18 weeks since EpiLasek and still dry eyes

[Kate29]

It's been 18 weeks since my EpiLasek treatment and I'm starting to wonder where I'm standing right now. I know it can take months to recover, but it's been months already!

I didn't have dry eyes before the treatment. Actually, I was diagnosed dry eyes one week after the treatment, but didn't notice anything. Not for about a month or so. I only have minor problems during the day and artificial tears/Viscotears help well most of the time, thought I feel a bit of a sticky feeling today, but most of the time it's not a major issue.

My problems start at night. I use Viscotears in the evening, without them I would have problems opening my eyes in the morning. Again, not every night, but most nights. This night-time problem started about six weeks after the operation and is still persistent, and it really starts to worry me.

I'm not too sure whether it's getting worse, but it has definitely not got better over the past few weeks. I could live with it, it's actually quite unpleasant, but it does not affect my daily life since the problems only occur at night and in the morning and then disappear quickly.

The thing is, I'm not sure how severe my problems really are, I mean, how to classify them - are they still "minor" or are they already a "major dry eye problem" threatening my eyesight.

I'm not too convinced by Viscotears since they appear to give me relief for some hours, but then sometimes I have to get up at night to apply them again and still have that kind of sticky feeling in the morning (applying Viscotears then does actually sting quite a bit).

From your own experience, how do you judge my problem in terms of severeness? Optimax London said it's only a "bit of dry eyes", but to be honest, it feels a bit more than just "a bit".

Again, Optimax said the problem would go away (which was two months ago, have my next appointment in August). From your own experience, how are my chances that things will still get better after 18 weeks?

I'm aware of the fact that it might be a permanent condition, and as I said, I could well live with it if it wasn't for the night-time problems. The thing that scares me most is that this stickiness I experience at night might damage my eyes on the long run.

Again, to put it into the right perspective, there are nights when it's only a minor problem and Viscotears work fine. On the other hand, last night I woke up twice with watering red eyes. It's SCARY!

I will definitely talk to Optimax when I've got my next appointment, but since I've got no other problems (perfect vision, even at night, no halos, etc) I feel that they just play the problem down.

Sorry if I sound kind of "green behind the ears", but I've really never had any problems with dry eyes before, and just don't know where I'm standing right now, and with anything having to do with the eyes, you're naturally a bit worried, I guess (I know what you're thinking now, "you shouldn't have had the operation in the first place ...")

I'm kinda scared to end up blind, that's it. Please don't laugh!

[sazy123]

Hiya

You have a right to be worried when its about something as important as your eyes, so dont apologise for that.

I would say that if you only have problems from dry eye at night time and not in the day, so it doesn't interfer with your daily activites. You probaly do have a 'mild' form of dry eye. If you had anything more the symptoms would be more constant throughout the day. It sounds like the dry eye will get better as you are only 18 weeks out of the surgey and have lots of time for the nerves to regrow. I think as high as 50% can have mild dry eye anything up to 6 months.

The reason your eyes feel dryer when you sleep, is because the eyes naturally make less tears due to not blinking when you sleep. I wake up every morning not being able to open my eyes until i pour artifical tears into them/lid scrubs etc, and this is still happens despite using celluvisc, and then throughout the day i have constant symptoms. I consider my problem moderate/ severe. Although i have been told my eyes look 'mild'. There is very poor consistency in what you feel symptom wise and what you are told-signs. So i would go by your symptoms, not what they tell you (its the only realiable way). But from what you describe it does sound quite mild, so i wouldnt worry to much. thats not to say that your eyes may not be dryer now than they were before the surgery, as it is quite common, but if its only mild you should be ok.

To Add: Nerves take a while to recover after lasik, and it is not unusual for it to takes months - one year. For an unlucky 5% the nerves dont grow back or an underlying dry eye condition is triggered so it becomes chronic. Im not saying this to scare, but just to put it into perspective.

[Kate29]

Hi Sazy,

thanks for your quick reply. I feel a bit re-assured, and, although the reason for us being here in the first place is very unpleasant, I'm happy that I'm not alone.

I'm not yet desperate, I guess. I can live a normal life and I'm happy with the results of my operation, if it wasn't for the dry eyes. The "dirty contact lenses" feeling is an occasional occurance, although I spend about 9 hours a day in front of a computer screen. And as long as it's not getting worse ...

I actually thought my healing process was fine since I have such a good vision! I can't be that desperate because I'm happy to sit it out, can I?

