Planning to do cautery

[Seekingtreatment]

Hi,
I am from Asia. I am planning to do cautery and was wondering if you guys can recommend a good dry eye specialist . I do not have insurance, hence I need someone who charge reasonable.

I am very nearsighted, -16.00, -18.00 , and keep progressing for the pass several years . I am planning 1 or 2 months after cautery, I will try rgp lenses and hopefully they can stop my nearsightedness progression. I had worn rgp for about 6 years when I was around 20 years old. They did stablized my nearsightedness . After that I changed to disposable soft lenses.

I have been wearing contact lenses for more then 25 years. I am 44 years old. I stopped wearing contact lenses for serveral years due to dry eyes. I started Restasis for about 10 days and feel better since the second day of using Restasis.

Thank you very much.

[Rebecca Petris]

I don't have a doctor recommendation for you but just want to mention a related thought triggered by your mention of the struggles with extremely high myopia:

You don't say what part of Asia you're in, but Boston Foundation for Sight has facilities in Japan and in India where they make custom scleral lenses. (Sclerals are very large gas perms that vault over the cornea, making them often suitable for people with dry eye, and the fluid resevoir that they hold over the cornea can correct even the most difficult prescriptions.) They are not for everyone, certainly, but I wear them and for me as a dual treatment for uncorrectible vision problems and dry eye they have served me well.

[Seekingtreatment]

Thank you, Rebecca.

Does the boston scheral lens cause a grayish look in the center of the eyes of the wearer?

I was thinking about Dr. G for fitting rgp lenses, apart from boston scheral lenses.

Dr. G, does the boston scheral lens alter the shape of the cornear? Besides sharp vision, I am concern about the ability of rgp lens stoping myopia progression. What do you think of scheral buckle?

Thank you very much.

[Rebecca Petris]

Does the boston scheral lens cause a grayish look in the center of the eyes of the wearer?

No

I was thinking about Dr. G for fitting rgp lenses, apart from boston scheral lenses.

Dr. G, does the boston scheral lens alter the shape of the cornear? Besides sharp vision, I am concern about the ability of rgp lens stoping myopia progression. What do you think of scheral buckle?

DrG is very skilled with many types of gas perm lenses. He doesn't post here anymore but here is a link where you can get his contact info:
http://leukoma.com/

[Seekingtreatment]

Thank you, Rebecca,


Appearance wise, wearer of boston scheral lens looks the same as wearer of regular rgp lens? Hmm, if so, the is very tempting.


Thank you very much.

[Rebecca Petris]

My pleasure.

Appearance wise, wearer of boston scheral lens looks the same as wearer of regular rgp lens? Hmm, if so, the is very tempting.

Not exactly the same - that is, if someone looks straight at your eyes, they can see the edges of the lenses which are much further out on the sclera than other lenses.

Mine are 18.5mm and so far as I know, nobody has ever noticed them unless I told them and they looked at me closely - and that includes eye doctors. Somebody very very image conscious might not like them I suppose. And of course there's a lot of types and sizes of sclerals and some may be more noticeable. I have also heard comments from people about a 'glassy-eyed' sort of look. But in my opinion the smaller ones (and I would guess anything that DrG makes) are not noticeable unless you're looking for them.

[hkgcomet]

Hi, I am also from Asia.

You didn't say much on your dry eye? You concern more on your deep near sight...-18.00D

Why don't you wear normal glasses? Appearance problem?

How dry is your eye? Have you got fully plugged for long time?
I don't think cautery do anything more than fully plugged. And fully plugged only reduce the frequency of using eye drops.

We don't know how dry you are, only you and doctor.
There's an article by miss. dianat about her experience for cautery here, just have a look.

I hope I would pull out the permanent plug from my eye later!
Salty eye is another problem.

[Seekingtreatment]

Hi hkgcomet,

My latest schmidht test result was 6 and 9. Regarding wearing glasses, appearance is one thing, but I am more concern about the progression of myopia because it can & will lead to many eye illness such as blindness.

Regarding salty eye, does salty tears cause irritation?

I have only tried plugging the lower punctals. But I need tears to wear rgp lens (I guess except Boston scherals).

