Fantastic news for dry eye patients in Norway

[PiotrSWE]

I'm interested in visiting the clinic in Oslo because all the doctors I have visited in Sweden have not done much else but recommend me eye drops and then dismiss me. Is it possible to email them first to describe my condition? It feels like it is too much to go into on the phone, and I do not want to spend half my visit explaining my condition. The range of tests they offer is amazing when the most advanced one I ever got here was a kind of stick in my lower eyelid to see if I have any tears. I have given up trying to get any help here in Sweden. Finally, I have never been to Oslo even though it is so close! So it would be a good opportunity to visit.

[Toril]

Hi there!

Yes, send them an e-mail, explain your condition shortly and tell you want to book an appointment. I went to see Dr.Ræder at this clinic in November, and I can highly recommend both him and the clinic. The waiting lists are not long (yet, as the clinic was started in September), so you'll most probably get to see him quite fast if you want to.

Their website is www.torreoyneklinikken.no and you'll also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Good luck!

Toril :-)

[Toril]

PS: When you arrive at the clinic, they will ask you to show up 20 min. before the appoitment to respond to a dry eye questinaire on a computer/iPad. The result will be sent to the doctor immediately, so when you arrive in the office he'll alredy know a lot about your symptoms, possible drying medications you are on and severity of your dry eye.

[sunshinelover]

I'm interested in visiting the clinic in Oslo because all the doctors I have visited in Sweden have not done much else but recommend me eye drops and then dismiss me. Is it possible to email them first to describe my condition? It feels like it is too much to go into on the phone, and I do not want to spend half my visit explaining my condition. The range of tests they offer is amazing when the most advanced one I ever got here was a kind of stick in my lower eyelid to see if I have any tears. I have given up trying to get any help here in Sweden. Finally, I have never been to Oslo even though it is so close! So it would be a good opportunity to visit.

Hi! I can also recommend the clinic, went there in october. I also agree with your experience on docs in Sweden. Where do you live? Have you seen someone in Stockholm? What is your diagnose so far?

[PiotrSWE]

Hi! I can also recommend the clinic, went there in october. I also agree with your experience on docs in Sweden. Where do you live? Have you seen someone in Stockholm? What is your diagnose so far?

I live in Stockholm and visited many different doctors and opticians. With the exception of one doctor, they only let a nurse do an eye exam on me. They told me that I had no problems with my eyes, but of course that is not why I made an appointment. After insisting that dry eyes is indeed a problem, one doctor put some kind of stick in my lower eyelid and said that I cannot have dry eyes because my eyes produce tears.

The most helpful ones were actually the opticians, who gave me much advice on how to make my eyes more comfortable. I guess that you actually managed to get a diagnosis? Do you live in Stockholm? One doctor told me that the only ones who can properly diagnose and treat dry eyes in Stockholm are S:t Eriks Ögonsjukhus and I was told that unless I had Sjögren's Syndrome or something similar, it would be a waste of time to go there because their resources are spread so thin.

[Cristi]

Hi
So I went to Norway at the dry eye clinic in Oslo. Overall a good impression the results partially correlate with my symptoms the doctors were nice. They don't have the meibography device and do not plan to introduce it very soon as I understood because of its high price (doctor said about 500.000 NOK which is about 70.000 EUR from what I've noticed that's about an yearly medium salary.... however it doesn't sound too much for their standards of living and considering the increasing number of dry eye patients due to refractive surgery....).
I was tested for an unbelievable 3.5 hours!!!!! they do a lot of testing but I'm afraid that some of my results weren't that accurate because they tested one after another and one test might influence the results of the following one: for example I obtained almost normal results at the osmolarity test but I think it was due to the fact that they performed it after they measured my pressure with an air blowing device that determined some reflex tears
They expressed only my lower eyelids and doctor said I have MGD in the left eye but not in the right one.... I'm sure I have it in both eyes because even if my left is much worse my right isn't normal either (it is very sensitive even if it's lower plugged and I get some white debris like salt at the top of the eyelashes which I know it is a sign of MGD....for sure the MGD is worse in my left the results at the TBUT correlates with the symptoms 7 sec on the left and 15 on the right).
They also measured the corneal sensitivity I was normal in the right one 6 cm but in the left eye the cornea was a little bit desensitized a scored only 5 cm.
The part with the confocal microscopy was the hardest one as I had to stay with an eye sticked to a device to which doctor applied some gel for an eternity .... it was quit difficult not painful but unconfortable.... The results showed some nerves regenerated after lasik but doctor couldn't tell me if there was some abnormal regeneration in the stroma and I was shocked to see that my worse eye had a lot of scars at the molecular level doctor said there were signs of infection???? Indeed after lasik I had 2 episodes of infection in the worse eye proved by the lab test after they took a sample from my eye with a cotton swab but I didn't have any symptoms???? Have any of you experienced something similar to this after surgery??? The pictures from the confocal microscopy were compared to some normal ones from a book actually the doctor showed me both on the pC and in the book....
As a conclusion it was definitely a good experience at least I have now some results other that the schirmer test...as a treatment they said to use the same old warm compresses which I cannot tolerate very well ( they make my eyes drier) and doxicycline for 3 months (I don't know if I'm gonna take them as I know they have a lot of adverse results).
Please feel free to ask me if you have questions.
Best regards to all of you

