Increased Tbut

[jimi51]

HI, I am two years post LASIK and of course a dry eye sufferer. My Tbut's have always been about 3-6 and an occasional 9. I saw my regular Dr. yesterday and I had tbut's of 16 and 18! I about fell out of the chair. She said I was doing so much better and could not believe it but I don't feel any better at all. Has any one experienced this before? I am wondering if I have some sort of nerve damage as well. Maybe the IPS tx helped, anyway I though this is worth posting, thanks to all!

Brad

[Sammy B.]

Brad I think this is great news!! Your TBUTs are normal!! Yowza.

What about those plugs? Do you have a need for them (aqueous deficiency)? Just curious if those are not necessary and thus causing more problems.

Rose

[Aaron77]

What about those plugs? Do you have a need for them (aqueous deficiency)? Just curious if those are not necessary and thus causing more problems.
Rose

This is something that I think about all the time - my eyes seem to be doing quite better these days although they still do feel pretty bad, just not as bad as a year ago - the thing that I worry about is that the plug in my right eye is causing me a lot of extra pain and agitation as it does'nt seem to be a great fit and rubs against my eyeball. Just to scared to get it taken out as I'm worried about my eyes going back to the way they were before and not being able to get another plug fit properly.

[Sammy B.]

Aaron, I fully expect to see you in the Triumphs section one of these days.

The answer could be as easy as asking your doctor. But start by asking yourself - do I have low Schirmers scores? If the answer is yes, then the plugs could be helping you.

From what I have learned, plugs don't really help those with quality problems (like me) because they are trapping bad tears on the surface of the eye. I didn't believe it at first, I thought plugs helped everyone, but then I went through the plug routine myself to realize that yes, it is possible for them to hinder, not help.

Just my $0.02.

Rose

[Rebecca Petris]

This is something that I think about all the time - my eyes seem to be doing quite better these days although they still do feel pretty bad, just not as bad as a year ago

Oh man, talk about small blessings but I really am sooooo glad to hear that.

the thing that I worry about is that the plug in my right eye is causing me a lot of extra pain and agitation as it does'nt seem to be a great fit and rubs against my eyeball. Just to scared to get it taken out as I'm worried about my eyes going back to the way they were before and not being able to get another plug fit properly.

Isn't that an awful dilemma with dry eye treatments. We get on stuff and eventually we get to this point of thinking, Well, it might be helping, it might be hurting, but I don't dare really find out by stopping!

Just a thought: See if your doc would agree to take it out but have a dissolvable plug on standby waiting for you if your symptoms worsen when it's out.

[jimi51]

Hi,
I'm sorry I did not get back to this thread earlier. It's funny, at the time of my eye exam (January 19th) it was morning and I felt kind of OK, not my ususal awful burning etc. and when the doctor told me I have "well healed LASIK flaps" and the high Tbuts and everything looks "great" I thought wow, maybe I am getting better. Than the past few days, I have been like I was a year ago.

I too am perplexed about the plug issue, I have four plugs and for sure my upper left rubs right in to my sclera causing off and on pain, in fact one of the reasons I went in was to ask about having it removed and then cauterized. I will see another Dr. tomorrow about that as the clinic I go to has a specialist for about everything. I am not sure yet about that but if it will eliminate the occasional "shot" I get when looking to my right it might be worth it. The question is, will my tbuts fall and I get worse if I did not have the plugs? Are the plugs responsible for the gains? Anyway I am also going to the Doheney Eye Institute in LA to see a Dr. who is trained at the BFS. I am going ahead to see if a sclera lens might help me. Oddly enough, my regular Dr. I saw the other day said "why would I want those big things in my eyes?" And then she kind of shook her head. In the beggining, I was always told that I was not producing good quality tears, that explains the low tbuts and Shirmmers. But now with the increase in Tbuts I should be better but I am not so now we have to rule out any permannet nerve damage from the LASIK and I was told that Dr. Chiu at Doheney will be able to determine that based on my exam there next week. Anyway, life still sucks pretty bad after LASIKS, what I would not do to have my old eyes back! Thanks

Brad

[Margaret]

hanging in there myself

I don't have much to add, except that I'm in the same bandwagon right now. My TBut's are always low (4-6) range. My dry eye expert said plugs wouldn't really help me, but I saw a different doc and she has dry eyes and said they helped her so I thought like you guys, why not?! I first had dissolvable plugs in and I don't think they did much because I could feel water going through them into my nasal passages. She then put in permanent plugs. At first I had some good days with them (but there are so many variables to dry eye, do I feel better because of the plugs, hard to say), but now I feel a very light gnawing pain in the area of the plugs. I also feel them hitting my eye but it doesn't seem painful. This is the second month of having them in and out of the blue about two weeks ago my right eye started tearing excessively. I thought it might help take the pain I feel in my right eye all the time, but it doesn't as I'm having a bad pain day today along with the excessive tears. UGH. At any rate, again, I don't offer any advice, so I apologize since this isn't what you are looking for, but I am here to at least offer my experience. I will be taking them out as soon as I can to see what happens. I agree with Rebecca, I can always go back to the dissolvable and I read here on a thread a person who has issues with the ducts because of repeated plug insertion and removal, so there can be some down side to using them afterall. I figure I'll go back to all naturale and start from scratch. Aaron, I have listened to your story through the posts and I'm always rooting for you. I just am rooting for you on the sidelines!

Margaret

[Margaret]

Brad, wondered if you had any update to your thread? I took my plugs out about two weeks ago and although they are a bit drier throughout the day, I'm not sure if I'll put them back in...

Just re-read your post and you thought about cauterizing and I wondered if you had that done yet?

Margaret