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Hi All -
I have had dry eyes since May 2008 and a contributing member of this forum since March 2009. My symptoms were soreness, redness, photophobia, burning, and blepharospasm. My discomfort was affecting my work and family life considerably.
After many failed consultations with CLUELESS doctors, I finally found a concerned and committed Optho, Dr Michael Gagnon, who diagnosed me with ocular rosacea and resultant MGD. At the same time as my eyes became bad, my Derm diagnosed me with perioral dermatitis which was later revised to rosacea. So I have both facial and ocular rosacea.
My derm initially put me on 100mg Doryx (special prep doxy) for three months which cleared up my perioral dermatitis and helped my dry eyes about 50%. I was later put on Oracea for maintenance (40mg doxy). My eyes were much better, but still by no means very livable. So I tried a month long course of Azasite which irritated my eyes considerably. I then was given Alrex to use as pulse therapy when things got bad. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. During this whole time I was compressing and eyelid scrubbing myself silly and drinking enough liquid fish oil (Nordic Naturals) that I began getting nose bleeds because my blood was so thin. I then tried Restasis for a month and again nothing. So I made an appointment to go see Dr Toyos in LA at the end of June.
After my first IPL in LA, my symptoms were significantly improved. Following my second treatment, my eyes felt the way they did before I developed dry eyes - normal. At this point, I discontinued Alrex and Restasis. I then went to Atlanta to receive my third treatment from Dr Toyos who was doing a training down there (at this point, Dr Toyos no longer practiced in LA and Atlanta is a non-stop from SF instead of a layover with Memphis so I jumped at the chance to get a freebie by doing a demo for Dr Toyos in Atlanta) At this training, after I got my treatment and everyone watched, I stood up (totally impulsively as I was not told that I would be speaking! If I had known I probably would have flown to Memphis) and talked a little bit about my experience. Dr Yee of Houston (inventor of autologous serum drops) came up to me after the training and said that I knew more about dry eye than 95% of eye doctors.
After my third treatment, I discontinued Oracea, eyelid scrubs and warm compressing. I received my fourth treatment in SF at another training for Dr Toyos and when the Dr's all looked at my eyes under the slit lamp, they were all skeptical because no one could believe that I had dry eyes or blepharitis. I know what my eyes, even unstained, looked like before I did this treatment as I have my records from several doctors - eyelid edema, lid margin vessels, lots of scurf. And this time I saw my eyelid margins projected onto a screen from the slit lamp. And they look great - clear, pale with a defined edge, clean lashes. After he did the treatment and did the extractions, then the Dr's all said "aha, there it is" because some of my glands excreted yellow and hardened meibum.
So in short, after 4 IPL treatments, I am not taking or doing anything with my eyes except taking fish oil. No antibiotic, eyedrops - prescription or OTC, no compresses, no eyelid scrubs, no moisture chamber glasses. And my eyes look and feel normal again. I took a 23 hour long flight to Europe and was fine. I spent one week in my in-laws ridiculously overheated and dry house in central Ohio over Thanksgiving and was fine. The only time I noticed my eyes acting up was for two days when I had to go to Denver for work. That place bothered me before I had "dry eyes" so who knows. In short, my life is back to normal in many ways and I cannot begin to tell you all how good I feel. I waited so long to post this because I wanted to make sure that the results were lasting. I received my first treatment at the end of June 2009 and my last treatment was at the end of October. So we will see how long I can go before I have to go back to be retreated.
Dr Toyos is continuing to train Dr's all over the country. At his trainings, I met some Dr's that really impressed me - Dr Yee of Houston and Dr Craig Fowler of UNC Chapel Hill. They were both very knowledgeable about and interested in dry eye. I know that Dr Yee is doing IPL and seeing great results.
As I have been feeling better, I have been coming here less and less. So for many of you still in the weeds out there, don't be too down. I think that many folks on here get to a better place and then move on and don't post any longer. So it skews the posts a little towards those that are still in a difficult place.
I also want to do a quick shout out to all my OR friends on here - Odydnas, AllisonW, Autumnn, AmyK, Sazy. I'm saying prayers for all of you ladies, and everyone on here.
And finally, thank you so much to Rebecca Petris. Without this site, I would have never heard about so many things that helped me and who knows where I would be. You really are a hero.
