I have suffered from indescribable eye pain for years---somewhat intermittent at first, but it has been a constant part of my life since about 2005. The pain is there 24/7, but is at its worst whenever I've had to actually USE my eyes for reading or focusing on objects. After about 5min of reading, the pain alarms go off. If I ignore them, even "louder" alarms go off. If I still don't stop reading, within a period of 1/2-1 hour the pain reaches a fever pitch level, and is accompanied with severe nausea and often vomiting. The pain will then remain at that highest level for anywhere from 5-24 hours, making sleep all but impossible. At one point last year I had a 3 month cycle of ultra-sensitivity----if I so much as read a street sign, the pain shot up to the highest extreme (along with the nausea and vomiting). I then went to a new opthamologist, who determined that my vision had dramatically worsened since my last check up, but that was the only real clinical findings. A stronger prescription, along with Progressive lenses, did seem to bring the pain syndrome back down to its "normal" presentation. I have never found relief with traditional analgesics (OTC or prescriptions), narcotics, or migraine treatments. I HAVE, however, found relief (very near 100%) when put on low-dose steriod packs by my neurologist (for chronic migraine episodes). The pain itself is a dull ache at best, and a piercing/penetrating/radiating pain at worst. It is also accompanied by other, inexplicable, feelings when at it's worst-----the best I can describe it is as if my eye is being pushed forward, or simply altered in shape, and it somehow results in pockets of air being trapped behind the eyeball and beneath the eyelid itself. Obviously there aren't any air bubbles under there, but it literally feels like there are (and that if I could just let the bubbles escape I'd feel some relief!)! I do suffer from chronically dry eyes, but the degree of dryness seems to wax and wane, and the feeling I'm trying to describe is quite different from the usual grittiness of dry eyes. I have sought answers from my Internist, Neurologist, Optomatrist, and two or three Opthamologists. Each one ended up suggesting that it's ocular migraines (especially since I also have photophobia), or that it's just severe eyestrain. But what I'm experiencing doesn't really seem to fit the description of ocular migraine symptoms. The eye strain theory was quite believable several years ago, when I worked long hours reading,etc. But I ended up quitting the work force two years back because there isn't a job out there that doesn't require reading, at the very least. And since then I've also had to limit my personal reading/computer time to (preferably) less than 20 min a day. So the "Eye Strain" theory no longer holds up-----unless my eyes are so sensitive that they are not only strained by vision in general, but also by REM while I sleep! (I do have narcolepsy, so I will say that I spend much more time in REM sleep than normal!) Reading and writing were my lifelong passions, and central to the career I was pursuing. So not only have I been trying to maintain sanity despite the constant pain, I've had to walk away from my dreams. I can't imagine that this phenomenon is as random and meaningless as my doctors have indicated----and I really, really can't imagine spending the rest of my life in this state! Is there anything they might have overlooked?! Honestly, more often than not I'd rather have my eyes removed and learn to live without sight than persisting in this condition. (When the pain is especially unbearable I fantasize about popping the darn things out with a grapefruit spoon! But something tells me that would only heighten the pain factor!!!!) Any advice at all would be a miracle!! Thanks so much!