Conjunctivochalasis Surgery

[Francesco]

Hello,

so basically after about 10 years of pain and frustration caused by my eyes, the cause could be Conjunctivochalasis (I also have mild blepharitis). My Dr. took pictures of my eyes using Fluorescien Dye and showed me the wrinkles of the conjunctiva. He said that usually the eye becomes very red like if you have conjunctivitis (thats how my eyes look). Can anyone who had the surgery give me some feedback??? I read some other posts about this but apparently it is not discussed often. Thanks

Francesco

[Lucy]

Francesco, this is not discussed frequently. Over the years, a few patients have told about it. I don't think and/or remember any raving results. Tread carefully and keep your wallet closed.

You might go to www.lasermyeye.org and do a search and see if it's written about on that website. Lucy

[Francesco]

Hi Lucy,

thanks...Honestly i've reached a point where i would do anything because I really dont have a life anymore...the burning is so severe that between a class and another in college i go in my car in the parking and keep my eyes closed.... ...anyway thanks...!

[irish eyes]

Hi Francesco

I've put up all this for a long time so believe me - I know exactly how you are feeling. I have these `philosophical debates' in my own head about how much I would be prepared to pay or do - just to get to a state where I didn't have to think about my eyes all the time. I haven't had Lasek. I started several years ago with aggressive bouts of iritis (inflammation of the iris) and the dry eye / bleph. started a little later - but there may not be any connection.

I too have Conjunctivochalasis. This makes it hard to derive any benefit from drops because they cannot coat the surface of the eye adequately. However - one of the doctors advised me against surgery to correct the condition. This is because he performed it on a few patients and the results were not good. OK - things may have progressed a bit more in recent years so I am not saying `Don't do it'. This doctor admitted to feeling that he had failed in his duty of care at that early point in his career. Just be careful and do your research. And as Lucy said - keep your wallet closed.

[Lucy]

Francesco, I have had this for 9 years and spent countless thousands looking for a cure. Plus the thousands for lasik. I have a pain in my eye, but I also have one in my wallet, but I've been around "talk" of this surgery for many years and have known people to have it. I'm still sayin' keep your wallet closed. If you want to throw money away, go to Las Vegas, or give to your favorite charity. Just because we're desperate, we often do things that are counter-productive. I'm telling you this surgery seems to be that. Lucy

[Rebecca Petris]

Tread carefully and keep your wallet closed.

I agree with Lucy 100%. I have heard from approximately a dozen dry eye patients who underwent this surgery and found themselves with no long-term improvement and $10k or so poorer. That is not to say of course that it might not help YOU. But get some really solid information about LONG term results from real live patients first. I only recall hearing from one happy patient, and even in that case it was not a very long time after the surgery.

I think that one of the difficulties is establishing how much of the symptoms are in fact due to conjunctivochalasis. Often with dry eye there is a completely understandable tendency to go for the most obvious visible explanations. However, we all know there are loads of people without ANY visible explanations who nonetheless have severe dry eye pain. Theoretically, if you can remove at least one of the causes of pain you'll still be better off. Unfortunately I haven't gotten the sense from real life patients that this is likely with corneal surface restructuring.

[Francesco]

Hi,

thanks everybody...first of all about the money...well my parents spent about 15-20 thousand dollars until now to help me (going to so many dr.s)....and at this point i guess they would spend even more if i really want to have the surgery...anyway, i really dont know what to do; i'm gonna visit another Dr. in 10 days and ask what he thinks about (surely i'm not gonna say that i was diagnosed with it..i'll wait to hear it from him)...but really my eyes are making my life a nightmare. they are chronically red like if i have pink eye and they burn incredibly. Sometimes they look watery almost like if i have allergies because of the burning. and I often feel like i have eyelashes in them which i dont have but i guess its because of conjunctivochalasis..and they get worse every year.....so, i know i should pay attention but i cant live like this. I read that adam85 and DESTINY had this surgery and were doing quite good?! anyway, if someone wants to add a comment or had the surgery i would appreciate!

Francesco

[Delta]

It is obvious that you may have different reasons for dry eyes than others on the board. So it is hard to say with what confidence your symptoms will improve with this surgery when you don't even know what is causing the problem- even if someone else had great results.
Having read through some articles, the wrinkling is very common. Do you have problem with aqueous portion of tear or the mucin part?

[irish eyes]

Delta

What you say is so true - the surgery may not be the best answer for every dry eye problem. It can be seen that minor, even simple and inexpensive approaches can be effective in some cases yet not in others - that is why this is such a frustrating condition to have.

Francesco
You may have seen this site already -

http://www.osref.org/conjunctivochalasis-cch.aspx

I have shelled out a fair bit of money over the years too. It hurts the pocket when these things don't work but I now find it hard to cope with disappointment so I have to work very hard indeed to manage my own expectations. But again - do get some advice on this sugery and whether it might help in your case. I really don't mean to be negative - but as one who was persuaded against the procedure by someone who used to perform it, then hopefully you can see where I'm coming from.

Good luck again.

[Francesco]

Hi,

i use drops 3-4 times each day so my problem is not so much the dryness but the burning and the irratation...and yes, i will think a lot before having the surgery and get advices but i must do something cause things are getting worse..

[rubyslippers]

You are in my prayers. Wish I had advice, but you are the same age range as my own sons. I would not wish this on anyone, but reading that young people on this board suffer so just breaks my heart. It is bad enough to be 52 and dealing with this and last winter when my eyes were so bad, I just could not imagine doing this for a long period of time. It just makes me so sad. We must work on getting more research into these painful conditions.

[Francesco]

Thanks a lot..well i've had this since i was very young and its hard....I didn't have a normal adolescence because of this (and some other health issues) and i'm still waiting for that day when I will finally feel like everyone else..especially regarding social life which is the thing i missed mostly during these years..Bye

You are in my prayers. Wish I had advice, but you are the same age range as my own sons. I would not wish this on anyone, but reading that young people on this board suffer so just breaks my heart. It is bad enough to be 52 and dealing with this and last winter when my eyes were so bad, I just could not imagine doing this for a long period of time. It just makes me so sad. We must work on getting more research into these painful conditions.

[autumnn]

I have been told I have a mild case of this conjunctivochalasis but that it is not what causes my problems since I have obvious blepharitis/mgd. Also, I wonder if many, many people without dry eye have this and dont know because they arent seeing eye docs all the time.
For me, at least for now- helping the obvious issues is the goal.

[eva b]

autumn,
I have been given the same diagnosis as you - mild conjunctivochalasis - and also told that loads of people have it and don't even know. It probably is not affecting my dry eye condition either as, like you, i have MGD.

I think we all have a tendency to immediately jump to conclusions if we're told we have something "wrong" like this in our eyes, and think this is the cause of our symptoms, and my suspicion is that often it is not the cause...just a different problem.

[autumnn]

Hi Eve-
So glad to her from you. I agree that maybe the majority of people have this to one extent or another and have no idea. I got all uptight when my eye doc told me this and I think now he wishes he didnt mention it. He has made it clear to me that he is CERTAIN this isnt my problem but rather a result of chronic inflammation. When I see (in Jan) the eye doc in that has this surgery as his specialty I will let you know. I jumped into sclerals and lost 3 grand in something I thought would help. I certainly dont want to do that with this too.... Like my doc said- the bleph and mgd is there and that is causing some discomfort. If that was perfect and everything else was too then this would be a different story.