[Hangus]

Kate
I think that you may find that it will ease as time goes by. You certainly don't sound as if its at the chronic stage yet and it is still early days.
Just a point with Optimax; both myself and Prattstar (Ian) had our epi lasek done there and we have had various interactions with the owner and clinics so it might be an idea for you to read our previous posts. Whatever you do don't be frightened by what you read there, as I say it sounds like your problems are relatively minor
Barry

[Kate29]

Hi Barry,

thanks a lot for your reply. Have finally made my way through most of the posting about Lasik & dry eyes here, and I appreciate there are a lot of worse cases here. Still it seems like a roller coaster and I'm not too well these days. Even had some problems during the day yesterday and today and now even the jelly doesn't help very much. Had to use drops every hour in the afternoon.

Plans:
1. No make-up for a while.
2. Drink more
3. Stop smoking.
4. Take cod liver oil - local Tesco doesn't sell flax seed, neither does Sainsbury's. Uhm, maybe Holland & Barrett??

Have been thinking about plugs. Do you know whether they are available on the NHS

It's good to know that I'm still in the early healing phase, and maybe I just worry too much ... that it might get worse. As I said, I'm having a particularly bad phase of dry eyes right now.

Kate

[ihatedryeye]

Kate29: something that might help you along in the healing process is restasis. I see your in the UK. you can buy it from www.edrugnet.com . people on here have bought it from this site and they said its quite legit. You should be monitored by your eye doc whilist on it. just a thought..

[Rebecca Petris]

IHDE,

Do I understand correctly that Restasis can be purchased on that website without a prescription?

Does anybody know anything about that site and if they have purchased Restasis or other Rx drugs there please let me know. I'm sorry to nitpick and I sincerely appreciate your helpfulness but I have to be careful about this sort of thing when it comes to prescription drugs and I will remove the link unless I can verify what the situation is. - I got partway through the checkout process and it did not appear to require a prescription. It did not provide drug details and the picture of the label sample was expired.

[sazy123]

Hi rebecca i have bought it from this website so did helen not sure who else. Ive been using it for 3 months. As far as i can tell it is genuine. i think i said this in the europe forum. I used restasis before (someone sent me some) and it looks exactly the same, box viles instructions etc. They are sealed the same i dont think someone could replicate them that exactly. i think it is available because they get it from thailand (there are also thai instructions) where regulations are less strick.

As far as im aware Its not illegal for them to sell it without RX coz there are loop holls in the law.
If you want to remove the link, people can PM me if they want the link

although i will check expiry dates on mine, thats a good point.

Oh here is the thread where its talked about: http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=2442

[Kate29]

Kate29: something that might help you along in the healing process is restasis. I see your in the UK. you can buy it from www.edrugnet.com . people on here have bought it from this site and they said its quite legit. You should be monitored by your eye doc whilist on it. just a thought..

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try, but I'll have a chat with my doctor first, though.

Try to be careful since it'd be the first time I buy medicine online.

Kate.

[sazy123]

Kate29 being in the UK, your eye doctor might not know much about restasis, so i would print some info off about it to show him otherwise youll probaly get an ignorant reply about it because they are not aware of what it is (the unknown and all that). Just talking from my experiance. I personaly dont have an eye doctor anymore coz i couldnt find one that knows more than me about dry eye and they cant do much else for me anyway, and cost ££ for the privaledge. But it is widely used in the states and most dry eye patients are put on it, and is a standard treatment for dry eye.

[Kate29]

That's the point, Sazzy, it's $88 for 32 sachets of restasis, that's about £55. I probably don't suffer enough, yet. Good sign?

[sazy123]

well one box can last 2 months if the open vile is kept upright in the fridge. So one vile can last 1/2days. so then its not as bad.

Only you can decide that..

[Rebecca Petris]

vile ...

My inner spelling freak and my inner Restasis caviller are locked in a vicious battle over whether to correct this or leave it alone

[sazy123]

vile oh yea my bad vial-if you were gonna correct my spelling you will be here all day!

[Hangus]

Kate
In terms of flax seed oil you will find that the larger Tescos do sell 90 x 1000 mg capsules for £4.99. Not sure if it does much good but it is good health supplement anyway.
With regard to NHS don't expect too much either from your GP or consultants. I eventually ended up at a consultant who blew his top and sent a very terse letter to Optimax telling them to sort their own problems out!
Apart from that knowledge and treatemnt options are very patchy.
As a tip try to log how your eyes feel each day so that you can log progress because it is difficult to remember just how bad they are when they are at their worse. I used to allocate a percentage "normality" rating to my eyes each day.
Barry