Acupuncture Eye Spasms and Eye Dryness

I continued to have this problem more often and contacted my ophthalmologist. He thought that I was experiencing dry eyes and suggested that I use drops and possibly have plugs put in the tear ducts to keep the tears in my eyes. My condition seemed to worsen over the next six months so I had the plugs put in my eyes. The plugs didn’t help my situation. One plug came out in about 6 weeks and I had the other one removed. I was referred to a neuro-opthamologist who also thought my problem was dry eyes. After he put eye drops in my eyes, I was having spasms so badly, my eyes were blinking continuously. Perhaps it was a reaction to preservatives in the drops. He diagnosed me with blephraspasms (eyelid spasms) and suggested I could try Botox injections. I have a lot of allergies and was afraid to put Botox in my body. I struggled along as best I could for the next five years and had to stop working and finally stop driving. I was like a blind person in my home holding on to the walls on many occasions to get around.

In 2006, it was time to renew my driver’s license and I knew I certainly would not be able to get it renewed in the condition I was in. I made an appointment with the neuro-opthamologist again and he told me that it was not a large amount of Botox that would be injected. I decided to have the Botox injections and continued to have them every 3 months for the next 5 years. I was able to resume driving and no longer felt like the blind person. In December 2010, I had to cancel my appointment due to a snowstorm. I rescheduled my appointment 6 weeks later and wasn’t too worried as I was doing fairly well at the time. About a month later, I suddenly started having the spasms so often that I had to stop driving again. My husband who was getting acupuncture for another condition suggested that I try acupuncture. I thought this would be a good time to try acupuncture before I would be getting Botox again. I only had two acupuncture treatments in the week prior to getting the Botox injections and noticed my spasms were lessened. I have continued with acupuncture treatments for the last 14 months and I have not had any eye spasms in that time. My sensitivity to light and chemicals has also decreased. I was frequently wearing sunglasses indoors and no longer need to do this. I no longer get Botox injections. How wonderful to have acupuncture treatments that are helping my situation and have no side effects.

- Janet