[Kenneth]

Hi - I`m soon going there ( from denmark ) 1 consultation cost`s about 1000,- Norwegian kroner - about 200 USD

[zooro1x]

sure hope so my eyes are getting bad

[rppnj]

I'm a Norwegian dry eye patient that has struggeled with getting the right treatment for years (had to go all the way to Paris and Prof. Baudouin to get the help I needed).

Today I found out that three eyedoctors have opened a private clinic for dry eye patients in Oslo. I don't know anything about them yet apart from reading on their webpage (www.torreoyneklinikken.no), but it looks very promising.They offer all up to date treatments, Restasis included.

A few years ago I was laughed at at the eyedoctor's office when I told I wanted to try cyclosporine treatment for my dry eyes. Things are changing!!!

Toril :-)

Hi Toril,

I'm from the state of New Jersey in the USA. Is there any way of viewing this web site ( www.torreoyneklinikken.no
) in English? The site appears to have a lot of excellent information that I would like to have access to.

By the way, I am undergoing the Lipiflow treatment on April 4. If you and others on this thread are interested in Lipiflow, let me know and I will be happy to post my results and progress. Kindest regards, rppnj

[Toril]

Hmm...no, unfortunately the site is only in Norwegian. Maybe you could send them a mail, asking if they are planning to get an English version of the site as well? Or you could post on their Facebook asking the question.

I don't know that much about Lipiflow treatment and unfortunately I'm not able to get that kind of treatment here, but would be interesting to hear about your experiences anyway (and I'm sure many other memembers think the same).

Toril

[sunshinelover]

[QUOTE=Toril;80841]Hmm...no, unfortunately the site is only in Norwegian. Maybe you could send them a mail, asking if they are planning to get an English version of the site as well? Or you could post on their Facebook asking the question.

I don't know that much about Lipiflow treatment and unfortunately I'm not able to get that kind of treatment here, but would be interesting to hear about your experiences anyway (and I'm sure many other memembers think the same).

Hi Toril,,
Dr Sten R just told me that they might be opening up a clinic in Stockholm as well!! I hope so, but then I must be a very interested doctor with great skills! But good with a privateclinic I think. I am still after 3 months waiting for the REstasis, and the doc that I am seing in Stockholm is not even answering emails!

[Toril]

That's great news! Hope they will open a clinic there in the near future.

I also had similar problems some years ago with a doctor at the hospital here. He never returned my calls. I don't think he had even heard about Restasis.

[Toril]

Hi all!

Just wanted to share a little story!

As you might know from what I've been writing before it's been so to say impossible to have someone prescribe Restasis in Norway, and the last 6 years I've been going to France to get my drops. In September a clinic specialized in dry eyes, Torreøyeklinikken, opened in Oslo, and I went there in November for a check-up and to (eventually) get my Restasis prescription from a Norwegian doctor (and the drops will also be covered by the state. Or to be more specific, we have a system here that says we have to pay around 2000 NOK for health expenses, and then after that the rest of the expenses that year will be covered). So, yesterday I went to the pharmacy to order my Restasis drops, and the pharmacy technician look at my papers like she's done it many times before, saying "ok, yes, it'll take about two days to order the drops." I asked her, quite surprised, if she was familiar with these drops, and she answered "yes, sure, we've got many orders, especially lately."

Wow, I must say, the world is moving forward! Since when was it a common thing to order Restasis at the pharmacy in Norway (and who has prescribed them? It might be that many patients in my hometown, which is in an other part of Norway than Oslo, have been to Torreoyneklinikken and got their prescription there, or eye doctors and optometrists in my home town have actually started to prescribe the drops as well. Great to see that dry eyes is getting more attention and that treatments are getting available also here.

Have a good weekend! :-)

Toril

[sunshinelover]

Good to hear, Toril!
I am still wating, since 4 months for the licence approval, and guess what.... I was waiting for nothing, since the application never reached the mpa!
Big disappointment! So frustrating with the treatment here in Sweden...

[Toril]

Have you concidered getting an appointment at Prof. Baudouin's office, hopefully get a prescription there and bring back boxes for many months use back to Sweden?