quadra plugged

[patrick]

hi there,

i'm considering to have my tearducts quadra plugged. just to try if this could give some relief.
i have mgd due to lasek,i'm not terribly water deficient. what is your opinions on this? should i try it or does it seem like a bad idea since plugging the tearducts could perhaps slow down the still existing tearproduction. i'm a bit afraid to pemanently loose the tears my body is still able to produce. in that case i'll only end up with a bigger problem i already have.
your input is very welcome of course!

regards,patrick...

[irish eyes]

Patrick

This was an option I took up a few years ago.

Plugs didn't help me - quite the opposite. My eyes were wetter but there was increased burning, stinging, tearing and light sensitivity. I also developed cysts on the eyelids because the infection had no channel to escape. I was on doxycyline at the time but it made no difference. The lower lid punctal plugs were removed so I now have two at the top.

My current consultant recently tried to persuade me to agree to plugs in the lower lids again but I stood firm in saying no. I don't think he's 100% convinced about them working (on me)but he's trying to `revisit' past options in the absence of new ones.

My advice to you would still be to give them a go because they might well help. Why not just have the lower puncta plugged and see what that feels like?

[patrick]

Patrick

This was an option I took up a few years ago.

Plugs didn't help me - quite the opposite. My eyes were wetter but there was increased burning, stinging, tearing and light sensitivity. I also developed cysts on the eyelids because the infection had no channel to escape. I was on doxycyline at the time but it made no difference. The lower lid punctal plugs were removed so I now have two at the top.

My current consultant recently tried to persuade me to agree to plugs in the lower lids again but I stood firm in saying no. I don't think he's 100% convinced about them working (on me)but he's trying to `revisit' past options in the absence of new ones.

My advice to you would still be to give them a go because they might well help. Why not just have the lower puncta plugged and see what that feels like?

hi irish eyes,

thanks for your reply!
i'm sorry the plugs didn't work out for you. it seems such a simple and effective way to keep the eyes wet,but it is not different than any of the various other treatmentoptions i've read about until now. success rates are quite low.that is just the way it is i guess.

however my case is slightly different than yours i think,because you mentioned your infections and maybe there's also a lot of inflammation going on in your eyes and lids. in contrast i'm told recently by my optometrist that there are no obvious signs of inflammation in either my eyes and my lids to be seen.

she calls my condition non obvious meibomian gland dysfunction. ever heard of that? my glands aren't even that clogged. i don't really understand,but i think that the production of lipids (oil) is just low,absent or whatever.

to come to the point; hopefully keeping the tears for a longer period on my eyes is not going to cause inflammation,because i'm not very prone to that to begin with. again,it is just a thought. i'm not sure about anything.

what realy worries me is the possibility that plugging the tearducts is going to slow down the production of the watery part of my tears. i don't want to take any risk with anything that is still functioning fairly ok. i would hate to loose that as well.

by the way here in the netherlands opthalomogists are very ignorant when it comes to treating des. the knowledge is close to zero. i've seen many of them and they can't come up with anything more than a prescription for the so maniest not working lubricating eyedrop.
we don't have acces to antibiotics,restasis,ipl,probing or anything meaningful for that matter. the optometrist i mentioned earlier knows more about des than all the opthalomogists together. she put me on flaxeedoil and warm compresses,not much succes though.

regards,patrick...

[Sammy B.]

Patrick, you could always give it a try and see if it works for you. If not, just have them removed.

Plugs didn't end up being my answer, and I have MGD. I do think in certain situations they are trapping the "wrong" kind of tears on the eye.

Rose

[patrick]

hi rose,

i'll probably give the plugs a try. initially the temporary ones as a sort of test case.
just to see what happens.
i'm aware that these plugs are in no way a treatment for mgd. hopefully they'll offer some relief.
besides the flaxeedoil and warm compresses what is in your opinion the most succesfull approach for treating mgd?

regards,patrick...

[irish eyes]

".........she calls my condition non obvious meibomian gland dysfunction. ever heard of that? my glands aren't even that clogged. i don't really understand,but i think that the production of lipids (oil) is just low,absent or whatever.,,,,,

Hi again Patrick

I hadn't heard of non-obvious MGD but the tempatation to `Google' proved too much to resist! It's an interesting article.

http://www.optometric.com/article.aspx?article=104403

[Sammy B.]

