Question for everyone here with Dry Eye and were/did consider Lasik

[Natalie06]

I would like to send all the stories on this board from people with Lasik induced severe dry eye and/or those of you with pre-existing Dry eye/dry eye symptoms who were told that you were "excellent" candidates for Lasik to the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Ethics Committee as well as to my state medical board and the ASCRS. The stories here are so compelling about the risks of this surgery and the risks that Lasik surgeons are willing to take with people's eyes that I am hoping that the sheer numbers might make some impression, even though I know they are a small % of the Lasik population. I also want these entities to address the "is pre-exisiting DES a contra-indication for Lasik or not and under what circumstances do they endorse performing Lasik for the Dry Eye Patient.

However, I can't/won't do that without you and Rebecca's knowledge or consent.

So please let me know what you think of the idea.

Natalie

[sazy123]

I think this is a really good idea, i cant give any consent coz i didnt have lasik. But im sure others will, anyone?

[Rebecca Petris]

Sorry I forgot to reply to this Natalie.

I think that while I fully support the idea, the route I'd be most comfortable with is for individual users to be contacted for permission to use specific posts. I recognize that that is a lot of work though.

Any others have thoughts about this?

[Nicole2]

Hi Natalie

I have dry eyes after Lasik I got my operation done in Romania. Well I was told i am not a good candidate and I did take my chance on this one. I have it sorted now with cauterisation.

nicole

[dianat]

Natalie,

I wrote my personal LASIK story so it would do some good somewhere. You have my permission to use it and anything else I have added to this site. If you need to contact me personally, please leave me a PM and I will share my email address.

Please know I did not have an obvious dry eye issue per se prior to LASIK. I was, however, completely contact lens intolerant for much of my life. This is also contra-indication for LASIK candidates. It's also an obvious sign of dry eye.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=53

Diana

[YGB]

Hi Natalie – I was just passing by to see if someone had discovered a dry eye cure and saw your post. It inspired me to come out of the woodwork and say that I think it is a great idea and I applaud your efforts to help others during a very difficult time in your life.

By the way, there was yet another LASIK article discussing the risks of LASIK in the Chicago Tribune on 8/21/07. It’s good to see increasing media exposure, but I especially like your plan of directly asking the AAO and ASCRS some long overdue questions.

I’ve posted the Chicago Tribune link below …

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...,2973652.story

All my best.

YGB

[Rebecca Petris]

Thanks for posting the Tribune link, YGB - I meant to and forgot. Nice job Barbara and Dr. Hartzok for getting a major paper to do that.

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with someone who is very dry at night, but manages to wear contacts during the day with frequent use of drops, and has a -9.50 prescription. She has two doctors who have been absolutely insistent with her that she not even THINK about getting laser surgery - period, ever. I was so impressed. I guess I am jaded from reading forever on D'Eyealogues from hopefuls who have high scripts and are contact lens intolerant and are all encouraged by their doctors to believe that LASIK (or PRK) will solve their problems.

Anyway, this same lady went to a local doctor recently who strongly encouraged her to consider LASIK and when she told of her reasons why she would not, he basically told her her information was out of date and "things have changed". - She actually scheduled an evaluation - but later cancelled it. It is hard for consumers to protect themselves adequately, when the appeal is naturally so strong and there seem to be far more doctors marketing it aggressively to people in higher risk categories, even dismissing the idea of increased risk, than doctors who don't.

It seems to me that when it comes to dry eye, we've made depressingly little progress in LASIK in the last 10 years - other than that now most informed consents mention it and many doctors put their patients on Restasis right after - and sometimes before - surgery. These days it's fashionable to talk about it and much lip service is paid to dry eye BUT the fundamentals are no different than before: The failures to screen, the absence of a thorough discussion of the patient's history (ctl intolerance, etc) and the reasons for it, the failure to understand and convey the potential seriousness of post lasik dry eye, and the failure to acknowledge that there really are people in higher risk categories other than Sjogrens! (And come to think of it, there was a long study and editorial in one of the journals awhile back making an argument FOR doing lasik on people with Sjogrens.)

The heck with it. Natalie, use whatever posts you want, just please remove all names.

[Guest]

Natalie

I have no issue with you using any of my posts.

I wish you well

Ian