Saturday, December 09, 2006

Eye infections

About a year and a half ago, I had a series recurrent eye infections. I got them over and over and over again for about four months or so. It turns out that they were caused by my allergies together with the dry eyes I'd been experiencing from the Tamoxifen. A secondary cause may have been the cancer. Certainly the fact that the lymph doesn't flow as well on the side that tended to have more infections played a part, but I also think that the cancer was growing then, meaning that I healed more slowly and was more susceptible to infections. A benefit to the experience was that I learned to (mostly) keep my hands away from my eyes.

Having my ovaries removed and taking Femara gives me dry eyes (estrogen helps keep mucous membranes moist). Being in Mississauga tends to aggravate my allergies. If you conclude that I might get an eye infection, you'd be right. Well, I have a very irritated eye that feels like it's infected and looks like it's almost got pinkeye. Sigh. I've been putting Visine Allergy drops in my eyes all day, and they aren't doing much to help. Fortunately, I have a refill on the Vigamox eye drops that I was using when I had these infections before that cleared the eyes up right away. I'll pick that up tomorrow.

This better not be more cancer growing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi CJ.

I got my eyes lasered on thursday and the DR suggested "Bion Tears" to keep my eyes moist. They work well to relieve irritation but it's not covered under my plan. You may want to try it but it's about $20 for a box 20 doses (1-2 drops for each eye).

Vic