Chronic Redness Won't Go Away

I have chronic red eyes for a couple of years now. I went to see an eye doctor 3 weeks ago and she told me that I have very dry eyes. But all of the lubricant eye drops she told me to use do not help. Just last week my left eye became very red all of a sudden. I went to see the eye doctor again. She told me it is because that eye is very dry. But again, lubrication doesn't help. My eyes are very red in the morning when I wake up and also very red at night time too. But ever since last week, the left eye is red all the time. It looks bloodshot and just doesn't go away.
I am very frustrated and don't know what else to do.

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

If you have had chronic dry eyes, then it may take a long, long time to make significant improvements in your redness symptoms (6-12 months or more sometimes.)  You may also have lid margin disease and some degree of allergies.  It may be a complex case and some different treatments may need to be tried.  Work with your doctor, tell her what helps and what doesn't.  Treatment can be much more involved than just using artificial tears.  Other treatments include flax and fish oil supplements, punctal plugs, oral doxycyline, lid margin disease treatment and more.  Keep the communication working and together you should be able to find the right combination of treatments that work for you.  Good Luck.

[hollandlop]

Thanks for your reply.

But do you know why all of a sudden my the left side of my left eye became very red?
I used all of the medications and lubricants that my eye doctor gave me and the left side is still very very red.

She told me it is because the eye is very dry and nothing else. But my eyes have both been dry and never this red. I don't know why it became red all of a sudden?

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

There's always some point where the problem just gets to be more than your body can handle.  May have taken some time to get near that point, then some small thin like not enough sleep, lots of stress or too many hours on computer at work, pushed you over the edge.

MJK MD

[hollandlop]

I guess what I want to know is if the sudden redness will go away? It's been 3 weeks now, and the sudden redness that I got in my left eye hasn't gone away yet, despite all of the eye drops and medications I've been using from my eye doctor.

I tried Visine, it does help, but I know that it is bad for my eye and I don't want to use it. But the redness just looks horrible. I can't go visit any clients this way without them committing about the redness.

What can I do? I really don't want this redness to be permanent?

[hollandlop]

Waht else can I do besides putting Visine in my eye for the redness to go away?

Because Visine seems like it's the only thing that will help./