Am I the only one who hates these plugs?

[Helene]

cautery

Thanks so much for your reply. I understand that you had all four done and that your eye is very weepy. Do you think I should perhaps just suggest having 2 done and see how I go? Perhaps having 2 done would not be as bad as far as having tears there all the time. When I mentioned 2 to him he said he would do all 4. I would rather err on caution as they are supposed to be irreversible. What are your thoughts? At the present time I have two plugs and I think my eye has become infected. It is very painful. He has given me acetylcysteine to clear up my infected eye. I have to apply it once a day and it is extremely painful once inserted. It is supposed to help get rid of the mucus in my eye which is causing it to be so painful. I dread putting it in there. Then of course it seems to dry the eye altogether and I have to use the normal drops about 20 times a day. The only thing I am blessed with is that it doesn't bother me when I close my eyes at night.

I apparentloy have a disease called cicatricial pemphigoid which is chronic and progressive but at the early stages. Horrible thought.

Anyway to get to the bottom line, what is your thoughts about going for 2 lots of cautery instead of 4 at this stage? Hoping you can help me. Have to go in a week's time.

Love to hear from you

Helene

[dianat]

I think starting with two initially is a very logical way to start. You can always do the other two at a later time should you not see a change. My doctor cauterized my lowers first and let me try that for a while. Then we both decided the uppers should be done.

You are wise to challenge your doctor on this.

Diana

[Helene]

Cautery

Thanks for your prompt reply. Had a very bad weekend. Rang up for another appointment today and have one for tomorrow. Must admit I was in tears today it hurt that much. Had to take some pain tablets and it still did not help. I think I may be having the cautery tomorrow. He is adament that I need to have the four done He was not there today and I got some more drops to put in. I am so sick of drops. Do you still have to put in drops after your 4 ducts have been cautorised?

Thanks again for your help. It certainly is wonderful to talk to someone that is going through the same thing. Sometimes you feel just like you are being experimented on.

Hoping to hear from you again.

Many thanks,

HELENE :

[Judy]

I agree with DianeT. I'd go for two versus four initially. He is your Dr., but he is not God. This is just my two cents as I've not been cauterized, period. When I went from two plugs (lower) to four plugs (upper and lower), my eyes were so watery and overflowed constantly that I could not see well or focus to do my job, etc. Best of luck and God bless, Helene!

[dianat]

I'm sorry about your bad weekend, Helene.

I do not use drops as often as I used to. Usually I instill at bedtime, in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning. In fact I rarely carry drops during the day. I am not entirely comfortable either, but don't find that drops give me much relief during the day. If they are particularly bad, I'll put drops in and shut them for a while. This usually gets me through.

D

[Helene]

cautery

Hi,

Thanks again for your prompt reply. Had my eyes cauterised on Tuesday. I think he did the lot but not sure. What a painful experience. It actually traumatised me. The needles were so painful I nearly jumped out of the chair. I am not usually a whimp but they were horrific. Then I felt the burning of the flesh. All in all I went home and felt terribly sick. Since that time I had to go back twice as my eyes were painful and inflammed. They gave me some other drops (prednisilone) and I think it may have calmed it a bit this afternoon. Have to go back to see him on Tuesday. I still can't believe the pain I have gone through the last few days. Feel as though I have hit rock bottom. ONly way is up I hope. How did you feel about the cautery, was it as bad for you and how long did it take to settle down?

Sorry to be so down, but it seems like this is never ending.

HOpe you are okay.

Cheers Helene

[atta]

Don't ues the plugs with caps!

Hi,
Try Duraplugs. They stay inside the tear way. So you wont feel them and they wont fall out.
My doctor in Germany has introduced me that kind of products the first time I asked about plugs. In the last year I've tried 2 different sorts of them, the pair I got now are for 1 year. They dont irritate but they are not helping me much (because my eyes are too dry and they have inflammation a lot).

[dianat]

Helene,

I also recall the cautery as a horrific experience. I'm fairly tolerant of pain as well, but those needles were unbelievable. I don't recall being too inflamed for much more than a couple of days. Your doctor did remove the plugs prior to cauterizing you, correct?!! I'm sure he/she did.

Best of luck in the next few days. You certainly deserve some relief. Take it easy and be good to yourself.

