My IPL journey

[Collicat]

Hey Everyone,

I have spent the last 5 years tackling ocular rosacea/dry eye. Have tried most drugs, lipiflow, hot compresses, cold compresses, etc, etc. Nothing helped very much. Lotemax used to help a lot but not so much anymore and my pressures have recently started to increase…time to get off it.

So, had my first IPL today. TBUT is 4 in each eye, inflammatory markers very high, osmarity also high. Lids have those “little veins” that are a hallmark of rosacea.
Doctor did IPL as well as something she called “low light” treatment. I really am not sure yet what that was all about. The actual IPL really was not uncomfortable… it was more the smell of burning facial hair that was disconcerting. Doc then expressed the glands. That was not comfortable but not terrible. Some of my glands had clear oils while some were toothpaste.

Anyway, when I was thinking of getting IPL I found it helpful to see posts where people documented their results. I will keep you all posted as my journey continues.

[Collicat]

Day 2 post first treatment. Doc told me not to expect any result from first treatment. However, dryness is just as bad but I feel there is a difference in the lid inflammation. Very minor but it feels less intense. Anyway, no worse and I have cut the lotemax in half.

[PG]

I did not get results until the 4th treatment. IPL wound up being a necessary part of my treatment to stop the symptoms. Here is an interesting article that indicates bacteria may play a role, and manual expression (which is done after IPL) clears the bacteria out.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...normal%20gland

[roxxy86]

Thank you for this post, i found it to be very helpful as I have a similar case as you. I'm currently on schedule to also have IPL with Dr Steve Seah (if you know him), so I'm currently reading about others' experiences as part of my preparation.