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I had LASIK in early January 2006. For the first month, I had no discomfort. But then the dryness symptoms kicked in quite intensely until they dissipated in late October 2006 (though, admittedly, there were certainly periods that were quite ok during these nine months). From November 2006 until a couple of weeks ago, the symptoms were almost complete gone (with the exception of some burning when I was exposed to chlorine in the pool). But they symptoms came back a couple of weeks ago. This naturally makes me very concerned. Has anybody else had similar experiences? What is going on here? Thanks for a great site.
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Hi,
Your case has a lot of characteristics like mine. I had Lasik on April 2007. I continued to suffer from dry eyes until October 2007. This is a lot longer than the period of about 4 months that dry eyes is supposed to last due to the surgery. Let me add a significant detail. I leave in Greece, where the climate in summer is quite dry. My eyes stopped bothering me around October, which is the period we stopped using air-conditioning. From October 2007 until March 2008, I felt a lot better and I very rarely (like twice a month) felt the need to use natural tears. I then attributed my dry eyes to air-conditioning.
However, 3 weeks ago and even though the weather, is not so hot as to use air-conditioning, and not that dry, my eyes started to bother me a lot. I know use natural tears 3-4 times a day. I went to an "eye doctor" and gave me a gel, called liposic, for use esp. at night, but have not seen much of a difference. He also measured my tear production and said that the production is around average for the left eye and better than average on the right. However, both feel dry.
I am especially, dissapointed since I thought, that I was lucky enough (considering other conditions I have read on this forum), to get away from Lasik, with mild dry eyes. Now I am not so sure how mild my condition is.
There is one caveat to all this though. I am on Chantix ( trying to quit smoking). Even though dry eyes is not listed as one of the primary side-effects, because I started having dry eyes again around the period I started the medication, it might be related.
Other than that let me add my experience about LASIK. I feel that I have been lied to, about the side-effects of this procedure. It was presented to me, not only by the surgeon, but also from media and ophthalmologists around the world and I quote here "...as one of the safest surgeries that can be done...". This quote comes from a panel of ophthalmologists on TV a few months ago.
After my experience, I have prevented at least 3 more relatives from having the surgery.
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