Dry eyes are exhausting me

Hi all, I got my diagnosis in December 2024. My dry eyes started severely in July 2024 but had been a minor issue for probably a good year before that. I have top and bottom punctal plugs, Cyclosporine eye drops (×2 a day), heat mask every night and eye gel every night. They are still dry, better than they were but nevertheless, still noticeably and painfully dry. My first week, post 2nd set of plugs, they were watery and it was the most comfortable I've been in a good year.

Now 3 weeks, post 2nd set, and my eyes must be in a flare again and have dried out. I'm utterly exhausted and I'm a shift worker. It's absolutely destroying me fatigue wise and work wise. I'm starting to think I'm going to soon have to cut back on work which is just incredibly hard in the state of things.

I'm still waiting to see my Rheumatologist about this and I'm not medicated until then. Did anyone find that being on meds helped? I know everyone is different but I'm just hoping maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel

Thank you in advance ❤️