One year recovery ... truth or myth?

[tommyboy]

So about 6 weeks post LASIK I politely asked to see my surgeon, not anyone else. I took a train to the city waited for awhile and saw an OD, who did some tests, said I was dry, etc. they also took some scans with a computer. They told me the Restasis was the right course of action and put plugs in (all four ... collagen).

I saw my Surgeon for about 3 minutes. He looked at my eyes, looked at my charts and scans. Talked to the OD about how far they cut (I guess into the flap). And my Surgeon said this time next year you won't have any problems, but the winter will be rough. That was mid October. I did not know what the heck "rough" ment. (I do now!).

I saw another corneal specialist (unaffiliated) who also said the regimen (Restasis and plugs was appropriate) and also told me winter will be tough.

So it's been 5 and 1/2 months and I now have 5 pairs of glasses (sunglasses, fancy work glasses to make me look smart, moisture goggles, etc).

Anyway, the folks at the eye shop, one of the folks there (Jeff) is going to school and is doing an internship with a corneal specialist and he is writing a paper on LASIK and has focused his attention to dry eye because he seems to be so interested in what is going on with me. So he talked to the corneal specialist about me and she said, a full year is very appropriate. When I had my surgery I was heading into winter which would be rough and once spring and warmer weather comes around, the body will "break the cycle" and things will get back to normal or close to it.

Is there any truth to this? I guess time will soon tell, but I am interested in what others experience is.

I tell you what, if it is true ... I will continue to contribute to this site to help others and not just drop off after the healing process.

Anyways I am looking forward to spring

Cheers,
Tom

[Rebecca Petris]

[QUOTE=tommyboy;69125]

Is there any truth to this?

Yes...no...sort of. There are as many healing patterns as there are people who have undergone LASIK. There's the folks with nothing noticeable, the folks with a bad first month then better, the folks with a horrible six months who start improving shortly after... the folks who go progressively downhill for most of the first year, start stabilizing in the second and are back to real life in the third. And on and on. I tend to think that with LASIK dry eye things have a timing course they're going to run which in some cases is not materially altered by treatment... and that that course varies with the individual. It's really, really hard to gauge probabilities since few studies track people beyond a year (or even six months) and even anecdotally, people drop out of sight when better so we get a distorted view on the sites which always attract primarily those whose symptoms outlasted the doctors' predictions.

I tell you what, if it is true ... I will continue to contribute to this site to help others and not just drop off after the healing process.

Great ! We love our faithful veterans here

[tommyboy]

Thanks for your reply Rebecca. I seem to be really struggling last couple of days. I have not seen my OD in 2 months. She said see me sometime in March or April, not much more she could do ... aside from waiting out the winter.

The non affiliated corneal specialist I last saw 2 1/2 months ago ... and I just made an appointment with him for March 17.

I saw my counselor yesterday and my physiologist this morning. I am taking Remeron for depression, which also helps with sleep and Klonopin for anxiety. My doctor just added Cymbalta this morning to see if that would help.

What else should I be doing?

Thanks,
Tom