We recently attended the Sjogren’s (SHOW-grins) UK Annual Conference in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
The speakers included a retired GP who diagnosed his own daughter, a rheumatologist and a specialist researcher who shared good news about monoclonal antibody and novel eye drop treatments.
It was interesting to hear from some of the 130 attendees the daily challenges this auto-immune disease brings. In addition to constantly dry eyes and mouth, it can affect the nose, ears, food pipe and chest.
This causes difficulties with eating, swallowing, speech and even breathing. As one speaker remarked, they become ninjas at inserting eye drops quickly and sip a lot of water – both during the day and at night.
It was lovely to meet the helpline ladies in person, as we often contact each other for help and advice about eye drops.
There was a lot of interest in our dry eye glasses and Eye Care Cosmetics. Due to overwatering and eye drop application, eye make-up rarely stays in place so we recommended our water-resistant jumbo eye pencils, cream eyeshadows, fluid eyeliners and mascaras.
One of the key points was how long it took to get a diagnosis, on average 2.5 years as it presents in the same way as other conditions such as fibromyalgia, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and menopause. If alongside dry eyes, your patients have other symptoms especially Raynaud’s, joint pain or fatigue, it’s well worth them checking this body map here;
For more information and friendly support, signpost or contact https://sjogrensuk.org