dealing with a dry eye crisis

[shells]

I was just searching around on the Laser My Eye Site, and found an interesting thread from last month. It was about dealing with stress and depression after a bad refractive surgery outcome. Rebecca had posted the following link:

http://www.lasermyeye.org/keratoscoo...06aug2003.html

I found that this really applied to me and might be helpful to others as well. It is geared towards those with bad refractive surgery outcomes, but I think it would also apply to the feelings that some experience when first diagnosed with DES for other reasons, so I thought I'd post it here.

-Shells

[Peggy]

Great article shells,Christina Howells who wrote the article has had many lasik complications-I wonder what they are? I think the two words Life Crisis sum it up. Hope things are going better for you! Peggy

[Missy]

That was a great article. Thanks for posting a link to it!

I may have to print it out to share with my husband when I'm feeling really low. He trys to be very understanding but I know that it is difficult for him to understand what I'm dealing with sometimes.

[L_Oswald]

dry eye depression and lasik

I know it is several years since you posted this .. did things improve ..? how does one cope with the self blame for putting yourself through refractive surgery and coming out of it with a real life ruining situation .. I still can't forgive myself.. It eats me up
L_Oswald

[shells]

Hi L_Oswald,

Wow, I completely forgot about this thread. As for the guilt, I can honestly tell you that Missy, Peggy, and I are all 200% better emotionally!!!! I haven't talked to Missy in forever, but I think her eyes made a complete turn around at some point. I still have eye problems, but I am so much better at coping with them. You will find that with time, things get easier. That seems to be the trend for most of us.

I no longer consider my lasik as a "life ruining" experience. Sure, I still wish I hadn't done it, and my life has certinaly changed because of it, but I still have a good life. Eventually I got to a point where I just accepted my problems as eye problems, not post-lasik problems. That was big for me because it helped me lose the guilt and the regret. It's been over 3 years for me now, and it is pretty rare that I sit around and dwell on my lasik. I focus on taking care of my eyes, and try not to think about how they got that way. I really hope that with time you are able to do the same. Not sure how far out from surgery you are, but most people do go on to feel much better physically as well as emotionally. Hang in there!

-Shells