LipiFlow device - what the????

[farmgirl]

OMG Sophie no wonder you are in such agony. Nothing to do with BC I am guessing. I don't think it is your ONLY chance to save them though. Does your Dr do IPL because I understand it is better than Lipiflow. My Dr. says it helps about 90% of his patients but then I am sure he is selective about who he treats. You would be a candidate for sure. One caveat though is that IPL cannot be done on dark skinned people so being Hispanic that may leave you out.

What really makes me angry is all of those Drs who kept telling you that your glands were fine even when you were popping out gobs of stuff. Be gentle with them you don't want to do damage to the ones you have left. Leave the degunking up to the dr, and express them gently.

The good news is that there is a therapy in the offing that is promising for revitalizing them.

http://eyedoc2020.blogspot.com/2017/...asma-into.html

If your only choice is lipiflow (due to cost/location) I would take it over doing nothing.

[sophie0416]

https://ibb.co/iSOLZm

[MGD1701]

Hi Sophie
Your dr is right - based on my experience and all I have read - although there are other opinions: IPL, Mibo or manual expression.
Our gland status is pretty similiar - LipiFlow opened ALL my glands & helped about 65% in 2 months.
I did it 1.5 years ago. Seems ONE LipiFlow treatment can last for 2-3 years, studies show, according to some American doctors.

Inflammation and scar tissue: Did dr mention them?
Normally if you have them, you should deal with these first, prior to LipiFlow, for better results.
What treatment plans he recommends you do at home?
Great, you are proactive and finally got the PROPER diagnosis.

It is so shocking to know that many doctors still do NOT examine glands yet tell us, ''ALL OK''.
It only takes 5 seconds & so simple/inexpensive (only with finger/q-tip).
WHY?? No time, no knowledge or dont care? We pay the prices anyway, not them?? so unfair!

[sophie0416]

Well guys I’m literally crying in my doctors office cause they just checked my glands and did the Meibography.

I have a bunch of dead and atrophied glands.

Remeber once I asked about dark spots between my glands? That’s right your guessed, dead glands.


I am absolutely devastated.

The doctor is one of the best ones in Virginia and I am glad I drove 2 hours to meet him. I don’t feel like driving back home though. I really want to stay in bed and cry.

My glands are super atrophied and a few left. He’s offering lipiflow to save the few I have left . Is it worth it? I’ve been reading a lot and sometimes people say they get more irritation and no help. He’s telling me this is my only chance to save the glands I have left.

Is it true? What do I do?

[Bodziu]

Hi,
had 4 IPL's already, well kind a better but some days are bad (what's new) and some days not too bad. So not sure if that 600$ was worth it I suppose yes as I'm better I think but don't expect miracle here.
B

[mbperso]

Hello,
I had Lipiflow 5 weeks ago and no relief right now.

History and status:
I was diagnosed last year, late, blepharis posterior with MGD, LLT=47, no AD.
I've started having symptom 4 years ago that was irritation and foreign body sensation every year for 1 months then symptom disappeared and
none of the 7 doctors I visited was able to diagnose the MGD. So time is up and I've lost some of my glands.
Lipiview showed 100% of partial blinking. I work on computer.
I was prescribed: 3 months course of Azyter drops + heat and massage + eyewash solution
After a few months doing this treatment I felt normal. No need drops.
Doctor said MGs are expressible, the oil was good, just a little thick, so I forgot the treatment for a few months.

Problem now:
One day because of a blow of wind I felt a sharp pain in one eye on the top lid for 2 hours and since this event, I've again had a foreign body sensation.
This pain lasts for 6 months. Usually it went away after 2 months.
My doctor said he cannot see anything into the eye.
So I was prescribed a 6 week course of Doxycycline and the pain decreased about 50% but no more.

LIPIFLOW
Then I decided to have Lipiflow and treatment post Lipiflow was:
-TobraDex for 3 weeks
-Sterdex ointment for 2 weeks
-Continue to use Heat + massage once a day
-eyewash solution after the massage
-Blinking exercises
-NO Lid hygiene has been prescribed.

First 3 weeks after Lipiflow were worse and bad : my eyes felt drier, tingle, lot of itching on lids margin, and very dry the night.
Doctor said it is normal because the glands are empties, they need time to produce oil again. It could take 1 or 2 months to feel relief.
After 5 weeks: drier and the foreign body sensation is still there. Heat + massage makes me feel well but a few minutes.

Does anyone have an idea about what could have happened after the blow of wind and why foreign body sensation is still there ?
What I could try to feel better?
Any comment is welcome.