Patrick, I have had the best luck with maintenance and just overall healthy living (keeping stress low, getting plenty of sleep, diet, exercise).

Maintenance for me includes supplements (I use fish oil and other supplements) and eye scrubs. I get hours of relief after an eye scrub for some reason, and I'm not going to question it! Strangely enough, I get the best results with Walgreen's cheapo make-up remover towelettes, although I do use Ocusoft at times.

I also have started IPL sessions with Dr. Toyos but I cannot comment specifically on whether it's been the magic bullet for me. I have had two treatments and have had some bad days since starting them. Today, for instance, is a bad day, but I am also stressed at work so that could be 1/2 of the problem.

Rose

[kitty]

Do you have two plugs now? If not, I would start with that. If you do, you could do a test with a 3rd plug, compare the eye with 2 plugs to the eye with 1 and see if there is a noticeable difference. One thing to keep in mind is, anything that might cause reflex tearing (crying, allergies/irritation) may cause those excess tears to go down your face. I was quadri plugged and that happened to me. I had one plug removed because of tears running down my face constantly. And they were not good tears, just very irritating. Like another poster, plugs never helped me. They just seemed to trap in irritants. I only have one now, two others migrated and one was removed. I have MGD among other things.

[patrick]

Hi again Patrick

I hadn't heard of non-obvious MGD but the tempatation to `Google' proved too much to resist! It's an interesting article.

http://www.optometric.com/article.aspx?article=104403

hi irish eyes,

thanks for sending me the link with the article!
very interesting. read it several times.
the pain i feel is most certainly in my eyes and definately not between my ears,as some people sometimes tend to think.
too bad however that the treatmentoptions listed are not any different from ordinary mgd. actually it is exactly the same. we already know these treatmentoptions all too well and very often they're not very successful.
however it is all we have at this moment,so untill anything better appears we have to rely on these tecnniques.

greetings,patrick...

[patrick]

Patrick, I have had the best luck with maintenance and just overall healthy living (keeping stress low, getting plenty of sleep, diet, exercise).

Maintenance for me includes supplements (I use fish oil and other supplements) and eye scrubs. I get hours of relief after an eye scrub for some reason, and I'm not going to question it! Strangely enough, I get the best results with Walgreen's cheapo make-up remover towelettes, although I do use Ocusoft at times.

I also have started IPL sessions with Dr. Toyos but I cannot comment specifically on whether it's been the magic bullet for me. I have had two treatments and have had some bad days since starting them. Today, for instance, is a bad day, but I am also stressed at work so that could be 1/2 of the problem.

Rose

hi rose,

thanks for your reply!
maintenance is key. you're right. i think it should be done religiously,but sometimes i don't feel like it,or i'm just too tired after a long day of work for instance. i'm gonna try to do my best a litte more in the future. hope i can keep up.
i live quite healthy. i used to be a runner. want to pick that up again. haven't done that for a while due to the eyecondition. my sleep is healthy again. i get plenty of good sleep.thank god for that! have lost a lot of sleep for almost a year due to a depression. i fully recovered from that almost a year ago.
read your today's post. your situation is quite similar to mine especially the ''google'' part. the similarity is striking. i quit researching to. much too timeconsuming and never answers you're so desperately looking for.

greetings,patrick...

[patrick]

Do you have two plugs now? If not, I would start with that. If you do, you could do a test with a 3rd plug, compare the eye with 2 plugs to the eye with 1 and see if there is a noticeable difference. One thing to keep in mind is, anything that might cause reflex tearing (crying, allergies/irritation) may cause those excess tears to go down your face. I was quadri plugged and that happened to me. I had one plug removed because of tears running down my face constantly. And they were not good tears, just very irritating. Like another poster, plugs never helped me. They just seemed to trap in irritants. I only have one now, two others migrated and one was removed. I have MGD among other things.

hi kitty,

thanks for your reply.
in the near future i'll get my first two temporary plugs installed. the lowers first. it is a try out. we'll see what happens.
i'll post my experiences here on the boards of course!
i have laser induced mgd and i'm healthy i all other aspects

greetings,patrick...