Please share your experience with corneal neuropathy

[hosanna13]

Hi everyone,

I am 5 months post-LASIK and have been suffering with dry eyes ever since. My eyes seems to be slowly recovering, but it seems this ordeal is far from over. Some days are definitely better than others, and my right eye seems worse than my left. Some days I have severe pain in my right eye, and I just can't figure out if it's due to dryness or corneal neuropathy.

For those of you who have been diagnosed with corneal neuropathy, could you please share your experience and pain sensations?

I feel pain mostly in the inner corner portion of my sclera, and it's a burning/menthol/pressure type pain that comes and goes. If it's corneal neuropathy, does it have to hurt 24.7? I have some days where it doesn't hurt, but just a general sensation of soreness.

My current regimen:
Saline washes 2x day (AM, PM)
Restasis 2x day (AM, PM)
Refresh celluvisc before going to bed

I only use Refresh Optive Advanced on really bad days, no more than 3x day. I don't like being dependent on drops. I feel like the more you use them, the more you'll need them.

Thanks and take care,

Gina

[rosye]

Gina, the kind of pain you described seems most likely to be neuropathy. Yes, the pain comes and goes, and it's related to external conditions (in my case, computer use, air conditioners, dry enviroment, wind, etc) to somewhat extent - that means, generally I will get worse under these conditions, but how worse is variable (apparently to no specific cause).

I only have neuropathy on my left eye. I'm 5 years from my lasik. The baseline sensations include constant burning, dryness and sometimes itchiness (the general soreness you feel). When I get worse, I can feel like there are needles pinned in my lower eyelid, or if a sand grain or eyelash got into my eye. At it's worst, all these sensations are accompanied by this pressure feeling that can go down to the base of my teeth and pulsate.

I basically diagnosed myself. 3 years ago, when I got a job and was about the give it up for the pain, and since the eyedrop treatment wasn't working, I went for a pain specialist and begged him to prescribe me amitriptyline, a neuropathic pain drug. Since the first day I took it, it worked to lessen the pain, and I've been taking it ever since. It was an empirical diagnosis.

Some months ago, at Dr. Rosenthal suggestion, I did a confocal microscopy and the images for the left and right eye turned out to be completely different. You can see the inflamation and lack of viable nerves in the left cornea, in comparison to the somewhat healthy right one. Then, the diagnosis was closed.

So I reccomend you to do this test and try some oral neuropathic pain medication. For us, eyedrops are a confort, but not a treatment, unless you have some other condition besides the neuropathy. But you have to get the right diagnosis to know what treatment is the best for you.

I'm currently working from home and less dependent on the medication (since it has it's side effects too), but I can only function at an office environment at high doses of it. Also, I can no longer live without my protective goggles (Wiley X Airrage). Again, you'll have to try some models before adopting your favorite one. I know the googles aren't preety, but they give you so much relief that you'll need less drops or pills just by using them.