Rebecca
My name is Rebecca, I live in Ottawa and I am 27 years old. My journey with dry eye disease has been a long one, beginning when I was only a teenager.
When I began university, it was often difficult for me to focus during long lectures as my eyes constantly felt tired and irritated. I struggled in many places I had to visit during daily life, like public transit, classrooms and stores because the ventilation highly aggravated my condition. I was heavily reliant on hot compresses and over the counter drops, neither of which were enough to help me through the day.
After graduating and beginning my career as a writer at a non-profit, my dry eye reached an unbearable level. From morning to night, my eyes felt swollen, inflamed and painful. It was impossible for me to focus on tasks at work or even to relax at home because my eyes were too painful to keep open. I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything because the pain was so constant and unmanageable. I felt like I was unable to function and couldn’t believe that something as “trivial” as dry eye was impacting me so much. I struggled mentally, often breaking down because I felt hopeless and anxious about what my future would look like if my disease meant having to leave a job I loved.
As a young graduate, I had no insurance available to me and spent hundreds to attend numerous optometrist visits. Many doctors didn’t take my condition seriously as they would send me home with the same at-home treatments that didn’t work. Many also did not have the knowledge or resources to properly test for the cause of my disease. When I was finally prescribed Restasis, I was forced to extend the use of each vial rather than throw them out (which is recommended for safety) because I simply could not afford to refill my prescription.
Today, I continue to struggle to receive adequate care for my condition. I have learned that my dry eyes are likely caused by MGD but I am still lacking a thorough diagnosis. It has taken years for me to get a referral to a dry eye specialist and I will be on a long waitlist before I am able to be seen. Although I have insurance through my workplace now, vision coverage is very limited which leads me to continue spending hundreds on optometrist visits and out of pocket expenses for prescription eye drops. I know that this cost will only continue as dry eye disease is a chronic condition that requires ongoing treatment. I have not been able to fully restore my quality of life and treatments like newer prescriptions, IPL, Lipiflow and serum drops remain inaccessible to me due to the cost and lack of doctors who can prescribe them.
I believe it is time for the government to recognize how severely dry eye diseases can impact a person. They are not just a discomfort, they can disable a person in every facet of their life. Those who are suffering this greatly deserve to have access to affordable care and knowledgeable medical professionals. We need the government to help make this possible.