Costs of punctal plugs do add up every year, plus the risk of infection.

I am quite indifferent on this issue, I hope you guys can give me more info especially those who have double pluged or cauterized, your input is invaluable to me.

Thank you very much.

[hkgcomet]

hi, seekingtreatment

schirmer test result was 6 and 9 <<< this is so high! just one eye got moderate dry.

You are thinking to do cautery? It permanantly damage your tear duct!
It is only for patient with severe dry eye, and no hope for recover.

Fully plugged eye making tears remain don't cure your eye!
Sensitive remains! Easy Tired remains! Tearing and turn red in wind.

Salty eye <<< you would have secretion come out at eye corner especially with eyedrops, it just like your are a dirty peason haven't wash face at wake up, haha.

I had done lots of things for curing my eye. I hope someday I can change to half-plugged. I won't do anything more to hurt my eye, putting plugs already make me regret.

I am on chinese medicine and acupuncture. Have you try those? Have you eat bilberry, flexseed/fish oil capsules?

You are 44 years old and hope to wear contact for better appearance, and want to use cautery for a exchange? Not worth...
You may able to live with eyedrops now and for much more putting in one upper plug is enough.

(You may try to search for something curing the eye, it would have chance to improve your dry eye and reduce your degeneration of the poor eye at the same time.)

[Seekingtreatment]

Hi hkgcomet,

If appearance and convenience were on top of my list, I would have opted for Lasik or ppk many years ago.


Stoping myopia progression is on top of my list.


I have eye strain, eye pain, red eyes, blurry vision, to name a few, just like everybody here. I have good days and bad days. When the relative humi. is high, I feel better, but when it is low, my eyes hurt really bad. We need tears to reflect light to the retina, during the dry weather without sufficent tears, I cannot see very well. I actually had to sit closing to the TV.


Hmm, 6 is good? When I lie in bed at night, I can hear the sound of my eyelid rubber against my eye ball. This is sad.


The worst schimidt I had was 0,0. This was caused by allergy, I am allergic to the dust and particles in the air! I needed to take physiological dose of steriod for another illness and that helps my eyes alot. Prior to the steriod, I had to stay home, close all the windows and had 2 big air cleaner turned on 24/7. I could only continously take 4 days of oral antihistamine the most, but on the 5th day, my eyes hurt, because the antihistamine dried up my eyes. I tried Patanol before, but I am allergic to the preservatives BAK.


Have you ever tried wearing someone else's stong prescription glasses before? If so, for how long? Did you feel dizzy? Headache?


I have to wear -16, -18, prescription glasses and of course, I get very tired, too. I started to wear glasses, full time, about 9 years ago. Before that I wore soft dispposable lens. During that time, I seldom wore glasses, and my prescription was pretty stable, around -11.


There is a theory that says wearing prescription glasses can cause myopia progression. I am a big fan of this theory. Since I stopped wearing soft lens due to dry eyes and allergic eyes, I had deep myopia progression, from -11 to -18 for the pass 9 years. Why? Because of eye strain, I believe.


Correct me if I am wrong, our eyes are like a camera with auto focus. This auto focus keep working and working, and only stop when we have sharp clear vision (or when we close our eyes). This auto focus cause eye strain, and eye strain cause myopia progression. In addition to this, the image I see through this kind of extreme myopic glasses is extremely distorted to the point I cannot explain in words.


Eventhough I wear corrective glasses, my vision is bad, I cannot even see the number on the bus until it is a few feet close to me, obviously, it is better that I don't drive.


My latest pair of glasses is, -15, I got before chrismas 2007. They are too strong for me, although there is -3.00D less than my current prescription and the fact that I have been wearing them for more than a year. Recently, I broke the nose piece of the glasses and they needed to be repaired.

At this moment, I am wearing a pair of old glasses about -13. Despite the even "blurrer" vision, they are kinder to my eyes and I feel much better now.

There are many people like me who are searching for a cure for myopia. The only thing I know is that clear, sharp vision stops the auto focus of the eye, and that leads to reduced eye strain, and reduced eye strain leads to slowing or stopping of the progession of myopia.


In my own opinion, wearing glasses is almost a death sentence to me , the death of my eyes.

Thank you very much.

