4 plugs so far no tears

[jenny2008]

Patrick/.. NOPE! just lucky..lol.. it used to be my left eye was the worst for 5 years and now the past years the right one.. i have met a few other people with sjogrens who have the same prob..just an odd disease! hopefully one day i will even out and for the better... thanks for caring!!!!

[patientpatrick]

Jax8it, if the plugs have caused your skin to be inflamed, would cautery be an option for you? Seems like there are quite a few who have found relief with cautery over plugs. Did you notice that the overflow made anything worse?

The differences in your eyes puzzle me very much. Did you have higher myopia in your left?

With a 10 tbut and 14 schrimer they sound okay, i know not nearly as good as you were hoping for.

What makes me so mad is my schrimer scores were 19 and 18 prelasik now they are 7 and 5 (this is after over 2 months of restasis i'm not sure what they were before that) I don't understand how people recover so fast after lasik and I'm 14months post-op and still feel like crap.

[jenny2008]

ps. i just noticed you live in Cali.. i lived in Sherman Oaks for over 9 years but when i got sick came home to the midwest.... i wasnt as bad as i am now..but i wish i would have went to all the awesome docs and eye institutes out there...you are lucky where you live....:0

[Guest]

How are the 4 cauterized ducts treating you? still doing good?

Upper right that got re-cauterized for the 3rd time 1st week of December is still holding strong! WHOO HOOOOOOOOOOO! Maybe the 3rd time was a charm? haha We'll see how long this lasts anyhow... will just enjoy it for now!

Jax8it, if the plugs have caused your skin to be inflamed, would cautery be an option for you?

Jax9it, I though the exact same thing as Patrick... have you considered cautery? I know it must sound like an awful thing to get done, but I think most people (myself included) end up finding it not nearly as scary as it sounds...

[patientpatrick]

ps. i just noticed you live in Cali.. i lived in Sherman Oaks for over 9 years but when i got sick came home to the midwest.... i wasnt as bad as i am now..but i wish i would have went to all the awesome docs and eye institutes out there...you are lucky where you live....:0

Hey Jenny. Yeah I'm not so sure about the whole awesome docs in Cali. I had Lasik at a very well regarded eye institute out here and the doctor seems very dismissive of the dry eye caused by it. For a whole year he kept saying keep using drops and it will take time. Finally close to the year anniversary he suggested restasis and wrote me a prescription (seemed a bit late in my opinion) Also I have yet to find a great doc out here in SoCal who's been able to help my dry eye condition. But I am on the hunt for one still.

[jenny2008]

what city do u live in? if u want u can private msg me... just curious cause i loved living out there.... i miss it! wondering what institute u went to ? doheny? message me if its better! )) if u want..

[farmgirl]

OK, for what it's worth I gotta add my two bits. I had temporaries in all 4, that helped. I got the uppers cauterized and umbrella plugs in the lowers, that helped a LOT. The lower right came out twice so since I didn't have time to get a custom fit one put in I had a longer lasting temporary put in. Now that eye bothers me somewhat where the left doesn't and I know that it isn't plugged as well since at times I can taste my restasis in the back of my throat. Moral of this story is, like SAAG says temporary plugs don't work as well as permanent removable plugs.

At times I get a wee bit of overflow on the left which I don't mind but sometimes the eyelid gets a bit sore from the salt off of my fingers when I wipe it away so I need to resort to carrying a tissue to keep my fingers off of the lid. Hope you find more relied with permanents and I highly recommend you try them...cheers...F/G

[soaps]

When you guys say plugs irritated your eye. do you mean redness or pain? And did you ever try removing and reinserting the same plugs but of course new ones ? I found this helped .
Can you undo a cauterization ( not sure if this is even a word)?

I like my plugs lol

[Guest]

Can you undo a cauterization ( not sure if this is even a word)?

