Fox News Anchor Shannon Bream Shares Her Dry Eye Story

Dry Eye Coach

Dr. Whitney Hauser: Hi, I’m Dr. Whitney Hauser, and thank you for joining us for Dry Eye Coach Podcast. Today I’m joined by Shannon Bream, who is the anchor of Fox News at Night. Welcome Shannon.

S. Bream: Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Whitney Hauser:Absolutely. Absolutely. You’re going to give us some great insight into the patient perspective today. And as doctors, we often hear from our patients about the symptoms of dry eye, but sometimes our patients, I think have a little bit of a difficult time conveying the real heart of the message to us. So I really appreciate you joining us today.

S. Bream:I am happy to. It’s a topic that I think more people need to hear about to help folks on all sides of the equation. Certainly physicians who can be lifesavers in this, but just for people who feel discouraged out there and are looking for help too.

Dr. Whitney Hauser:Yeah, absolutely. And you’re right. It is a two-sided coin, because as doctors, sometimes you hear patients, but do you really listen? Kind of thing. And as patients, I think your story is going to illustrate for us it can be really frustrating and beyond frustrating to a point where you just don’t know what you’re going to do. So tell us, when did this become a problem for you? When did it all start?

S. Bream:I was one of those little kids who wore glasses, like in elementary school, I was very early on. I needed help. I started contacts in middle school and I don’t know if everybody would now say that’s the greatest idea, but I was desperate to get rid of my glasses. And so I’d been in contacts for decades by the time I started having the dry eye trouble, which was late thirties, getting close to my 40th birthday. And I really didn’t know what to do with it.

S. Bream:I would have situations where my contacts would get dried out and I would take drops and that kind of thing. That was never a real problem for me. But when I started having erosion, and that coupled with the dryness was just a really bad combination for me, and that was getting close to my 40th birthday.

Dr. Whitney Hauser:Yeah. Yeah. So you said you tried drops. What all did you try over the years?

S. Bream:I would try any kind of re-wetting drop, anything specifically for contacts. And then I was having conversations with my doctor about, should I be wearing them less? I went through a period of, when the extended wears came out, I wore those, which seems crazy now. And there are so many other options now and they’re much thinner and seem more breathable, but as a teenager, you’re not the most responsible person in the world sometimes with your contact care.

Dr. Whitney Hauser:True, or anything else.

S. Bream:Right. I had a lot of dried out contacts. But generally I would just use re-wetting drops and things when it would spring up, if I would have times where I’d probably worn them too long, needed to get them out. And it was around that time that my doctor was also encouraging me like, “Hey, maybe you do more time with your glasses, less times with the contacts.” But he also told me, “This is part of the aging process and women often …” he has patients that, around that 40th birthday, really start to have more of the trouble with the dry eye.

Dr. Whitney Hauser:Right. That’s a true story. But how did you feel being on camera and they’re telling you, “Wear your glasses,” that’s the solution that they’re providing to you? How did that make you feel?

S. Bream:Well, I knew there was a lot of time off-camera that I could do that and that it would be better for my eyeballs to probably get some rest. And that did seem to help me in some respects, and then I was having trouble