Restasis after 1 week !?!?!?

[beamermarie]

Hello all! I had PRK about 3 years ago. I've been reading this forum and lurking for a over a year, but never posted because I am not expert enough to answer any questions, and all my questions seem to have already been asked.

I wouldn't change anything about my decision to have PRK- but I do wish I didn't have the dry eye.

My dry eyes have never been painful, but do sometimes feel "gritty." That part that has me searching for relief is that it messes with my vision. Some days I can sit in bed and see the clock, and some days I can't. My vision fluctuates with the dryness. For about 15 minutes after using drops, I am at 20/20, then it flounders.

I have tried heat and lid cleaning, and glad expression. I have used every over the counter eyedrop known to man.

I'm seeing an ophthalmologist, but he doesn't give me much info. I know my tear evap is 2.

My insurance is good and bad. It pays for restasis... COMPLETELY! So I'm lucky for that. But I don't have much choice in doctors. Mine doesn't seem to know or care about dry eyes. He spend 2-3 minutes with me, and wrote me an Rx for restasis. He did dilate my eyes- but that was the extent of things. Oh, he checked my pressure too.

He referred me to another ophthalmologist for a plug consult. I guess he doesn't have experience or know much about the plugs.

Anyway, I've read that restasis takes awhile to start working. I've been on it for 3 days and I swear there is a difference.

Is this possible? My visual acuity is much better. I don't have to squint to see who is across the room after a couple hours of no drops.

Is it possible that it can work this fast? Or am I just faking myself out?

[Guest]

Although you haven't been on it nearly long enough for it to reach maximum effectiveness, I don't see why it wouldn't be possible for it to start helping a little bit already, especially if you don't get much in the way of irritation from the drop itself!

It's great that it seems to be helping so soon... hopefully that's sign of even MORE improvement to come!

[beamermarie]

Thanks for the reply guys! My doc doesn't really seem interested to talk about meibomian glands or inflammation or anything. I told my optometrist and ophthalmologist that my eyelids tend to swell- not the extent of blepharitis, but kinda like being inflamed. They get really puffy sometimes, like if I'd been crying, and kinda tender, but then clear up on their own. Sometimes regular eyedrops start to hurt if I use them too much, kinda like I'm stuffing my eyes full of eyedrops and everything feels swollen. I surmise that I have problems with inflammation.

I got the PRK because I wore contacts for years, but then started reacting to them. I switched to peroxide based cleaners and that helped for a couple years, but then I just couldn't wear contacts anymore. I ended up in the ER three times with reactions that they kept diagnosing as pink eye. It wasn't pink eye, it was just a major reaction. The undersides of my upper eyelids would get ruff (not the meibomian glands) but the actual underside. If I would "flip" my eyelid inside out, you could see the texture, and the top layer would rub off, and sometimes I'd have a drop of blood come out of my eye from my eyelids... it was crazy.

I just got done with about 6 years of immunotheapy injections that I started right after the major incidents with my eyes. My allergist thinks it was severe allergic reactions. The only allergy that remains is cats, and the only place I react to cats is in my eyes. They get red, itching, sting, ect.

I have patenol, but I swear, it dries out my eyes and makes the DES worse... it's not worth the trade off.

My ophthalmologist wasn't interested in any of this. I'm really looking forward to meeting with the other opthalmo because I have a Pineal cyst (well known to cause field of vision issues and often diagnosed by eye doctors) and he acted like he didn't even know what it was... I didn't get a warm fuzzy.

Anyway, perhaps restasis is perfect for me.

I am just worried that it's the power of positive thinking and the relief is not going to last.

Don't get me wrong, it's only making a small difference as of now, but I can notice it. The second night I was using the restasis, I kept having to wipe my face because my eyes were producing so much moisture. Today I am just really trying to blink more to keep from tearing up.

I have no burning from the restasis.

The problem is that even with tear running down my face, my eyes still feel dry and a bit gritty... but I'm hoping this will improve too!

I wish everyone luck in finding something that works for them!

[Keymaker]

You will tear heavily for around 1 month. Then it will settle down. I had a PRK 2 years ago and Restasis helped me I stopped it after 7 months as I felt better without it and my tear count was up a little. The improvement stayed and I added permanent punctal plugs to the bottom. I am very good now. I also had improvement after a few days. It should get even better.