Diana

[Helene]

You are wonderful. You have answered everything I have wanted to know. I am grateful to you. This morning I woke up and felt a little better. AS time went on my eye started again with the sensation that something was in the corner of the eye. I was told to take prednisoline for 3 times a day and I think that may be helping a bit. The sensation that something is there can't be the case as it was checked out yesterday. Yesterday was perhaps my second a worst day. Had it done Tuesday (first horrific day) and yesterday. Did you still feel that something was in your eye? When he was about to cauterise I mentioned about the plugs being there and was he going to remove them. He did not answer me but I felt he perhaps took them out. I hope he did anyway.

Talk about non communicative. Would love to have him in the same position and how he would feel. Just feel they are not aware of what a person like yourself and myself are going though.

How are you feeling? Do you still have problems or has everything worked out for you after the cautery? I hope that you were that lucky. However I think when you have these problems they rarely go away. HOpe yours is the case.

Thanking you again for your kindness. I live in South Australia, a long way away from yourself I think.

Best wishes,

HELENE

[dianat]

I'm so glad I was helpful to you!

I do not have any sense at all of having something in the corner of my eye. There's no inflammation or anything...much better than with the plugs. I'm guessing the drug you are using is a steroid. That certainly should act on any inflammation you are experiencing, though would take a bit of time I should expect.

My eyes are better today than they've been since LASIK. But, I did not arrive "here" immediately after cautery. I still experienced some burning and discomfort despite the weepiness of my eyes. I do believe I have meibomian gland dysfunction and therefore have a salty, watery tear that doesn't stick well to my eye and tends to evaporate.

These days, however, with the assistance of blood serum drops, I am in better control of my comfort. I work really hard to keep myself here, but I'm living life better than I have since my dreadful LASIK experience.

You might consider doing warm compresses twice a day if you aren't already doing so. I still find it necessary to continue with my usual eye care routine even since the cautery.

You take good care and keep us posted of your progress.

Diana

[Helene]

Cautery

HI Diana,

Thanks again for your response. Yes, I think the prednisolone is a steroid and I must admit that has helped. I am back at work today and coping quite well. I still have inflammation in the eye and often feel as though there is something in the corner of my eye. I have the added worry that it is an ocular cicatrical pemphigoid which isn't a very nice outcome if it is not controlled. I meant to ask you when you mention Lasik, is that a laser treatment? Pardon my ignorance but on reading through some of the threads it seems to be the worst thing to have done. Everyone seems to end up with a DES. Must admit at present, I don't have a weepy eye. But it is early days yet. I apparently have a double occlusion in the bottom lid of my eye and after having done the horrible deed, he said I may have to have it done again sometime in the future. (only in his dreams) would I go and have that done without an anaesthetic. I want to be put out like a light.

HOw did you discover that you have a meibomian glad dysfunction? Was it actually diagnosed and what is it? The offsider of this Professor I go to, who is a lovely indian lady said to put cold compresses on the eye. So I have been doing that several times a day. Apparently heat isn't great on it. What is it that you do to keep a good eye routine and what are blood serum drops? Sounds pretty serious.

Sorry about all these questions. They don't have to be answered if you don't feel like it. Keep hoping that I have hit rock bottom and on the way up. After nine months of pain in the eye it gets very debilitating. I imagine a lot of people have gone through a lot worse, but your own pain is your own pain. I am so sick of having my eye prodded, pulled and having different solutions put in there. The gel that they gave me after the cautery reacted very badly with my eye. That on top of everything else I did not need.

Your photo is great. You are far too young to be having troubles like this. I am 61 but still feel I should not be having this condtion at this age. Perhaps if I lived to 81. That is being selfish isn't it? May not get there at all.

Thanks again for all your help. I have felt great when you have written to me and helped me out.

Helene

[dianat]

Helene,

I'm so glad you're coping well at work today.

I'm having a little trouble today which is unusual. I sat around a campfire Friday night and now feel I actually may have an infection! This is not something that normally happens to me...yikes. I shall be in contact with my doctor today.

Regarding your question...

LASIK is a LASER procedure (also called refractive surgery) where small amounts of the cornea are burned away in an effort to reshape the eye. This is done to correct anomalies that cause nearsightedness or farsightedness, and astigmatism.

During my LASIK procedure (and there are so many variations in the procedure now I cannot keep track...) a thin flap in my cornea was cut with a blade and moved away so a LASER could be used to obliterate small amounts of my cornea. The result for me was great vision, but horrible, debilitating dry eye.

