[IamSam]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That sucks, make your body a the priority.

Thanks, Bruce. Right now my body wouldn't have it any other way!

Dana – Do the Canadian pharma’s require a prescription for 'viscotears'? Most of the OTC products for eyes that are available here in the US don’t do very much for severe cases of dry eye. Although, there’s some new thing out that the optometrist claimed was the cat’s meow. It should be at $35.00 for a single teeny bottle of the stuff. I can’t afford it.

Originally Posted by Nirvana

They give so much of the same stuff here for eyes that they give to dogs. I had an old girl that came back to me at 14 yrs when the owner had Alzhimers she did not notice this poor gal had kerato conjunctivitis sicca {dry eye] she died last year at 16yrs old. I have all kinds of new tubes of Optimune which is cyclosporin or restasis for people, a steroid eye ointment, atropine, antibacterial etc. Some of this crap is about $50 a tube I bet its $100 for people. Anyhoo just a nosy question do you drink diet soda {pop}?

Back in the day, I drank gallons of diet pepsi. I don't see how I stood that stuff because I dislike almost all diet drinks these days. Now I prefer tea, either hot or cold, as well as fruit juice. Why is there a correlation between the artificial stuff they use for lo-cal sweeteners and eye problems?

I’m pretty sure that I have one of the autoimmune diseases like fibromyalgia or CFS. I especially like SJÖGREN'S SYNDROME as the cause of my symptoms including the dry eye thing. Plus it sounds so much more exotic than fibromyalgia which everyone and their brother claims to have these days.

I need to get two more medical tests and then I’ll make an appointment with my primary care to discuss all this, including him prescribing me painkillers that actually work for when I have a bad spell like this. I sure hope he doesn't turn out to be one of those MD's who is skeptical of auto-immune syndromes.

Thank you all for your support and suggestions. I'm feeling better today!