Thanks a lot

[Bodziu]

Hi,
I had 3rd IPL treatment last weekend. It did help from the first one, 2nd,3rd I feel did nothing good or better but was able to give up all my eye drops. Maybe I did not need them at all? It is a bit strange because I feel the pain of dry eyes, all the symptoms but yet it is kind a better. So maybe the placebo effect ? Never the less, I'm better but kind feeling getting a bit worse now. I don't know. So will it help you or not leave it to professional consultation I guess as everybody is different and my particular case won't much even 10% of yours. If they recommend it, hey go, if you can afford it, go. But there are side effect. Had to cold sores, gum infection and lately cold, weird as I consider my imm.sys.strong and never get all at once. And another thing, got a floater, big like a flying fly before my eyes. Not sure too many coincidences. I hope the treatment lasts for a while or is it like a boutox. So conclusion is, not sure still have morning eyes pain, what do ppl do for it, tried ointments, my eyelids get swollen, can't use it.
On the bright side there is one thing which works and maybe will for others too, cheap. hydrochloric acid face mask, 10-20 doll. for a pack, put on a face every second day for 30 min, relief comes the next day, wears off on third day. O BTW, I had so much treatment without any results I can say you ppl are not alone, in general nothing works as problem is multiple-fold, the final result is dry eye syndrome. Any body using Xidra? How's that new development working, I hope better than restasis as everybody's dream is to find the magic bullet.
And another finding, be careful what you put on your face, soup, cream etc, all goes to your eyes you wanted or not. Good for skin may not particular mean good for you eyes.
regards
B

[MGD1701]

Hi PG
Thanks for sharing and congratulations.

Indeed, it is hard to beleive (all articles I have read said the oppositive) so could you be kind to clarify:
Do you mean lid hygiene and massage, or just lid hyiene cause inflammation? WHY??

What kind of infammation you refer to, bacteria or demodex??

Thanks a lot! I am sososo curious!

[PG]

I had improvement after the 3rd IPL treatment.
It is hard to believe that lid scrubs which amount to lid hygiene cause inflammation.

[LHeston2]

I wanted to update that I did get the lower plugs. They seem to be helping a bit, although I am doing a lot of other things that could be contributing to my improvement (Xiidra, Omega 3 oil, Retaine MGD drops, Bruder mask every night, cleaning lids). I did find out that I tested positive in the Early Detection Sjo test for one of the autoantibodies...my rheumatologist thinks I am on the path to having Sjogren's.

[linguininess]

I had Lipiflow 2.5 weeks ago. On the outer lower lid of my right eye, I have redness and some slight swelling that is just not going away. The skin there feels different--very dry. It doesn't hurt, but it does feel slightly irritated. I have thought that it would go away with time, but it has not. During the my treatment, the technician kept adjusting the cup and the tape on this eye, and the cup fell out in the last half of the treatment. She had to stop the procedure, re-position the cup, and re-tape it to my eye. I'm wondering if this had anything to do with the issues I'm having now. It almost looks like that area of my eye is sunburned. Has anyone else had any reaction such as this? Or does anyone have any thoughts about what this might be? I'm calling my doctor tomorrow, but would appreciate input from other patients.

I had this exact sensation. After lipiflow, my upper lids felt stiff and burny... it didn't hurt, it just felt like lipiflow really annoyed and irritated my eye lids. I am 5 months post-lipiflow and I have no positive results.

[Rellis]

Yes, I did get some sort of numbing drop before putting in the cups, but I'm not sure if it was lidocaine. Unfortunately, I can't tell any difference in before and after the procedure. If anything, my right eye (the one that's irritated) seems worse. I'm going in to see my doctor today.

[Adrian]

DDE, so your first symptom is grittiness? And burning? Mine is burning, and if I don’t push my sight, it is my "only" symptom, apart from photophobia which is at the origin, and certain discomfort or tension, sometimes. Light dries my eyes and then appear the other symptoms (pin-like pain, headaches in the region around the eyes, blepharospasm, and other awful sensations). But I learnt how to avoid these other symptoms, and this implies having some limitations, or doing things differently.

[Adrian]

Hi DDE. Thank you for the information.

I saw the Tear Science site and the tests (LipiView, LipiScan, Korb MGE). I don’t know if I can find this machine in my city. I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which is a big city, but it seems to be quite precarious in terms of dry eye tests and treatments (well, it is quite precarious about a lot of things). An ophthalmologist offered me collagen plugs, but he only has the smaller size, which I don’t know if this is common with other doctors from other cities. And it is difficult to find a dry eye “specialist” or something similar.

I understand there are other methods to do a meibography. Can a doctor see what is seen in a meibography with a slit lamp and a proper light? I mean, probably it is not necessary to take a photograph. So I don’t know if my ophthalmologist saw my MGs properly. Besides, if Accutane is the culprit, maybe there is nothing wrong with the glands, visually, only that they produce less oil, their activity is “inhibited”, in the same way that it inhibited the sebum glands of my face. I am just guessing. Probably there is no inflammation in the MGs. But it would be very interesting to see how thin is the lipid layer in my eyes, and there is a Tear Science test for this. In fact, it would be interesting to see a graphic representation of the tree layers, is there a test for this? (I think I saw once a test made in France, on the Internet of course, but I don’t remember the name)

I haven’t tried autologous serum. It is costly, and I was willing to try plugs first, that is what my doctor told me. If you try it, let me know how it works.

If Allergan itself says Restasis is not effective, and that it doesn’t know how it works and if it is really the cyclosporine or the castor oil or whatever, I imagine it is less effective than that. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t work for you. A box of Restasis should last three months, applied two times per day. You will see at the end of that period if you notice a difference. Also, if it works as lubricant, you could try Endura UD, or even castor oil alone, if that is safe. I think your case is different from mine.

[hosanna13]

Hi Rellis, I also had Lipiflow a few weeks ago, but I did not have this kind of problem. How do you feel about the procedure? I think my meibomian glands are secreting more oil now. Did the tech put in lidocaine drops prior to putting in the cups? Some others told me no drops were put in, and I would have preferred that as well because lidocaine itself is irritating.