Upper plugs question

[lboogie]

Hi all,
Tomorrow I am going to have temp (like 3 day) plugs put in my upper ducts. I currently have permanent lower ones. My question is -- I have dinner plans with friends tomorrow night after my appointment. Will I be tearing too much to go out? Does it take your eyes some time to settle in?

I'm busy at work and don't have much time to take off if I'm over-tearing. I'm wondering if I should wait on them. Thoughts??

[MeganAlyse]

It probably depends on how the bottom plugs affected you?
I have permanent bottom plugs and have tried temp top ones. They did absolutely nothing, just as the bottom ones did absolutely nothing. It says on your profile that you have aqueous deficient dry eye, I think the people who have problems with plugs causing them to over tear are people who produce unstable tears. I would say that if you tested low on your Schirmer's that no plug is going to make you start producing tears again. That is my own personal theory but logically it seems to make sense. The plugs only stop the tears from draining so that the tears you do produce stay on your eyes. They do not cause your ducts to actually start producing more tears if you were not producing them in the first place. In my personal experience, my Schirmer was 0 in one eye and 4 in the other. If my one eye wasn't producing anything in the first place how was the plug going to hold anything on my eye? A question I wish i would have asked before having these plugs put in. I guess that all I am trying to say is that if you are aqueous deficient you may want to ask your doctor what your schirmer's was, and if it was extremely low, you may want to ask how plugs will help if you are not producing the tears in the first place. I am not a doctor, and my doctor has given me very few answers to many questions. In my experience some doctors just do not understand dry eye and therefor just go through what they are taught to be preventative steps for dry eye patients without really thinking about it.
Just out of curiosity, what were your Schirmer's results (if you know them) and did the bottom plugs seem to help at all?

[kitty]

It may take 2-3 days to see the full effect. I recall not noticing much difference on day one; I noticed mild improvement on day 2 and never had excess tearing until some time after the permanent uppers were put in. I discovered my excess tearing was reflex tearing from DES and allergies.

[baddabingtim]

I imagine everyone is different - depending on dryness - for me I had the uppers put in and called 3 days later to have them removed - felt like I was crying all day - remember with both upper and lowers any generated tears can only run off the eye surface. In my case I guess I was not that dry -

One thing I did notice is with just lowers, one of my eyes teared for a while, then it stopped -

Now I just take a lot of flaxseed oil - 2 tablespoon twice a day - Thats it - and my eyes seem pretty good

[indrep]

lboogie
If the dinner was important to me AND my tear volume was above three on a schirmer I might would wait. The collagen implants occlude the puncta almost immediately so you could have "over tearing" at dinner.

[rubyslippers]

I have large tear ducts. The bottom temps did help a little but did not occlude enough, or that is what we figure based on the fact that the perms helped a lot. I liked the perms enough in the bottom that I had a perm put in my top left (worst eye) and saw significant improvement. I am very glad I have the 3 perms. I have never had a single bout of over tearing at any time. Drops stay on my eyes much longer than they did and the relief is quite wonderful. I had no soreness, or anything. I immediately went to work and worked the entire day after I had them put in and then went out to a party for the evening. All I noticed is that I felt better.

[lboogie]

Okay, temp plugs in -- and the left eye is MOIST! Only a bit of watering -- not pouring over though. Right eye (dryer eye) is not doing much of anything -- as usual. We'll see how I feel with them tomorrow. I have dinner plans soon -- and feel okay about going.

My doc said I had "some abnormal oil" but not out of normal limits. BUT with my low tear volume -- it's adding to it for sure. Keep up the compress.......

Sigh........things are busy at work which is nice -- keeps me off the boards When I should be working.

[rubyslippers]

That is what happened to me too. The eye that was less severe was MUCH better. Could not tell much with the worst eye until I got the upper added to the lower that was already there. That helped considerably. Best of all the drops are much, much more effective for me now as they don't instantly go off my eye.

[lboogie]

Okay, so less than 24 hours later, the left eye is no longer moist ;( They both feel about the same as before.

What now? Should I go ahead and try permanent uppers in hopes that they will occlude better? It's just sad when these "last options" don't turn out.

[indrep]

lboogie
Did you have a late night? wine with dinner? You don't reallly need to answer. I am just bringing up other issues that might contribute to dryness today. The collagen plugs truly only last about 2-3 days. I would wait and see for 2-3 days. You have two choices really, ask the doc to put in the Extended duration plugs that last 90 days or the silicone plugs that are removeable. Since you do not seem to be tearing excessively these would be good next steps

[rubyslippers]

I was told it takes week for the results to "settle out" and some people have a drier day 2 and day 3 before your eyes figure out something has changed.Do drops stay on the eye longer?

[kitty]

I was told it takes week for the results to "settle out" and some people have a drier day 2 and day 3 before your eyes figure out something has changed.Do drops stay on the eye longer?

I find that drops stay in my double plugged eye longer than the single plugged eye.

[rubyslippers]

I find that drops stay in my double plugged eye longer than the single plugged eye.

Yes, significantly longer for my double plugged vs. my single plugged too. I don't want to double plug my other eye as it is quite comfortable without and I KNOW it would overflow.