[hkgcomet]

Don't know if wearing glasses and soft contact lens would have great different on myopia progression.

You think wearing normal glasses cause worse on myopia?
Or the soft contact reduce the degenerate of myopia?

Would it due to the "source" of your dry eye?
Do you have other health problems in those years? Any hormones problems?

I don't know things about contacts. Just suggest you mostly only have upper permanent plug to be done. It is more reverseable.

[mary kenny badami]

Hello, Seekingtreatment, and welcome to DryEyeTalk!

You have been given very good advice so far, I think.
Perhaps a Scleral Lens consultation with the Boston Foundation for Sight (in an office in Asia, or in Boston, Massachusetts, USA)?
Or even a trip to Texas, USA, to visit DrG, who has an exceptional track record for helping people with a variety of problems?

However, I am uncomfortable with one statement which you made, as follows:

"There is a theory that says wearing prescription glasses can cause myopia progression. I am a big fan of this theory.
Since I stopped wearing soft lens due to dry eyes and allergic eyes, I had deep myopia progression, from -11 to -18 for the pass 9 years. Why? Because of eye strain, I believe."

Although I am only a patient and not a medical professional, I do not believe that this claim is supported by any, and let me emphasize, ANY, reputable eye doctors.

I do think that a change in prescription from -11 to -18 nearsightedness in an otherwise healthy person during their 30s/40s is troubling, believe me . . . but if your eye docs have blamed this on your wearing eyeglasses of any particular prescription, or on "eyestrain," I suggest that you find another, better, doctor, to assess why such a change has happened.

I think you have THREE interconnected issues to solve:
(a) to get relief from your relentless dry eyes and other painful symptoms; and
(b) to understand the reason behind your nearsightedness progression in the past several years; and
(c) to get the very best correction to your near and far vision, whether through eyeglasses or specialized contact lenses or some other means.

Please, I apologize in advance for disagreeing with you, but I do not want other readers on this website to resist wearing corrective eyeglasses because of a theory which --
however much you believe in it -- I believe is not supported by scientific data.

[Lucy]

Hi seekingtreatment-

I feel bad for you in this situation. A correction of -16 or -18 is unimaginable to me. Prior to Lasik, I was -9.5 so I can sympathize.

That being said, I never wore contact lens. I tried earlier in my life when the GP's first came out and I never could get used to them. Later, I tried soft contacts and they didn't work either. Back to glasses.

My eyes started the myopia progression when I was about 7 years old. Every year i would get a stronger lens and this stopped at about 18 years. This is because when you are done growing, the myopia usually stops. This is normal and to be expected. It's unfortunate some of us are subject to that, but that's life.

My daughter inherited my eyes. Same prescription. She wore soft contacts from the age of about 11 to her present time. We thought maybe this would prevent myopia, but it didn't. You get what you are programmed at birth to get.

I wish I had stayed away from Lasik because it was a disaster for several reasons. On another note, I wanted to mention a doctor I have been in touch with the past couple of years. He is an Indian gentleman and his glasses are so thick, it's impossible to not notice. When he went to put stuff in the computer, he got right up to the screen and was very tenuous in his input.

I asked him about his eyes and he was a -14 in one eye and -18 in the other. I mentioned my bad experience with Lasik and he said he wouldn't get any refractive surgery because he was not a good candidate. He was probably in his early 50's and is a successful oncologist. I was in awe of what he was able to accomplish with such a large myopia!

Lucy

[hkgcomet]

Extreme myopic:
1. usually come with inborn longer eyeball
2. Eye's supply problems

Long time watching near objects like TV, computer would lead to nearsight is well known in the world. But I saw those would not due to a "Extreme" nearsight, such as -5D over. (-9D more not likey can cause by fatigue...)

Seekingtreatment, you would better to check for your body condition. Keeping good living environment, don't overload your eye. Probably solve the mid-age health problems by nutrition, exercise, supplyment capsules, herbs, acupuncture, etc.

Hope you would get your better eye back.

[Seekingtreatment]

Hi Lucy and hkgcomet,

Thank you for your kind advice. I have decided to drop the idea of cauterizing both the upper and the lower eyelids of the bad eye.

Thank you very much.