye lid. I will try to remember to ask my derm tomorrow. I had been putting the stye ointment on top of the eyelid for the past week. But last night I didn’t use it. I am also using eye ointment at night since I sleep with a fan directly on my face otherwise I would not be able to sleep. Could the ointment inside the eye cuase or worsen the blepharitis. I know you say you are not a doctor but you do know a lot from experience. I think we all here on this forum know more than the derms they don’t really care but we are the ones suffering.

[Alba]

Crystal:

The opthamologist gave me a sample of lubricating eye drops called Optive i just started to use them last night. they do help but i am still using them every 10 minutes or so. You can get these over the counter.

Alba

[LavenderVA]

Alba,

Sorry to hear that you have the same problem, but glad that the eye drop helps. My opthamologist also gave me a bunch of lubricating eye drops in different brands for experimenting. Among them, I found the TheraTears preserv-free drops make my eyes feel better than other brands. Warm compresses and eye drops together did make bloodshot eyes less visible.

But sometimes the eye redness is more visible after taking showers, meaning the redness are casued the dilated blood vessels??

Alba, if you started Resasis in Jan then you have you been on Restasis for 3 months by now. Do you think Restasis is making eye problem improved? I started Restasis in Jan and I am still on it. Interesting is that my left eye did not progress that much in terms of redness, but the right eye is getting a little worse comparing with 3 months ago especially around the team duct( the inner corner). I am on the 3rd week of Oracea now so I am hoping Oracea can kick in sometime soon……

For some reason, I am suspecting the oral antibiotic could make the eye more dry, therefore more easily get irritated.

Be gentle with your eye lids!

Crystal

[Melissa W]

Hi Alba,
I am sorry about all the problems you are having right now.
Regarding the soreness on your upper eyelids: do you think it was caused by the ocusoft lid scrubs? What kind of discomfort are you having? Is it like a stye popping up, a tender feeling? Is it on both lids? I would recommend a very gentle use of the ocusoft or sterilid lid scrubs which is also very good if you find the ocusoft is causing this problem.

It is a good idea to protect your eyes with an ointment especially since you do use a fan at night which will dry out your eyes even more. I like any preservative-free ointment that you can get OTC. Celluvisc is a good one.

You are already on steroid eyedrops right? That should be for short term BTW and make sure you have your eye doc check your intraocular pressures while you are on it as some people are steroid responders and can get elevated IOP from the drops. Another (rare) side effect is cataracts in susceptible individuals so make sure you get that checked periodically as long as you are on the steroid eyedrops.

To answer your question about the ointment worsening your bleph anything that clogs your glands theoretically can cause a problem but if you are cleansing your lid margins (removing the excess bacteria that clog the glands) and then applying the ointment (is this an antibiotic ointment you are using BTW?) it should be fine. Unless you are having an allergic reaction to whatever the ointment is. What are you using exactly?

My advice is to continue using the preserv-free rewetting drops and apply liberally and frequently. At night cleanse your lid margins and apply a lubricating ointment (preserv free) to the inside of your eyes and apply whatever else your doc Rx'd and get checked to make sure you are not having a negative reaction to any of the drops/meds. Low dose oral antibiotics do help some people because it is anti-inflammatory and for some people who have dry eyes it is because of inflammation. Remember there are many causes of dry eyes. It is not as straightforward as we might think (but then what is LOL) but different treatments may all help in some way and it is just trying to find the combo that works for you.

Also, we are now in allergy season and this can exacerbate dry eyes. Are your eyes itchy at all? If so, you may benefit from an allergy eyedrop like Pataday which is a once a day application. Oral antihistamines can definitely dry out the tear film.

Please let me know how it goes for you.
I hope you get relief soon!!

Best wishes,
Melissa

[Alba]

Dear Crystal and Melissa:

Sorry to respond till now, I still dont know how to get arround this board. I post in several places, then I dont remember exactly where.

I do think the restasis are helping. Last week I went to see what I had been told was an eyelid opthamologist specialist. This was around wednesday last week. So I get to the dr.'s office, fill out all the paperwork. Oh i should mention that when i confirmed the appoinment i specifically ask the receptionist what kind of specialist it was and she said he only treats patients with upper and lower lid problems/deseases. so i thought to myself well perfect since i was told by the opthamologist about a month ago that i had blepharitis. anyways i finally get in to see the specialist he starts to ask all questions then i tell him im there specifically for the blepharitis and he says oh sorry im an pretty much a cosmectic eye lid surgeon opthomologist! gee thanks alot for nothing! so he told me he couln't really help me, said that the blepharitis was caused by my rosacea. so time wasted! $20 copay wasted! and i hope my insurance covers it, but i got his name from the website of my insurance under opthamologist. but one i think good thing he said to me was, he said that he didnt see how the over the counter night ointment would help me since he didnt think that the fan on my face was causing my problem. so that night i didnt use the ointment or the night eye gel. I just put systane drops b/4 going to sleep. well the next morning i again used the systane drops, then took a shower, applied my makeup then i applied the restasis since you should not apply any other eyedrop after restasis for at least 15 minutes. funny for the rest of the day which was thursday i felt okay with my eyes yes i used the systane and optive eye drops to rewet my eyes but only maybe 6 times during the entire day. Then the rest of the days since then i have not used the oinment and my eyes have felt a little better. then yesterday my eyes were more dry during the day so last night i used the oinment b/4 bed. i woke up okay but then i applied the usual the systane then b/4 i left the house for work i applied the restasis. but since then my eyes have been dry, irritated and bothering again like last monday. i think the oinment or eye gel during the night really makes me worse the next day. i will try tonight just to use b/4 bedtime the systane and nothing else. lets see how i do tomorrow.

