[mrcnkoba]

As someone who suffers from recurrent corneal erosion (scratches on cornea, that are painful as hell) I incorporated a set of steps to manage this condition.

1. Daily eyelid hygiene - using special wipes to get the leftover from your eyelashes, to unblock Meibomian glands. It can dramatically improve how your eye is moistened. People who suffer from dry eye syndrome should at least try it.

2. Using eye drops daily - whenever I see them or I need them.

3. (Something that is specific to recurrent corneal erosion). I put some ointment/gel when I go to bed. As most of recurrent corneal erosion events happen during the night, it is crucial to be protected when you sleep.

[dathinab]

I had similar problems.

Eye drops in my case didn't help, it mostly was caused due to producing to little tears at night when I sleep, I can't put eye drops in when I sleep.

But there where some things which did help:

- eating/drinking healthy, while unclear it seems my tear under production was partially linked to a unhealthy diet

- eye hygiene helped a bit not much

- Making sure air humidity is at a good level during winter times helped too.

- And while it sounds ridiculous: Getting used to carefully open the eyes when waking up, like very very carefully. That probably helped better then all the other effects combined as most damage seems to have happened when opening the eyes when waking up.

[mrcnkoba]

The last one is indeed the golden one. When I feel that my eyes are sealed or I feel a lot of friction I use my fingers to help open my eyes. After that I put some eye drops in.

What is very interesting that there is a certain set of actions that you can take and the ones that helped you, didn't help me (diet - I've been eating healthy for a long time, air humidity - we use air humidifier for a long time too), but the ones that were great for me (eye hygiene) didn't help you.

[hutrdvnj]

I can recommend medical grade silicone sleep masks (e.g. Eyeseals 4.0). These keep 100% humidity around your eyes over night, so that they can't dry out.

[rlpb]

I had phototherapeutic keratectomy in both eyes (about a year apart) that basically cured my recurrent corneal erosion. I sleep in extended wear contact lenses most nights which help protect the cornea. I also have quite severe myopia so this is also convenient for when I wake up, using the toilet, wanting to know the time, reading the message that just arrived, etc. Then I just need some eye drops in the morning. I use eye ointment at night when I'm not wearing them.

[mrcnkoba]

I had phototherapeutic keratectomy which indeed helped me stabilize the situation, but didn't clear the symptoms 100%. I still have occasional erosions, which are much less severe and last way shorter than previous ones (minutes and not days). But I'm not sure if it is because of PTK itself or because of extra care that I give to my eyes daily.

[moneywoes]

What type of wipes?

[mrcnkoba]

I live in Poland so there are different brands of these lid wipes, but "Systane lid wipes" look about right.