Warmest Regards,
Gretchen
I have had dry eyes since May 2008 and a contributing member of this forum since March 2009. My symptoms were soreness, redness, photophobia, burning, and blepharospasm. My discomfort was affecting my work and family life considerably.
After many failed consultations with CLUELESS doctors, I finally found a concerned and committed Optho, Dr Michael Gagnon, who diagnosed me with ocular rosacea and resultant MGD. At the same time as my eyes became bad, my Derm diagnosed me with perioral dermatitis which was later revised to rosacea. So I have both facial and ocular rosacea.
My derm initially put me on 100mg Doryx (special prep doxy) for three months which cleared up my perioral dermatitis and helped my dry eyes about 50%. I was later put on Oracea for maintenance (40mg doxy). My eyes were much better, but still by no means very livable. So I tried a month long course of Azasite which irritated my eyes considerably. I then was given Alrex to use as pulse therapy when things got bad. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. During this whole time I was compressing and eyelid scrubbing myself silly and drinking enough liquid fish oil (Nordic Naturals) that I began getting nose bleeds because my blood was so thin. I then tried Restasis for a month and again nothing. So I made an appointment to go see Dr Toyos in LA at the end of June.
After my first IPL in LA, my symptoms were significantly improved. Following my second treatment, my eyes felt the way they did before I developed dry eyes - normal. At this point, I discontinued Alrex and Restasis. I then went to Atlanta to receive my third treatment from Dr Toyos who was doing a training down there (at this point, Dr Toyos no longer practiced in LA and Atlanta is a non-stop from SF instead of a layover with Memphis so I jumped at the chance to get a freebie by doing a demo for Dr Toyos in Atlanta) At this training, after I got my treatment and everyone watched, I stood up (totally impulsively as I was not told that I would be speaking! If I had known I probably would have flown to Memphis) and talked a little bit about my experience. Dr Yee of Houston (inventor of autologous serum drops) came up to me after the training and said that I knew more about dry eye than 95% of eye doctors.
After my third treatment, I discontinued Oracea, eyelid scrubs and warm compressing. I received my fourth treatment in SF at another training for Dr Toyos and when the Dr's all looked at my eyes under the slit lamp, they were all skeptical because no one could believe that I had dry eyes or blepharitis. I know what my eyes, even unstained, looked like before I did this treatment as I have my records from several doctors - eyelid edema, lid margin vessels, lots of scurf. And this time I saw my eyelid margins projected onto a screen from the slit lamp. And they look great - clear, pale with a defined edge, clean lashes. After he did the treatment and did the extractions, then the Dr's all said "aha, there it is" because some of my glands excreted yellow and hardened meibum.
So in short, after 4 IPL treatments, I am not taking or doing anything with my eyes except taking fish oil. No antibiotic, eyedrops - prescription or OTC, no compresses, no eyelid scrubs, no moisture chamber glasses. And my eyes look and feel normal again. I took a 23 hour long flight to Europe and was fine. I spent one week in my in-laws ridiculously overheated and dry house in central Ohio over Thanksgiving and was fine. The only time I noticed my eyes acting up was for two days when I had to go to Denver for work. That place bothered me before I had "dry eyes" so who knows. In short, my life is back to normal in many ways and I cannot begin to tell you all how good I feel. I waited so long to post this because I wanted to make sure that the results were lasting. I received my first treatment at the end of June 2009 and my last treatment was at the end of October. So we will see how long I can go before I have to go back to be retreated.
Dr Toyos is continuing to train Dr's all over the country. At his trainings, I met some Dr's that really impressed me - Dr Yee of Houston and Dr Craig Fowler of UNC Chapel Hill. They were both very knowledgeable about and interested in dry eye. I know that Dr Yee is doing IPL and seeing great results.
As I have been feeling better, I have been coming here less and less. So for many of you still in the weeds out there, don't be too down. I think that many folks on here get to a better place and then move on and don't post any longer. So it skews the posts a little towards those that are still in a difficult place.
I also want to do a quick shout out to all my OR friends on here - Odydnas, AllisonW, Autumnn, AmyK, Sazy. I'm saying prayers for all of you ladies, and everyone on here.
And finally, thank you so much to Rebecca Petris. Without this site, I would have never heard about so many things that helped me and who knows where I would be. You really are a hero.
Warmest Regards,
Gretchen
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