Hi Greenie - The watery eyes are caused by the way Gleevec dries up the eyes. It may sound strange but the solution that many patients use is daily use of lubricating eye drops. Some patients use basic lubricating drops and some use the artificial tears type of drops. Some put in drops once a day, some do this in the morning and at the end of the day.
Here is additional information from a presentation by Dr. Druker's nurse, Carolyn Blasdel. Hope you find this helpful! Pat Eyes Swelling around the eyes (periorbital edema)-one of my patients calls it "pig- eye." This is probably the most common Gleevec side effect. Excessive tearing is common. Blurry vision with tearing happens. Also, bleeding into the whites of the eyes (sub-conjunctival hemorrhages) occurs. A blood vessel breaks and you feel a stinging pain. There is bright red blood in the white of the eye. It's very scary looking, but it is not serious. To treat this we use artificial tears, even when you are having excessive tearing. Using additional tears can help keep the eyes washed out. Prescription steroid eye drops has been helpful for some people. If you are having a lot of trouble with tearing, I encourage you to see an ophthal- mologist so that he/she can look to see if any mechanical problems can be cor- rected. There is no treatment needed for sub-conjunctival hemorrhages. The body absorbs the blood on its own and the eye will return to normal without any permanent damage From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 4:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [CMLHope] Doctors Visit Hi everyone, I have a question? I've been on Gleevec for over 13 years and over the years I have had watery eye's and burred vision. Mostly the right eye, a week or two will go by then I'll get up and the left eye will be burred but mostly the right eye. It's hard to get glasses because my eyes keep changing. Has anyone else had the same problem, if so please let me know. I'm going in next month to have my eye lids lowered they are dragging down to my feet, and the bottom of my eyes are almost as bad. When I wake in the morning I look like a balloon is around my eyes. My bottom of my eye is hanging down to my belly. It's not a pretty sight. Stay healthy, greenie In a message dated 7/31/2013 3:38:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Hi all, I did tell you I'd let you know how my Doctors visit went today. Well, we did straighten a lot out, about meds. etc. but nothing about the liver. She has talked to the other doctors and no one seems to know where they're going with this one. They think it's all being caused by the meds and I'm on so many that could have caused it. She said it probably started on Gleevec as they had me on twice the amount of what others were taking, and then it stopped working after being on it for years and he put me on the Tasigna. That's been great and got me into remission, but it also probably cost me...causing the liver problems. Well, I take so many drugs that could have caused it...or the combination of them all and we probably will never know. She did tell me that she had talked to the other doctors and Dr. Gandhi (my Oncologist) is talking with the people who make the drug and see if their doctors can come up with something. I'm still off of the Tasigna, so......when they make up their minds, I will let you know where we're going from here. She also addressed my pain and wants me to go back to pain management and see if injections might help the pain. They also won't go through the liver, so it's a good choice for that problem (if it works)!!!! I'm trying to stay positive and work with them on whatever I can. Just wanted you all to know where I'm at and will let you know when they make a decision about what to do with me.... Hope everyone is fine tonight. I'm heading to bed as I really need a good nights sleep. You're always in my thoughts and prayers, Hugs to all, Millie -- -- [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com <http://cmlhope.com/> ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- -- [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. 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