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Map Dot Fingerprint Dystrophy

Eye Conditions | Last Active: Oct 15, 2023 | Replies (28)

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@dutchmanmichiel

Hi there. I was diagnosed with MDFD about one month ago. I am a 50 years old. I mainly had pain for about a month in my right eye before my diagnosis. Like tootache pain. Pulsating and continuing for hours before it relaxed a bit. Also woke up during the night because of pain. I could not tolerate light and only after the sun went down I could feel a bit more comfortable. Together with the pain came a lot of anxiety about going blind or having a horrible disease. After the diagnosis the anxiety increased but now it is getting better as also second opinion excluded other eye diseases and re-confirmed MDFD. Tuesday i will visit a neurologist to check if there are other problems since the area around my right eye and the skull are also painful. Combing my hair at that area is painful and the skin has a burning sensation. After the diagnosis I got a bondage medical lens and that indeed took the edge of the pain. After two weeks the bondage lens was removed to find out what is the current situation. The eye burns every now and again and I get occasional stinging pains and flashing pains that are upsetting and cause anxiety. I drop tears and gel during the day at will. This means I use drops and gel all day long. At night I use fatty creme. All described by doctors. My options are laser treatment (scraping top layer) or bowman layer transplantation if the situation does not stabilize or improve. Now I can use the telephone and the computer without getting too much pain. First I could not tolerate any screens. Also the tiredness of the eyes improved a little bit. Overall I am still not very happy. Vision is stable, not bad, but sometimes blurry and I get eye strain very easy. At the moment the eye feels like I got some punches on it. I am somewhat reassured that the conditions seems to be non-progressive and does not cause blindness or deteriorating vision/progressive vision loss. I too am seeking other people with the same condition as it seems the other people I have talked to so far do have (much) milder symptoms and symptoms seem to vary person to person. I am willing to discuss in the public forum or through email or other means of communication. Edit: I forgot to mention that the tear tubes in my eyelids are chronically infected, which does not help with MDFD. I wash my eyelids in the morning and before I go to sleep. I use warm towels to melt the eyesand before I remove it. All with all taking care of the eyes has become a full time job.

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Replies to "Hi there. I was diagnosed with MDFD about one month ago. I am a 50 years..."

Just a follow up on my previous post. Extensive neurological tests have not found any neurological issues with my eyes. The pains and sensations in the area around my right eye are caused by strain. This is good news for me. I am now sure that all that is going on is MDFD. What I need to do now is keep the eyes in the best condition I can possibly do to avoid erosion and damages (which cause tootache-like pains in my eye). Therefor I use drops, gels and cremes (a lot!). Also the vision gets a lot less blurry by keeping this strict protocol of eye care. Also I take bilberry extract and extra vitamine d. Also I am looking for good fish-oil. Ofcourse I am not sure of any of this works but there seems to be some evidence for bilberry and fishoil for eyestrain and vitamine d for general health. I am now as good as pain free but with occasional burns. A tingling presence is always lingering in the background though. Mentally I have improved as well , I guess mainly by excluding other issues visiting a neurologists and having second and third opinions. This gave me reassurance with what the heck I am actually dealing with and I can focus on just that now instead of having to worry about -basically going blind , or even my life. End of April and the month of May has been the most terrible period in my life. If anyone needs help dealing with with the debilitating pains MDFD can cause please feel free to discuss with me, I haven been there and am now relatively OK.