Tired / Sore Eyes & Headaches

[Missy]

I know that some of you have dry eye problems similar to mine and I wanted to ask if you ever experienced any light sensitivity or problems with glare after surgery. I am now about 2 months out and my eyes are still really dry. I am dealing with this but I am having some strange feeling effects from it. My eyes often feel sore and achy and so do my eyelids - like they are heavy. I also get headaches sometimes and or little pains that shoot through my eyes/head if I look at something funny or maybe something really bright. I told my dr. about these things, he just seemed to think it was all dry eye stuff. Did you have ANY problems like these? If so could you let me know what symptoms you may have had. I don't have any nausea or dizziness with my headaches at this time and my vision is good. This has been worrisome for me b/c I don't know if anyone has experienced similar things.
Thanks a bunch!

[Rebecca Petris]

Missy,

Light sensitivity (photophobia) is a classic symptom of dry eye, and is also present with some other corneal problems.

By chance did you have IntraLASIK (where the flap is cut with the IntraLase laser rather than a microkeratome blade)? There is a well-known photophobia syndrome some people experience after IntraLASIK. It usually goes away relatively soon.

Here is a link to a little more information about that syndrome over on LaserMyEye:
http://www.lasermyeye.org/encyclopedia/tls.html

[Missy]

I had regular wavefront lasik, where they cut the flap with the blade. I did read that dry eyes can cause light sensitivity and that it does normally go on away. It was good to read this - I would hate to have headaches and sore eyes permanently - the dry eyes are bad enough. My poor eyes are just not used to being so dry and sensitive. When they get really tired they kind of start to feel bruised.

Thanks for the info. in the article. If anybody else has thoughts I'd love to hear them.

Missy

[dianat]

Missy,

I have dry eye post-LASIk, three year surgery anniversary this month in fact. I am very light sensitive. The light actually makes my eyes water immediately even with my Panoptx in place, and then my burn increases. My tears are too salty or something. I really don't have a good explanation as to why my tears hurt my eyes. Anyway, my light sensitivity continues, but that doesn't mean that yours will.

I don't feel the bruising like you described, but I did get headaches for a long time after LASIK. I blame the fact that with dry, burning eyes I "hold" my eyes differently, I'm far more tense, I don't move them around as much so as to protect them from air...all these things contribute to a tightening of my forehead and eye muscles, thus resulting in a tired-eye feeling and headaches. It's actually only recently I managed to get this under control. It's a lousy way to function, that's for sure.

You're are still in an early phase of all this and will hopefully see some real improvement. Take good care of yourself. You still have a lot of healing to do.

Diana

[Missy]

My headaches are feeling a bit better this week. I'm trying to rest my eyes when I can and I'm using lots of lubricating drops.

Diana, Did your eyes water at all right after your surgery, I don't think that I'm making many tears right now. Do you have Blepharitis? It can makes your tears burn your eyes - I think. I have Blepharitis and now know that I also had it before surgery. I'm afraid that it is going to cause me a lot of problems down the road. I also wanted to find out if your eyes were dry before your lasik surgery? I think I may have had some symptoms, but I didn't know what it was.

Sorry for all the questions! I'm full of them today.

Missy

[dianat]

Missy,

I'm glad you've gotten some relief from your headaches. For me, simply understanding that my tension (due to discomfort, depression, etc.) was causing my headaches helped me to alleviate them somewhat.

To answer your ?'s...

My eyes were bone dry after surgery. My eyes fogged over all the time - so much so I recall driving my son to preschool blinking like crazy just to improve my vision and get rid of the fogginess. It was bad. Lower plugs didn't do much for me. I had cautery done in the lowers and uppers and that's when I experienced an excess of tears - salty, uncomfortable tears, but tears nonetheless.

Nobody has ever diagnosed me with blepharitis. In fact, less than a year ago I saw a local doc who was supposed to be the one who sees dry eye patients in town. He told me if I hadn't shared all my complaints and discomfort, he wouldn't even know anything was wrong with me. It's hard to believe that's possible, but that's what he said.