also my eyelids mostly my left woke up today more swollen than usual.

the warm compresses really do help with this condition, and thank you so much Melissa for all your advise, you are just missing that paper that says you are a doctor..

the problem with the warm compresses is that my upper eyelids are so irritated from the compresses i just dont know what to apply there? the compresses help the blepharitis but irritate so much the skin on the eyelids.

this doctor i mentioned told me to go to bascom palmer hospital they are here in miami and specialize only on eyes. this is where my daughter who is 24 had her lasik surgery last year. they are the best here in miami and are considered the best in the U.S. by some. oh if i had known about the dry eyes all that i am going through right now i would have never given my daughter the money to have the lasik. we gave her the surgery as a graduation gift for her associates last year. She is now working on her bachelors. But knowing what I know now and that you can have this bad effect from lasik OMG that is awful. Thankfully it’s a year later and she doesn’t have that side effect. She uses the rewetting drops b/4 going to sleep and sometimes in the morning. But otherwise thankfully to God she is well.

I just looked in the mirror and my left eyelid is swollen more looks like if maybe im forming a stye. I wish I was home so I could be applying the warm/hot compresses.

Well than you all for all the advise and sharing all experiences. Good luck. At least I can say that im about 50% better I have seen an improvement. Maybe it’s the doxycycline, or that I m off the accutane.

There was a time when i thought i would never feel even 10% better.

[Melissa W]

Alba,

I'm glad to hear you are doing better. As for the irritated eyelids because of the warm compresses this might sound crazy but try using cool compresses after the warm ones. The warm ones will open up any clogging of the glands and loosen any debris and the cool ones will relieve the inflammation and swelling. It should help.

Best wishes,
Melissa

[Alba]

Thank you Melissa, good idea.

May I ask you what eye cream do you use? My eye area is so dry lately.

Alba

[curlygrl]

Alba,

I also have some eyelid/eye area dryness and was told by Dr. Latkany (NYC corneal specialist -- contributor to the dryeyezone.com & an authority on dry eye) to use some good old fashioned vaseline! For once, something cheap, eh? :)

curlygrl

[Melissa W]

Thank you Melissa, good idea.

May I ask you what eye cream do you use? My eye area is so dry lately.

Alba

Alba,

I use just my regular face cream (Eucerin original formula moisturizing lotion and cream) around my eye area. It is soothing and moisturizing and I don't think you need to spend extra money on special "eye" creams.

I hope that you are feeling better soon.

Best wishes,
Melissa

[Melissa W]

Alba,

I also have some eyelid/eye area dryness and was told by Dr. Latkany (NYC corneal specialist -- contributor to the dryeyezone.com & an authority on dry eye) to use some good old fashioned vaseline! For once, something cheap, eh? :)

curlygrl

That sounds like a good idea!

[boyandhisdog]

Alba,
I believe the specialist you went to see is known as an "Oculoplastic Surgeon" and yes, they specialize in surgery of the lids, with an emphasis on cosmetic.
My father is/was an ophthalmologist (albeit up in Pittsburgh,PA and he retired just this year), but he strongly recs. Bascom Palmer as the place to go. Off topic, his opinion of Lasik is still a little dim. He says if you can wear contacts comfortably, why take the risk of Lasik, it's not worth it. If you have coke bottle glasses, etc. for them take the chance. I wear contacts so I haven't bothered with Lasik and probably never will. Not worth the risk for me.
Anyway, I would tell you that I don't think there is anyone in the country that would say you were making a mistake if you went to Bascom. They also have the luxury of many different specialists all under one roof.
Rob

[Melissa W]

I just want to second Rob's suggestion.
An excellent place to go.

BTW Rob, I have the same view of LASIK as your dad and that's why Greg and I haven't had it done. If you are happy with your CL's and/or glasses why chance it? It is usually a very safe procedure but there is always a chance of complications. And for someone with rosacea it is most definitely contraindicated. I know I sound like a broken record but if I could prevent one person with rosacea from having LASIK it is worth it.

Best wishes,
Melissa

[me444]

What I risk? i'm young 18 and i have red red eyes veins ..that's hurt me..i did accutane too..
what i risk with very red eyes? Blind?

[boyandhisdog]

Read the above posts more closely. The risk being discussed is related to LASIK eye surgery not red eye veins.
Relax, the only risk I am aware of associated with very red eyes is people thinking you just smoked a big bowl.wink1:

[me444]

Ok thanks. Im 18 and red face too.sidehug: