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I never had dry eye before LASIK. Never really knew what it was. I thought if somebody had dry eye, they put a few drops in their eye and were good for the day. Unfortunately, since my post-LASIK experience, I have now become a resident expert like most of you whose posts I have been reading with great interest. This is a great site since I have learned that in this bad dream that I am living in with severe dry eye, there are very few people who understand or appreciate how much this condition can affect you.
My LASIK case was a shock to me. Unfortunately I did not research this personally, but instead relied on various people telling me how great it is. I thought the new technology made it safe since in this day of lawsuits, I couldn't imagine that they could be doing an elective surgery with bad outcomes that were not fixable.
I knew I had made a mistake as soon as that ring went over my right eye. It hurt like heck, and I thought ... I didn't think I would even feel much of anything. The next thing I knew, everything was dark as they lasered my eye and I thought, man I feel like I just messed up big time.
The steroid drops that I used the first week burned for about 15-20 minutes each time I used them. I called the MD when this started happening and he insisted that I keep using the drops. I felt like I was doing damage to my eyes, but I also felt like I needed to follow the MD directions. At one point when I was driving home on about day 3 from the home improvement store, I felt my eyes severely burning. I had to pull over for about 10 minutes and I thought, are these cells in my eyes dying or something? What is going on?
After I stopped using steroids, things seemed to get relatively better aside from some mild dry eye and mild glare. The MD kept emphasizing that my corneas and flaps "looked great". This gave me comfort that I would come out of this bad experience without any permanent damage. When I mentioned the dry eye I was experiencing after week 4, he said ... "just put some drops in now and then". I did this, but my situation did not improve. I called him on week 5 again and he told me to come in so that he could put in lower plugs. I went to see him and I think because I was coming in at the end of the day, he changed his mind and told me to keep using the drops and it would go away by the following week. No big deal I thought since the MD did not appear concerned. Then in week 6 I developed what I thought was a stye on my upper right eyelid. I called the MD office and I was triaged by the technician to use warm compresses. I did this but then I started getting redness on my lid. I called again and the technician said that maybe the compresses were too hot. I then started getting constant scratchiness on my right lens from the point where the "stye" was. When I called a day later, I said that this was something I never experienced before and I was triaged yet again where they told me to keep using wetting drops.
Within a few days, I was in a place I never new existed. Not only had my right eye with the "stye" gone bone dry (note that I later learned that the stye was really MGD), but my left eye went bone dry as well. This was in week 7 post-LASIK. The incredible pain and irritation slowly improved, but has now plateaued for the last month. My TBUT is 7 seconds and my right eye is still worse than my left. I have both lack of tears and lack of oil. My eyes are constantly irritated (especially my right eye) and the only way to keep them manageable is to maintain a very controlled environment (i.e. limited work, no reading, limited PC, no tv, etc.). I was quadra-plugged for a while (nice term Ian), but I agree with a few of the MD's who think that if you want to battle the inflammation, you have to avoid keeping the bad tears constantly in your eye. Therefore, I only have one plug in my right eye and no plugs in my left eye so that I can avoid trapping the bad tears that help create the inflammation. Of course, most of my time is spent in a controlled environment with humidifiers so that's the only reason I am pulling this off at this point. My severe dry eye have taken an incredible toll on me and my family both physically and mentally.
I have significantly reduced my work schedule and I am considering a medical leave and applying for disability since I cannot function in my work in front of a computer for 8-10 hours per day. Actually I can barely function for more than several minutes. It seems like disability is a long-shot since even though I am truly disabled (I cannot focus on a PC, reading, meetings with people, etc. for more than a few minutes and my dry eyes get worse as the day goes on). Has anyone had experience with pursuing disability with dry eye? What is needed to win a case?
I know that my eyes need more time to heal before I can do my work and I no longer believe Ophthalmologists who tell me that working my eyes until my eyes feel and look raw is healthy.
I will likely be taking a trip to see Dr. Tseng early next month so that he can hopefully diagnose exactly what is wrong and maybe it will be something unique that can be fixed. However, I will not do any more surgeries!
