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My Intro and a Q on Progression

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  • My Intro and a Q on Progression

    Hi all. I'm a new member here and am also a member over on Rebecca's D'Eyealogues as well. I am amongst the group of individuals whose dilemmas were sparked by refractive surgery. It will be sixteen years ago this April that I had ALK (Automated Lamellar Keratoplasty) surgery. I was severely myopic (-14 & change) and I was young (20) and well, frankly vain. The surgery corrected my vision to a "sort of" 20/20 with haziness, ghosting, startbursts and mild dry eye. The dry eye was only a minor issue during year one of my recovery. I had little to no dry eye symptoms in the years that followed until two years ago. I'll go more into that in a bit, but I should also mention that back in 2000 I started to become nearsighted again and ended up bouncing around to 6 or 7 different O.D.'s and tried out about 1.7 billion different types of contact lenses (give or take a million ) trying to get some sort of vision & comfort solution. Long story short, I ended up finding an expert contact lens fitter on Long Island who specialized in fitting individuals with corneal complications who was able to fit me with lenses that gave me "good enough" vision and were comfortable enough to wear all day. The details of that of course are more a subject for the D'eyealogues site. But the point is, I had settled on a medium which I deemed livable.

    That is... 'til dry eye came back into my life in the fall of '06.

    At first, it simply meant having to limit my lens wearing time: a bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world. Last April, the dry eye got to a point that I had to stop wearing my lenses to work - I am a software engineer and easily spend 60+ hours a week in front of the computer. At that point, my O.D. said my dry eye was mild but he had me start taking Restasis. I am still on it, and have also been taking ~2800mg of Omega 3s daily, but I have gotten much worse. Since September, I have pretty much had a constant burning sensation in my left eye and an on again / off again gritty sensation in my right. My symptoms are at there worst when I am at the computer - and as I mentioned that's a pretty big chunk of my time.

    I just went back to my doctor last week and he confirmed that my condition has worsened. He said I have MGD and both of my corneas have some divots and abrasions. My current situation isn't horrible, but it's getting bad. What really concerns me is that it seems my condition has slowly, but steadily been getting worse over the last two years - so where am I going to be in another two??????? Does this just keep steadily progressing or do you level out at some point?

    I know there are many different causes for dry eye, and in my case the refractive surgery and extended computer time certainly don't help. But I am curious as to what others have experienced with regards to the progression of their symptoms. Has anyone been able to at least halt their progression???

  • #2
    My eyes feel much much better than they did at the "height" of my misery. Back then I had very little information, and didn't know how to help myself. The cause of my DE is lack of tear volume because of Sjogren's. I don't have MGD, but my eyes are still very dry and I have a tendency toward corneal and surface dry spots and chronic surface abrasion (tiny ones all over).

    I'm most miserable when inflammation flares up---when my lids get swollen. But I do "the routine" - I'm sure you know it: rice baggy warm compresses, lid scrubs, PF drops, Dr. Holly drops. I take the fish oil, too, and all of it has helped me tremendously. Just to be on the safe side, get a physical exam to check your thyroid, hormone levels, etc.---'cause those things can make your eyes dry.

    Some things to try, if you haven't already: moisture chamber glasses/wrap- arounds with foam. You might also consider getting a mild "plus" prescription put in them (helps with close work) with a special tint designed for computer users (it's sort of a light yellow-green---optician can explain it). I don't own a pair, but one shop I went into had a big display where you could try them on and look at a monitor to see the improvement.

    Nighttime protection is very important, too---so load up on moisture, use TranquiEyes goggles if you have them. It gives your eyes and chance to heal.

    Calli

    PS. Restasis didn't work for me. It made my eyes drier and caused me to have chronic Blepharitis. So give it a good try, but if you don't have improvement after a good 6-8 months, it might be making your eyes worse.

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