Dealing with Times When Dryness Is Necessary

As the holiday season came to a close, my husband and I received one more unexpected gift - an overflowing bathtub! This was something we did not put on our wish list. While washing the Christmas tree stand with 2 young kids underfoot, the bath was left running until the water spilled over, found cracks in the flooring, and fell like a waterfall onto our carpet downstairs.

It was a dramatic scene in our home. I ran around with pans and plastic storage containers as water kept appearing from new spots in our ceiling while my husband mopped up inches of water upstairs. Our boys thought it was the coolest day ever because it was "raining inside the house".

Too much water, however, quickly turned into an unexpectedly dry situation.

To the rescue

Once we had gotten some control of the situation, we called a family member who was equipped to help. They quickly showed up with a large dehumidifier, a shop vac, and 2 high-quality fans.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony when the dehumidifier was placed directly underneath the counter from my humidifier. My machine didn’t need to be turned off because it had run out of water hours beforehand – as much as I joke about being the humidifier queen, I’m quite bad at refilling them.

So we suctioned up the water from the floor, got the fans going, and had the dehumidifier tackle the scene of the crime upstairs as well as the damaged area downstairs. I sat, struggling to blink with my dry eyes, while the air whirled from the fans. My jaw dropped when the dehumidifier tank was emptied; I could hardly believe it was pulling that much water out of the air.

I was also irritated at all of it – the potential damage to our ceiling and subfloor, the extra work that could have been avoided, the time we lost as we cleaned the mess (with wild children running through it), and having to deal with drier eyes.

The dehumidifier and fans ran through the night – until the dehumidifier shut off automatically when it was full. The next morning the ceiling felt dry instead of damp, which was a relief. I wondered how long I’d need to wait before running my humidifier again. I considered moving it so that it wouldn’t be directly underneath the damaged ceiling.

Life can get in the way of eye health

No one knows what might happen next. Life has a tendency to keep rolling on and it’s not always considerate of our health situation. Things happen that are majorly inconvenient for a person with chronic dry eye. Thankfully, this specific situation was a pretty short-term problem for me, but I know problems are prone to popping up throughout our lives.

This community has been super helpful when it comes to solving problems. Recently, I benefited from a video on this site discussing vent covers for your home that can help to redirect airflow from unwanted areas. I have struggled a lot with a vent in my bedroom blowing air on me, leading me to only sleep on my right side for years, but now I know a way to turn that unwanted air flow around.

I've encountered many difficult situations with dry eye. When I had to have surgery, the operating room was so cold and dry that it left me with more problems to deal with in post-op. It's hard to drive long distances, as watching the road closely and being in a car can be tough on the eyes.

What are some things that have happened in your life that have made chronic dry eye more difficult to cope with? Or any health conditions? Tell us if you’ve been able to overcome them – maybe our community can even help you brainstorm a solution!