Sinus problems from dry eyes?

[thomps1]

Hi,

I had Lasik surgery in April of this year and the first 4 to 5 months were miserable - very dry, painful eyes. Have since improved, but have noticed an onset of sinus pain (behind the eyes, into the nose, sometimes into my teeth - like a classic head cold), which actually became more noticeable when I had plugs inserted about 2 months after surgery. Am seeing an ear, nose, throat specialist tomorrow and am thinking of taking the plus out (only have lowers in) to see if it helps the sinus issue, but was wondering if anyone else had any experience with this? I had read on one site that the introduction of plugs can sometimes disrupt the natural flow of moisture into the sinuce cavity, which can lead to sinus pain....but hey, I don't always believe evertything I read on the internet (such as Lasik provder's guarantees that life will be grand afterwards!!)

Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated!

[Margaret]

Sinus problems

Hey there!
Yes, sadly I have the same problem. I went to an ear/nose/throat doc and there isn't much he said he could do. He said he could look into my sinuses even further with instruments but thought that would be too intrusive. My left sinus is almost always "stuffed up" like a cold and my right is always so clear it's cold when I breathe in. NEVER had that, except for when I had a cold before. When it was really bad, a couple of months back, I used to actually put eye drops up into my nose. It sort of helps.... nothing is a cure.
Here is my theory: you have less water in your eyes because of the surgery. You plug the eyes up in hope to have less dry eye, but then trade that for no water in your sinuses. Now that you are 7-8 months out and your dry eye is better, maybe the nerves are healing and you actually have more water in your eyes which means you can go down from a permanent big plug to a temp plug that only plugs up half. Right now I have those temp plugs and when I put drops in I can feel the drops going down into my sinuses almost immediately. Since I still have severely dry eyes, I'm going to try to trade up next week to the big perm type you told me about. We'll have to compare notes!

Glad to hear your eyes are improved. I dream of that day!

Margaret

[Lucy]

If either of you have heard of a Neti Pot, perhaps you shoul look into getting one.

Google one and you'll find out what it is. It can help with sinus. stuffy nose problems.

[Guest]

I second the Neti Pot recommendation! A few weeks ago, I started using a Neti Pot twice per day.. it's made a HUGE difference in my congested sinuses... it's not perfect, but still a huge improvement. My sinuses and nasal passages were not runny, just really dry... it seemed the drier they got, the more stuffed up they would feel. (all allergy tests are negative, so presumably, it's not due to allergies either) For some reason, the left side of my nose is the worst for getting stuffed up. When sleeping, I can only sleep on my left side if I want to have any hope of breathing through my nose rather than my mouth during sleep.

My dry nose definitely got worse after having my puncta plugged up too... but it's worth it for me since the improvement in my eyes is more than the annoyance of the dry nose thing...

[GinaJ]

When they could not figure out why I had dry eye and bleph they thought maybe my sinuses contibuted. I also went to the ear,nose,throat doctor. I starte dto have severe ear pain from the eye felt like. I had an mri too of that area by the neurologist which showed nothing. I was rx nose spray which actually made things for me worse and more pressure. I have an odd body though so it may help you. I also thought I had an ear infection but did not though the doctor felt I had fluid in my ear so put me on meds for that. It was not the fluid though causing it cause later it became worse. I could not tolerate the plugs they caused a lot of pain. Some people the eye doctor said it does that to and why the temp ones are important to start with. Have you been to an allergist? I was thinking maybe some of the sinus issues may be an allergy. Some people the eye doctor said do benefit from nose spray and it lessens the pressure. I hope you get some answers and relief at your apt.