Reddit mentions of Systane Nighttime Lubricant Eye Ointment-0.123 oz, 3.5g

Just posting an anecdote for anyone else who stumbles on this thread:

I've had a bad dry eye situation developing in my left eye for a few months. It's most likely due to a chalazion or blocked duct that's caused some inflammation. The eyelid doesn't close properly so the eye dries out while I'm sleeping. The lump in the eyelid also puts some pressure on the eye. For a while, when I'd wake up it would feel like someone was ripping a piece of duct tape off my dry eyeball. It would burn and sting for an hour or so before I could properly function. I got it sort of under control by doing regular warm compresses and sleeping with a headband over my eyes in such a way that it put just enough pressure on the lid to help keep it closed tightly. I've also been using Systane gel or ointment overnight. I've gone back and forth between the headband and this hydrating sleep mask. With all that I was still having flare-ups a couple of times a week when I'd wake up. I found that a cold compress (damp washcloth with water as cold as possible) helps with the pain. My eye seems to put off a LOT of heat when it's irritated. Oh, I also take 1000mg of fish oil in the morning and another 1000mg right before bed.

Last week I had a really bad flare-up in the middle of the afternoon not anywhere close to when I'd been sleeping. The compress only helped a little bit. It was burning like fire and it felt like there was a gigantic splinter or something in my eye. It finally calmed down after an hour or so but it was low-level burning the rest of the day. The next day it started up again in the morning and took hours to get under control and continued to burn for most of the day. That's when I found this post.

I started the regimen described in the link on Friday morning and have been doing really well so far. I saw my cornea doctor this morning (I'd last seen him about three months ago when all of this started) and he said that most of the erosion is healed and that he's never seen such a drastic improvement before. My eye feels mostly better - I've been sleeping with the hydration mask on for the last few nights and I haven't had any flare-ups since I started TheraTears. I do feel like there's a slight burning from time to time, and every once in a while when I'm doing a compress I do feel the "foreign body sensation" a bit, but not as severely as I had before. My eyes still feel pretty dry when I wake up but as soon as I start the TheraTears regimen they feel more comfortable. I'm still doing compresses as close to 3x per day as I can, and still scrubbing my eyelids with baby shampoo every day as this hopefully will help prevent more duct clogging.

I'm cautiously optimistic. It does seem, right now, that TheraTears is as effective as OP says. I will also say that this is the most frequent eyedrop regimen I've ever embarked on/stuck with, so it could also just be that more regular lubrication is working wonders, regardless of the brand. I don't know, but I'm sticking with the TheraTears for now.

Here are a couple of other products I've been using:

Eye compress/mask. This is nice because you just put it on your head and don't have to sit there and hold it. Stays hot for about 8-10 minutes and pretty warm for another 10 or so after that. I heat this up for 23 seconds and listen to a podcast or something while it does its thing. Goal is 3x a day but I often can only manage 1 or 2.

USB heated eye mask. As many people have pointed out, this doesn't put out enough heat to be a substitute for other compresses, but I figure some heat is better than no heat, right? Sometimes I put this on at bedtime, set for 30 minutes. At some point later if I wake up after it shuts off, I switch to the hydration mask.

Systane overnight ointment. I put a blob of this in after the last TheraTears round for the day, right before sleep.

Genteel Severe Gel. I hit it with this any time it's feeling a little dry and/or fatigued, and I'm in between TheraTears rounds. I use this one if I can afford to have a blurry eye for a few minutes, but if I'm really busy I just go with regular Systane Complete drops.

If anyone is experiencing anything similar to what I've described, try this stuff. And with all of the treatments I've talked about (drops, compresses, lid scrubs), BE CONSISTENT. I know they are a pain in the ass and take up a lot of time but when I look at all the times things have gotten out of control with my eyes (I've had issues with chalazions for almost 20 years now) it's usually when I'm not being good about routines and hygiene.