Tried the Amniotic Membrane treatment

[MGD1701]

Hi DryEyeNJ
The effective way to find dr is open a new topic and ask for recommendation for doctors near your city. Then you dont need to be a wild goose. Good luck!
Early stage of MGD - glands looks normal - so it is very very important dr muss 'press' glands to check the function.

[PhoenixEyes]

While the membrane was in the eye, the eye felt great. No blinking pain and I was able to cut down my eye drop usage. [...] My pain trigger is blinking.

When I had Prokera amniotic membrane in I kept my eye closed throughout the treatment and also felt reduced pain. Even though the Prokera is a very large lens with a hard plastic ring which my doctor felt might be terribly uncomfortable for me.

Prokera was mainly used to reduce inflammation for me but it was also hoped it might help the dry eye which is off-license usage at the moment in the UK here. Luckily it was fully funded on the NHS for me due to the rarity and severity of my case. I think it helped the inflammation and would still recommend it but wasn't a cure for me.

When mentioning to my doctor that I felt reduced pain with the Prokera in, my doctor said that would probably be the same for any bandage contact lens. With that in mind scleral contact lens would maybe be an option to stop my eyelid abrading my eye, but I've never been a contact lens wearer before and totally sympathise with your reluctance. Also scleral fitting isn't as advanced here as in America so I think there'd be a lot of issues. I'm hoping autologous serum might be an answer for me so I can avoid contacts, but still keeping sclerals on the table as an option.

From your list, other things not tried to exhaust may be:

Moisture chamber glasses during the day such as Ziena, WileyX, 7Eye
Autologous serum eye drops
Platelet Rich Plasma eye drops

Also of course not all non-preservative drops are equal and some are more effective for one individual than another. I use Sodium Hyaluronate eye drops if you haven't already tried them, stuff like Hylo-Forte, Hylogel etc.
Same with ointments of course, there's also VitA-Pos, Genteal Gel, Xailin Night etc.

You can also investigate allergies and intolerances.

But ultimately I'd suggest if you exhaust all other things first to give sclerals a go as the pain and suffering can be of greater psychological impact than the reminder of LASIK. Being in America there's a lot of options to help get a comfortable fitting scleral with less fogging (e.g. plasma treatment) etc. Hope you find relief.