I know for a fact that my lids are puffier than they were before surgery. In fact, one's larger than the other. Still, though, I've seen many experts who haven't found a thing wrong.

I never sensed my eyes being dry before surgery...never...not even in the mornings. One important clue, however, was that I was completely contact lens intolerant. I was uncomfortable in a contact immediately upon putting them in...not five or so hours into wear time...immediately. I was told then that it must be from dry eyes. When I reviewed this with my LASIK doc he said my eyes didn't look bad at all. So, perhaps there are some elements to this whole tear thing that docs just don't understand. Maybe meibomian gland dysfunction can cause lens intolerance. I can't even be sure I had MGD problem before surgery. I just don't know.

Good luck putting the pieces together. It's quite a puzzle. I don't think I'll ever find all the answers to the questions I have regarding my surgery/condition. I can only hope something comes along that makes us all whole lot more comfortable than we are today.

Diana

[Missy]

Hi Diana,
I went to my doctor (not my lasik dr., my reg. eye doctor) this week b/c my eyes were SO gritty and irritated. He gave me an anti-inflammatory drop to try for a week or so. I've been using this for a couple of days and it has helped a lot with the grittiness. My eyes still feel really dry, but right now they don't feel like they have sand in them. I know this is maybe only a temp. little fix but it's nice to have a little relief. My dr. said that Blepharitis makes the tears frothy and they don't coat the eye - this causes burning. Since everything in my eyes was inflamed, maybe the anti-inflammatory will give them a little break and a chance to heal somewhat.

I wanted to tell you that I don't have a lot of the typical Bleph. symtoms either. My eyes just are puffy and the oil glands get stopped up. Sometimes the area around my lashline looks irritated. I don't get a lot of discharge or matting around my lashes. I also have some burning, which may be from dry eyes or Bleph. I don't know. The only other symptom I have is that my lashes, in general, don't look at that healthy right now. I lose them easily and they have a funny bronzy color at the base.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share the info. that I have. I'm hoping that the anti-inflammatory will get the inflammation under control and then the Restais (also has some anti-inflammatory) will be able to keep it down. I'll have to wait and see.

Hope you're having a good day today.
Missy

[dianat]

Thank you, Missy. I am having a good day today.

Your experience is very interesting to me. I'm glad the anti-inflammatory is giving you some relief. We need that break - even if it is temporary.

Are you cleaning your lids and lashline at all? In other words, are you doing lid scrubs? I probably should try doing that again, but never felt much difference in the past. To tell you the truth, I think the baby shampoo was irritating them. I've also tried the pre-packaged pads and still had trouble. I should just try good 'ole saline and give that a shot some time.

Something I notice almost every day I'll admit is that my eyes feel better before my shower than after. And trust me, I do not get soap in them. Perhaps I'm washing away some helpful oils? While I'm actually in the shower things are great, of course.

I hope your relief continues, Missy. What is it you are using for inflammation, by the way?

Diana

[Missy]

Diana,

I'm using an anti-inflammatory drop called Lotemax. My doctor gave me a small bottle of it for a week and if it helps then I'm going to use it for a couple of more weeks (I think.) I'm going back to see him next Wed.

After I found out that I had Blepharitis I started doing the warm compresses immediately and then when I was one month out of my surgery I started doing the scrubs with johnson's baby shampoo. I did them 2 times a day for 10 days and now I do them once a day in the morning. I put a little bit of shampoo in a dixie cup and then fill it up with warm water. I use a washcloth to gently just wash all along my lashes (I do tops and then rinse, open my eyes and clean the bottems and then rinse again.) I have tried the eyescrub pads also but they really irritated the skin around my eyes. I'm also careful to not use too much of the shampoo in my scrubs b/c that can irritate my eyes too.

Since I use an ointment at night - Moisture Eyes PM - the baby shampoo scrubs also help clean the goo off my eyes in the morning. I'd have to wash them anyway to get this stuff off and this is a gentle way to do it.

Glad your day is going well.
Missy