Also, while I know that I am still in the healing stage although time keeps moving on, I am already considering the Boston Scleral Lens for a few months down the road if my condition does not improve. The fact is that I cannot work and function with my eyes in this condition so I need to find a way to make this severe dry eye tolerable. Does anyone see any issues with going to try the lens too soon? I spoke with Bill Rosenthal yesterday and he did not see a problem with me coming up, but I figure that I should wait at least a few more months and hope that the healing will move faster than the current snail's pace. I have had MD's tell me that it takes 1 to 2 years for the nerves to regenerate and I don't know if a lens over the eye during that time would help or hurt.
Also, I just ordered Panoptyx goggles so hopefully that will help some. I have honestly learned more reading your posts than I have learned in meeting with 5 Ophthalmologists to date. I've never been in a situation before where I am facing something that is so persistent and permanent and virtually nobody understands. I often times feel hopeless, but I think that I will work through it somehow because I have always been a fighter. However, I also worry because I am a type A, passionate person who can significantly be affected by something like this long-term.
In the end, I gotta believe that it will get better for all of us. Thank you for listening. Also, thank you for your posts re: Boston Scleral lens, treatment options, Tseng vs. ******, autologous serum, plugs vs. no plugs etc. I would be feeling incredibly lost and hopeless without this site.
Final note: my current treatment is 15 minute warm compresses 4x/day followed by lid massage and scrub with q-tip, Restasis 4x/day, Systante/Systane Free/TheraTears as needed, BioTears omega3, 100 mg oral doxycycline, and bilberry supplement. I've also tried warm chamomile tea bags on my upper lids since this is an old anti-inflammotory remedy. It seems like it's helped some so far. I tried FreshKote one time yesterday based on a sample my doctor gave me. It felt good for about 45 minutes, but then I felt a pressure (kind of like a sinus pressure) for about an hour after that. I think I'll hold off using it for a while longer. I just weaned off of Lotemax that I was on for 4 weeks. That helped the redness in my right eye go, but now the redness is back.
Ya' gotta believe things will get better.
My LASIK case was a shock to me. Unfortunately I did not research this personally, but instead relied on various people telling me how great it is. I thought the new technology made it safe since in this day of lawsuits, I couldn't imagine that they could be doing an elective surgery with bad outcomes that were not fixable.
I knew I had made a mistake as soon as that ring went over my right eye. It hurt like heck, and I thought ... I didn't think I would even feel much of anything. The next thing I knew, everything was dark as they lasered my eye and I thought, man I feel like I just messed up big time.
The steroid drops that I used the first week burned for about 15-20 minutes each time I used them. I called the MD when this started happening and he insisted that I keep using the drops. I felt like I was doing damage to my eyes, but I also felt like I needed to follow the MD directions. At one point when I was driving home on about day 3 from the home improvement store, I felt my eyes severely burning. I had to pull over for about 10 minutes and I thought, are these cells in my eyes dying or something? What is going on?
After I stopped using steroids, things seemed to get relatively better aside from some mild dry eye and mild glare. The MD kept emphasizing that my corneas and flaps "looked great". This gave me comfort that I would come out of this bad experience without any permanent damage. When I mentioned the dry eye I was experiencing after week 4, he said ... "just put some drops in now and then". I did this, but my situation did not improve. I called him on week 5 again and he told me to come in so that he could put in lower plugs. I went to see him and I think because I was coming in at the end of the day, he changed his mind and told me to keep using the drops and it would go away by the following week. No big deal I thought since the MD did not appear concerned. Then in week 6 I developed what I thought was a stye on my upper right eyelid. I called the MD office and I was triaged by the technician to use warm compresses. I did this but then I started getting redness on my lid. I called again and the technician said that maybe the compresses were too hot. I then started getting constant scratchiness on my right lens from the point where the "stye" was. When I called a day later, I said that this was something I never experienced before and I was triaged yet again where they told me to keep using wetting drops.
