Accutane a long time ago?

[lboogie]

Not that this really matters much post-lasik. But I took accutane like 16 years ago. Could that be making my post-lasik recovery worse?

I'm just so bummed, b/c now in retrospect, I'm sure that I was one of those "sub-clinical" cases..............my contacts did get dry but only after long days of wear, smoky bars, or sleeping in them. And I did always have a lot of eye boogers.

It's so hard not to think about "what if" or "why"

[LasikLady]

Both my kids and their dad were on Accutane. It literally "healed" their acne. Gone. They got pimples here and there but the cyctic acne was horrific and now it's gone. My daughter, age 17, has what I think is extremely mild dry eye. All she notices is sometimes in the car when the air is going she has mild dryness and sometimes feels it in the grocery store. I was kicking myself after I got this dry eye for allowing her to go on that medication. But then I remember how she suffered with the acne and how thank God we caught it while it was on her back but not on her beautiful face. She needed to be on it and so did her brother. It was the ONLY thing that stopped their acne. I think it permanently changes your glands and that is why the acne doesn't usually come back again. So maybe it contributes to what you are going through now. But you didn't know and you did what you had to do for yourself at the time.
I know what probably goes on in your mind. I have lived it. Looking back and trying to detect any signs that you may have been prone to this condition. And then being filled with regret if you think of something you may have missed and torturing yourself with it. You did the best you could for yourself at the time and you got this surgery to help yourself, not hurt yourself. You have no blame in this, there is no way you could have known you would have this complication. I think this is a process everyone goes through and it's worse in the beginning. Lately I've been better in this regard. Seeing what the people here have gone through and how they have found manageable relief encouraged me so much. And hopefully it will encourage you too. You are so going to improve from where you are now. People here told me this and so I will tell you, please try and get to a place where you can let go of the regrets and live each day doing what you can to help your symptoms while your eyes heal. And there will be healing, it just takes a lot of time. Try to be patient and hang in there. You are not alone.

[Lucy]

There has been talk of Accutane on this board before. I remember one young man who had a bad case of dry eyes attributed to Accutane. His name was "untkicker" and you can do a search on his name or Accutane for more info.

Lucy

[kuby]

Hi,

I just got back from my visit to an ophthalmologist today and he diagnosed with me bleph. He noticed that I have mild acne on my forehead and said to see a dermatologist about this and that going on medication to clear my skin may help the MGD as well. I guess my oil glands and pores tend to get clogged pretty easily. He mentioned Accutane, but cautioned me since it can have some nasty side effects. MGD MAY have some correlation to acne and acne medications so if you've been on Accutane before you should probably mention that to your ophthalmologist. I'm also afraid that Accutane will dry out my eyes, even though it might help with the clogged glands..

[nick]

I have permanent and severe dry eyes as a result of using accutane as well. The odds of it happening from accutane seem to be low based on medical research, but I have one friend in the real world and have found several people online with the same issues, though most people seem to have more minor effects than me. So yeah, it's quite possible. Only advice I can offer is that doxy seems to help some for me, as do eye plugs (I have all four puncta plugged).

Sorry man. Best of luck with the lasik recovery. Hope things aren't too bad for you!

Nick

[Anthony16]

I have permanent and severe dry eyes as a result of using accutane as well. The odds of it happening from accutane seem to be low based on medical research, but I have one friend in the real world and have found several people online with the same issues, though most people seem to have more minor effects than me. So yeah, it's quite possible. Only advice I can offer is that doxy seems to help some for me, as do eye plugs (I have all four puncta plugged).

Sorry man. Best of luck with the lasik recovery. Hope things aren't too bad for you!

Nick

Hi nick,are your eyes the same now as they were back then?I have the same problem and its depressing
Thanks
A

[cvowr]

And I did always have a lot of eye boogers.

Hi,

I've never done lasik surgery, but I had an accident with UVC. Next day I woke up with drastic reduction of eye boogers. The first 4 days I did not have any symptoms, beyond the reduction of eye boogers. Gradually were appearing symptoms such as dry eye and photophobia. Currently I almost no produce eye boogers and I've used various eyedrops, but no very effective…I had loss at least of goblet cells (detected by rose bengal - other vivid stainings did not work very well - and impression cytology) and of central retinal function (only detected by the multifocal electroretinogram - mfERG).

SEE THIS:

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...ght=#post68813

Hugs

[DCRdryeye]

I took accutane back around 1987. It cured my acne. Whilst it's very drying, I'm not sure if I want to blame it on causing dry eyes 20 yrs later! Perhaps a meta-analysis study could reveal some interesting results here.

[Jenn1]

I think blaming accutane alone if its been more than a few years is slightly pushing it as other factors could be at play and just undiagnosed, such as auto immune disorders. Spoke to the old derm today and she said my eyes will heal in time from accutane, but I very much doubt it!