Well, with cautery they are essentially burning your puncta shut - the resulting scarring of the puncta is what will hopefully block it off... for this reason, I'd consider cautery as a procedure that cannot be reversed. That being said, I'm sure there are surgeons out there who would be qualified to attempt to surgically re-open it (not sure what the success rates are for such procedures though)

[patientpatrick]

When you guys say plugs irritated your eye. do you mean redness or pain? And did you ever try removing and reinserting the same plugs but of course new ones ? I found this helped .
Can you undo a cauterization ( not sure if this is even a word)?

I like my plugs lol

I'm so glad you like your plugs. What kind do you have? How long have you had them? Do you experience epiphora? I'm obsessed with that word right now because I want to experience it Hahahaha. It has seemed to bring such relief to those who've suffered so much

[jax8it]

Upper right that got re-cauterized for the 3rd time 1st week of December is still holding strong! WHOO HOOOOOOOOOOO! Maybe the 3rd time was a charm? haha We'll see how long this lasts anyhow... will just enjoy it for now!



Jax9it, I though the exact same thing as Patrick... have you considered cautery? I know it must sound like an awful thing to get done, but I think most people (myself included) end up finding it not nearly as scary as it sounds...

I have thought about it. Sometimes I think it would really help, just not sure yet.... My new doc seems to think that a scleral for my left eye may help. He did not mention cautery at my last appointment and I forgot to mention it. I really need to take a notes to my appointments.

I am glad to hear this last cautery is helping!

[Guest]

I have thought about it. Sometimes I think it would really help, just not sure yet....

I just noticed your siggy... I didn't realize you'd only had LASIK in 2012... I suppose given how recently you had it, it may be worth NOT doing cautery just yet, in case your eyes improve on their own still... tough to know what to do sometimes...

I had my cautery done in Jan 2010... a little over 4 years after my LASIK... not saying everyone should wait THAT long, as I was really suffering by then and it was pretty obvious that my eyes were NOT going to just heal up on their own by that point... but on the opposite end of the spectrum, less than a year out from LASIK may be too soon for something as permanent as cautery since you really and truly might still get a lot better without cautery... but on the other hand, most people are back to normal 1 month after LASIK, let alone 1 year... decisions, decisions... will be interesting to see what your doctor thinks...

EDIT - corrected a "little over 5 years" to a "little over 4 years"

[jax8it]

It has been a year- Jan 21 was my anniversary. Yippee! not

I do think I need to give it a bit more time. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[patientpatrick]

... but on the other hand, most people are back to normal 1 month after LASIK, let alone 1 year... decisions, decisions... will be interesting to see what your doctor thinks...

That's still what gets to me so much. I actually think that there must have been something wrong with me that either my Lasik surgeon didn't know about or just failed to tell me thinking it wouldn't be a big deal. The last time I saw him he said that my dry eyes are still just mild and treatable. First off, it's not mild to me second, it was never supposed to be treatable, it was SUPPOSED to be temporary, at least that's what I was told. Makes me so mad, that I could have prevented all this just by walking out the door.

I used to dream about all the wonderful things I could do w/o being dependent on glasses, and now all i dream about is for epiphora in my eyes. I can't believe that's how my life has ended up.

[Guest]

The last time I saw him he said that my dry eyes are still just mild and treatable. First off, it's not mild to me

I think what so many docs fail to recognize is the fact that although visible symptoms that they can SEE may be mild, our sense of discomfort may very well be severe... and no, it's not all in our heads and no, we are not hypochondriacs or just hard to please.

(I'm sure they run into people who really ARE exaggerating or hard to please... bummer that THOSE people make it tough for them to accept those of us who really and honestly ARE doing as badly as we say!)

I used to dream about all the wonderful things I could do w/o being dependent on glasses, and now all i dream about is for epiphora in my eyes. I can't believe that's how my life has ended up.

Yeah... life is just FULL of surprises isn't it. Too bad those surprises can't all be stuff like winning the lottery haha