Man oh man! What's up with the docs?

[rkralman]

I am tired to the bone today of dealing with my dry eyes! The cautery I had a few weeks ago "broke open" and I just had to have the whole thing re-done. The doc thinks I am crazy, I think...I told him the punctum had opened and I could see the tears flowing so I knew the hole had opened up. he admitted he was "gentle" with the first cautery, stating he was 'cautious' to not close it all of the way. I'm like..."what????? I paid you alot of money to close it permanently and I want it closed!!!" He reluctantly burned it closed AGAIN but was not very happy with me. he wanted it partialy left open and I said absolutely NOT, I cannot function without 100% occlusion. I told him I appreciated his caution but I will NEVER want it open again..NEVER!!!! Has anyone had this resistance with their doc? My eye is pretty red and irritated because he burned it really good this time, even down into the punctum...(I think he gave me a few extra shots of the laser just to shut me up!) HA! I have lost 8 plugs in the eye, got 3 plugs squeezed out of the punctum that were lodged.. I am POSITIVE I will never want to open it again! What part of that does he not understand? Sometimes, we just have to be pro-active in our treatment and stand up for ourselves. A cookie cutter approach to all patients with dry eyes does not work! I wish the docs would LISTEN more to us and design a treatment plan to fit each INDIVIDUAL need and NOT just provide whatever free samples he/she has laying in the drawer that week. For those docs to whom dry eye is not their specialty, they tend to resort to doing the same thing over and over and producing little results, without taking the time to listen to our thoughts about new treatment options. I feel discussing new treatment options with my doc offends him in some way and he has to put me back in my place by poo-pooing any new ideas for treatment I have researched about. Ok, I will now come down from my soapbox and go put more drops in because I have now typed for too long and my eyes are burning like crazy! Robin

[Lucy]

Wow

Robin, sounds like you had quite a time with your doc! Believe it or not, I have (and most others) have been that frustrated. It sounds like you got what you wanted in the end. Hope this works well for you. Even though you want it permanent, 100% closed, forever and forever, the docs cannot guarantee that. I do think you made your point with him, though.