Trialing Alphagan drops - Page 3

Alba · 20th February 2009, 06:57 PM

Thanks Missy. Yes you are right im sure my derm wont mention that its for rosacea. I was reading another threat and these drops also help for redness in the eye, correct?

about 3 weeks ago i got a very red spot inside my right eye on the lower white part. It really hurt and burned when i put azasite on it so i went to the opthamologist. he said it wasnt an infection maybe i had scratch it or something like that during my sleep. he gave me steroid eye drops 4 times a day and a steroid oinment to put inside the eye at bedtime for 7 days. it got a lot better i dont have the burning but i still see a little red spot, i really dont know what this is or why. Im thinking its the fan at night on my face irritating my eyes but i have tried w/o the fan and my face gets so extremely red and hurts that i just have to have the fan on my face. ofcourse everytime i move i wake up from the heat fealt on my face since that fan is not aming directly at my face, its horrible but at least i get some sleep. im going to try the allergy pills you take at night that i just read on another threat but im afraid that it will dry my eyes even more?

dammed if i do dammed if i dont!

thanks,

alba

Melissa W · 21st February 2009, 12:36 AM

Alba,

Please do not use the alphagan drops in your eyes. It lowers intraocular pressure and is meant to treat glaucoma when instilled in your eyes. Definitely not to be used for ocular redness.

I'm not sure what that red spot is that you have. If it is getting smaller over the last week it could be a subconjunctival hemhorrage but you wouldn't be getting any pain with that. If it is due to allergies you would be experiencing itching most likely.

The fan is probably drying out your eyes and irritating them so using a lubricating gel could only help.

An antihistamine eye drop will dry out your tear film a bit but less than oral antihistamines will and you can counteract that if you apply some lubricating gel right before bedtime. I like celluvisc.

I'm sorry- I wish I could be more helpful here Alba.
Let me know how it goes.

Missy

Alba · 23rd February 2009, 05:41 PM

Thanks Missy for your helpful input!

Eye seems to be getting less red each day and it doesnt burn anymore.

Fingers crossed that it continues to get better.

Melissa W · 23rd February 2009, 06:34 PM

That's good to hear Alba

Melissa W · 7th November 2009, 01:18 PM

About a month ago my derm Rx'd me a stronger alphagan drop (.15%) to try since the .1% didn't do anything for my flushing.

Last night was the first time I tried it as we went out to my favorite French restaurant (Le Bernardin) with my husband's ex-boss and his wife. I was a bit apprehensive as it was a cold and windy night

and you guys know how everyone overdoes the heating on such nights and I was right. We walked in to the restaurant and it was indeed overheated. My husband thought it was warm in there LOL so you know it was. Anyway, I dared not go to the ladies room as I couldn't bear the thought of looking at a beet red face especially when I spent a good amount of time trying to look good. My face felt slightly warm with a low level burning but very mild throughout the evening. Much less than when I usually flush.

At the end I decided to not be such a wuss (plus I had a lot of water to drink LOL so I had to go to the ladies room) and I went to the ladies room and when I looked in the mirror I was pleasantly surprised as my face was relatively pale except for a very small area of pinkness on the side of my nose which wasn't very noticeable at all.

I was very very happy.

Details:

I used more Alphagan (.15%) drops than I had previously when I tried the .1%. So not sure if this helped at all but it might have played a role as well as the higher concentration.

First I washed my face and then I moisturised and after about 5 minutes applied a drop on my nose and a drop each on my right and left cheek. Then I applied another drop on my nose and each cheeks and for extra measure I applied another drop on my nose and sides of my nose as when I flush that gets very red and somewhat swollen. So 3 drops on my nose and 2 drops respectively on each cheek. A whole lot of alphagan.

My derm had warned me that another patient with whom he had Rx'd this experienced rebound flushing the next day so to only use if for special occasions. I have a bit of pinkness on my left cheek (when I woke up this AM) and some slight tingling but nothing to write home about and if this is the worst of the side effect I will gladly take it. Ofc, it is too soon to decide as I applied the Alphagan around 3:30 PM yesterday and there may be rebound effects just waiting to occur but I am pleased with the results last night.

...so far

I just wanted to share my newest experience with you guys as I know everyone is very hopeful about Sansrosa and since this is what it is based on (as far as I know) it looks like it has potential to relieve some of our flushing/burning and redness. And hopefully Sansrosa (or whatever it ends up being called as my derm doesn't think they will use that name) will be even more effective with less side effects as it is supposed to be especially formulated for our faces and not as glaucoma drops for instillation in the eye LOL.

Also, I had a glass of wine which is usually a huge trigger for me and I really hesitated drinking it but damn it, I wanted to be able to be enjoy a "normal" evening out at my favorite french restaurant!