05.29.08
Stinging eyes
Since being on Restasis for three days now, my eyes still get dry and they sting. I was told by my eye doc that it takes several weeks to notice any benefit, so I wasn’t expecting any miracles just yet. I’ve also heard on the GvHD list grapevine that Restasis didn’t help a lot of the people who’ve tried it. I’m willing to at least give it a shot.
I’ve been staying off the bike because of what I now call opti-seize. My eyes, especially my left eye, would seize up in the socket, like a piston in a two-stroke engine would seize up in the cylinder when the pre-mix (gas/oil) ratio is run too lean. It’s difficult to blink and the eyelid would move slowly over the eye. There’s also the wind constantly hitting me in the face which constantly dries out the eye. With chronic dry eye (Keratoconjunctivitis sicca), you don’t generate tears, which is what lubricates the eye. As a chronic GvHD sufferer, this is something that will stay with me forever. It’s not temporary.
The cycling glasses I’ve been using for the past several years no longer work for me any more. I need to seal my eyes away from any air flow that causes the eyes to dry out. Based on testimonials of fellow dry eye sufferers, the Panoptx SPF100 glasses seem to be what I’m looking for. However, with a shallow nose bridge, many glasses tend not to fit me well or stay in front of my eyeballs. Since the seal is crucial to its desired function, a good fit is mandatory and that means I need to actually try them on, but this brand doesn’t seem to be easily found at many retailers. I’ve heard that Harley-Davidson dealers tend to carry them and there’s a big H-D dealer off I-95 in Delaware along our route back home from Johns Hopkins, where we’ll be on Monday.
I took the fixie out on the 21-mile loop. It took my legs about 10 miles to spin up today. Until several days ago, I had been suffering from a lot of cramping, especially on the bike. Since taking calcium supplements (in calcium carbonate form) and fish oil, cramping has been much reduced. I didn’t start feeling any cramping until I was back in town on my way back home. My eyes started stinging so badly that I needed to stop twice during the ride to dump artificial tears into my eyes. It seems now that I’m using Restasis, when I put artificial tears in, my eyes continue to sting. It’s like putting a few drops of a mild acid into the eyes. It’s not pleasant.