Within a few days, I was in a place I never new existed. Not only had my right eye with the "stye" gone bone dry (note that I later learned that the stye was really MGD), but my left eye went bone dry as well. This was in week 7 post-LASIK. The incredible pain and irritation slowly improved, but has now plateaued for the last month. My TBUT is 7 seconds and my right eye is still worse than my left. I have both lack of tears and lack of oil. My eyes are constantly irritated (especially my right eye) and the only way to keep them manageable is to maintain a very controlled environment (i.e. limited work, no reading, limited PC, no tv, etc.). I was quadra-plugged for a while (nice term Ian), but I agree with a few of the MD's who think that if you want to battle the inflammation, you have to avoid keeping the bad tears constantly in your eye. Therefore, I only have one plug in my right eye and no plugs in my left eye so that I can avoid trapping the bad tears that help create the inflammation. Of course, most of my time is spent in a controlled environment with humidifiers so that's the only reason I am pulling this off at this point. My severe dry eye have taken an incredible toll on me and my family both physically and mentally.
I have significantly reduced my work schedule and I am considering a medical leave and applying for disability since I cannot function in my work in front of a computer for 8-10 hours per day. Actually I can barely function for more than several minutes. It seems like disability is a long-shot since even though I am truly disabled (I cannot focus on a PC, reading, meetings with people, etc. for more than a few minutes and my dry eyes get worse as the day goes on). Has anyone had experience with pursuing disability with dry eye? What is needed to win a case?
I know that my eyes need more time to heal before I can do my work and I no longer believe Ophthalmologists who tell me that working my eyes until my eyes feel and look raw is healthy.
I will likely be taking a trip to see Dr. Tseng early next month so that he can hopefully diagnose exactly what is wrong and maybe it will be something unique that can be fixed. However, I will not do any more surgeries!
Also, while I know that I am still in the healing stage although time keeps moving on, I am already considering the Boston Scleral Lens for a few months down the road if my condition does not improve. The fact is that I cannot work and function with my eyes in this condition so I need to find a way to make this severe dry eye tolerable. Does anyone see any issues with going to try the lens too soon? I spoke with Bill Rosenthal yesterday and he did not see a problem with me coming up, but I figure that I should wait at least a few more months and hope that the healing will move faster than the current snail's pace. I have had MD's tell me that it takes 1 to 2 years for the nerves to regenerate and I don't know if a lens over the eye during that time would help or hurt.
Also, I just ordered Panoptyx goggles so hopefully that will help some. I have honestly learned more reading your posts than I have learned in meeting with 5 Ophthalmologists to date. I've never been in a situation before where I am facing something that is so persistent and permanent and virtually nobody understands. I often times feel hopeless, but I think that I will work through it somehow because I have always been a fighter. However, I also worry because I am a type A, passionate person who can significantly be affected by something like this long-term.
In the end, I gotta believe that it will get better for all of us. Thank you for listening. Also, thank you for your posts re: Boston Scleral lens, treatment options, Tseng vs. ******, autologous serum, plugs vs. no plugs etc. I would be feeling incredibly lost and hopeless without this site.
Final note: my current treatment is 15 minute warm compresses 4x/day followed by lid massage and scrub with q-tip, Restasis 4x/day, Systante/Systane Free/TheraTears as needed, BioTears omega3, 100 mg oral doxycycline, and bilberry supplement. I've also tried warm chamomile tea bags on my upper lids since this is an old anti-inflammotory remedy. It seems like it's helped some so far. I tried FreshKote one time yesterday based on a sample my doctor gave me. It felt good for about 45 minutes, but then I felt a pressure (kind of like a sinus pressure) for about an hour after that. I think I'll hold off using it for a while longer. I just weaned off of Lotemax that I was on for 4 weeks. That helped the redness in my right eye go, but now the redness is back.
Ya' gotta believe things will get better.
I must add, however, that I had a solid 5 year track record with my eye problems at that time. My case also involves visual problems caused by lasik surgery besides the dry eyes. I am not correctible to 20/20 but more like 20/50-60ish on good days. 
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