The simple theory behind the dry eye is that many, many nerves are severed in the procedure resulting in loss of sensitivity of the eye. The loss of sensitivity is an indication that the nerves, brain and lacrimal gland (the gland that makes the watery part of the tear) are not communicating well.

In addition, with this upset of the tear film meibomian gland dysfunction can result if it was not already present as it likely was for me. I do tend to think that us severe post-LASIK folks had an underlying dryness issue that was not identified prior to LASIK.

Here is a link to DEZs description of the meibomian gland.

http://www.dryeyezone.com/encycloped...ianglands.html

I have been diagnosed in the past with meibomian gland problems, but have off and on been told they look okay. So, I treat myself as though there's always a problem. I'm convinced I have a lousy oily output from my meibomian glands, and that they usually are not clogged. I do feel more comfortable when I sense the oily output of my glands are working with my tears, which it typically best just after warm compresses.

The basic treatment for meibomianitis is warm compresses. There may be reasons why your doctor has recommended cold compresses to you...possibly for the sake of relief. The cold does feel nice on a burning, miserable eye. Also, the cold would be helpful in reducing inflammation. And lastly, I am not familiar with the condition ocular cicatrical pemphigoid so perhaps heat is inappropriate for this.

You might consider asking your doctor if she sees anything wrong with doing some warm compresses a couple times a day. You can look on this site for directions on how to do this properly. The key is not making them too hot. They feel GREAT. In my small, humble and non-scientific opinion, people with dry eyes likely have some degree of meibomian gland dysfunction.

To respond to your "rock bottom" comment...

I do believe we have to hit rock bottom to make our way back. And we sure learn a lot on the trip. I do hope you are swinging up now. Your return to work is a great sign.

I shall address blood serum drops in my next note to you. My little guy is starving for his breakfast.

You have a great day, Helene.

Diana

[Helene]

Cautery

Hi Diana,

Thanks again for your explanation about what your problem is. I just find it hard to understand that someone your age is coping with all these problems. Reading through the threads of course, I realise there are a lot of others much younger.

I almost feel a little tentative hope that I am getting there. Went to see the Prof. on Tuesday and did let him know how the cautery had affected me. I think he was very surprised (or acted surprised). I just felt that he would think twice about tormenting patients with this procedure. You would not treat a dog like that. Anyway, he had a look at it and said he could see the moisture there and not to put in any drops if I did not feel the need. So far, thank goodness, I haven't had to put any in. It is just remarkable to me that I can now walk into air-conditioning without it hurting my eye. That is such a bonus. The only niggle I have now is that where he put the needles in, it seems to be now healing and hurting. I can certainly put up with that. Do you by any chance getting a little glob of stuff in the corner of your eye now? I am gathering that is from perhaps the moisture that can't disappear.

GUESS WHAT? I don't have to see him now for 6 weeks. Still have to see my Immunologist in a couple of weeks to check out how the Dapsone is affecting my body. It seems to be okay though as I luckily haven't had any side effects. I took your advice too about warm compresses and they do seem to feel lovely. Is there anything else you do to take care of your eye?
Sorry to be rambling on like this. Just want to keep on being healthy.

I am hoping that you are okay too.

Cheers
HELENE

[Helene]

Re Cautery

Dear Di,

Just trying to catch up on how you are? Last time I wrote to you, you were going through a bit of a bad patch. Are you okay now? Just concerned.

I go to my Professor on Friday this week which will be my 6 weekly check up. Must admit that it has been a real joy to feel moisture in my eye and no pain. Each morning when I wake up, I realise how wonderful it is. I just hope that this continues. I don't put in any eye drops except once when my eye got a bit inflammed. That has only happened once or twice in that six weeks. What I don't understand is that I have had all four occlusions cautherised and I don't have excess tears like some people have on this forum. Don't know if that is a worry or not. It is just great at the moment. Perhaps because of my age, I don't have such a lot of moisture left. Not sure.

Hope to hear from you sometime.

Cheers
Helene

[Kevin]

I feel your pain, silicon was uncofortable i think im gong to try these? see below? Have you heard of these?

I recently tried silicone plugs and had a bad experience (could not tolerate them). My opthamologist recommended the following intracanacular plugs:
EXTENDED WEARSYNTHETIC ABSORBABLE
(PCL) (Evaluate within 2 months) made by surgical specialties http://www.surgicalspecialties.com/. I think these are a good idea, they dissolve and last 2 -3 months. Does anyone have any experience with these or a similar kind? Any problems? thanks for your help...