My eyes continued to be a problem, despite all of my futile efforts. I also had a very annoying new symptom.
In April, my eyes began burning, and I didn't know why. Obviously, it was part of the problem, but why had they started burning after the punctal plugs were removed?
In May, the burning got worse. I have been on thyroid medication since July 2014. In May, my thyroid medication began making my eyes burn. The burning would commence in the one to two hours after I took the thyroid medication and continued for at least a couple hours. It was awful.
I knew that the problem wasn't the thyroid medication. To clarify... the thyroid medication was undoubtedly causing the burning, but something else in my body had changed and was thereby causing the thyroid medication to do that. I was pretty sure that the sodium in the thyroid medication was the problem. It was like the sodium was hitting my eyes and making them burn. My eyes had also started burning after I ate salty food. That had never happened before.
I had wondered about losartan because my eyes began burning within a couple weeks of starting losartan. I finally realized that I needed to quit taking losartan to see if that was the problem. I quit taking losartan on May 30. I felt like my eyes improved some, but I wasn't sure if the losartan was the problem or not.
My appointment with my primary care physician was on June 5. I told him that I had quit the losartan, that my eyes might or might not be better, and that I wanted to stay off of it for at least another couple weeks. Additionally, my blood pressure wasn't spiking yet, and I would continue to monitor it. He agreed.
My lab tests showed that my blood sodium had gone down some, and my blood potassium was on the high side. Both were due to the losartan.
The eye burning caused by my thyroid medication gradually lessened. Overall, my eyes began burning less.
By the middle of June, I thought I was improving, then I got worse again. Why.....?
It was right at the end of June when I realized that I had run out of flaxseed oil around June 10. I want to quit taking unnecessary supplements, so I chose not to continue. I didn't think it was helping.
Since my eyes had worsened again, I concluded that it probably had helped. I purchased more flaxseed oil and resumed taking it. My eyes improved somewhat. I concluded that I should continue flaxseed oil.
My eye appointment was on July 2. I told my ophthalmologist that I was still worse than before I got punctal plugs, although I had improved somewhat since the plugs were removed.
Back on February 26, my doctor said that my eyes had "some dryness." This time, he said that they weren't that dry.
I had been thinking for around a month that my eyes were inflamed from my December 16 Covid infection, and that the punctal plugs greatly aggravated the eye inflammation. It didn't surprise me that my eyes weren't that dry overall. But they sure have bothered me!
I was prescribed Restasis eye drops to use in addition to the serum tears.
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