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  • My Last thread on DEZ (very interesting!!)

    Hello all,

    someone of you know me already..I've been a member here for a couple of years already and I wanted to share my experience since I believe it has change dramatically....sorry if its quite long.

    I'm 24, started noticing when I was about 14 that my eyes were always red, burning and were dry (not severely). I started visiting Eye Doctors; for the first years in Milan where I lived..I visited about 10-15 dr.s and basically nobody could help.

    After some years, tired of having chronic redness and so much burning that DEEPLY affected my social life I started to visit some "Top" Eye Doctors. I visited Dr.s in London and then even here in the U.S. since my father lives here and he helped me. I went to New York, Houston etc...you all know the names of these Dry Eye specialists.....you can imagine a young guy with sunglasses on all these airplanes around the world...looking for some help..

    Still, they were giving me drops or masks, but the problem was there and the inflammation and burning was become so severe that I was desperate.....This until some months ago....(we are talking about 9-10 years of eye problems already)......

    I visited this last Dr. in Miami....it was really the last one because my parents were spending so much money and nothing was changing....My depression was also very very bad because I wasnt able to live my life like everyone else...

    Now, first thing he said when he saw me was this: "Your lower lids are too low.....your eye is too exposed..." ........well, I went back a couple of times and then decided to have a surgery on my lids.....very invasive (I had the surgery with an Oculoplastic). I wasnt sure if that could help but I was so desperate that went for it.....you can see this picture to have an idea...They are NOT my eyes but look 100% the same...

    http://www.drputterman.com/images/pr...on.large.1.jpg


    the name of the surgery is "Canthoplasty with spacer (that can be of different materials)"......basically they have to move/cut the latheral canthal of the eyes (on the bone near the corners) and put some collagen in the lower lids......this can move them up......

    It took 2 weeks to heal and 20 stitches (my face near the eyes will probably still hurt for some months).....the miracle was that after 1 week of the surgery the burning was COMPLETELY gone and even the redness and dryness is less........I just use 1 artificial drop a day and hope to stop using them soon...my eyes are still a bit red but I can understand that...they have been exposed for so many years....the burning until the surgery was so bad that I was thinking about killing myself.....

    Well, sorry if it was long but I dont know...just wanted to tell you that I'm doing fine now......it is still difficult because I feel like I'm "out of jail"....meaning that I became quite a lonely guy and now I feel that slowly I can do more especially socially....

    Good luck for everything,

    Francesco

  • #2
    What a great story, very happy for you!

    It gives me some hope that if you have finely managed to find a resolution after 9 years and seeing so many doctors that may be able to. I have given up all hope though tbh! Its always the same- allergies, but im not allergic to anything and the drops do nothing!

    Hope it contiunes for you francesco.
    I healed my dry eye with nutrition and detoxification. I'm now a Nutritional Therapist at: www.nourishbalanceheal.com Join my dry eye facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/420821978111328/

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    • #3
      Good for you Francesco! Thanks for the story, intriguing diagnosis...hope it stays normal for you and you can return to the real world. I definitely understand the social aspects of DES!

      Daren

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      • #4
        Congrats Francesco

        As eyelid surgery could be a possible direction for me, I'm very interested in your post and the progress you are making overall. I know you said this was your last thread, but feel free to let us know how you get on.

        Hopefully the remaining pain will fade soon and the effects are permanent for you!

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        • #5
          Hi Francesco

          What can I say that has not already been said?

          I do hope things continue to get better.

          Buona Fortuna!

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          • #6
            Thanks all,

            jlg_uk, I said this is my last thread because I really hope I wont need this forum again... Its a great place tho and there is some wonderful people on here starting from Rebecca!!

            Anyway, I think my story is interesting because the cause of the problem was not "inside" the eye, but the shape of them.....so these Dr.s where going crazy to find out what caused my very very fast tear evaporation......even if someone expects that an Eye Dr. knows about the shape etc of an eye...

            Again, I still have some redness that I hope will become less but the burning is completely gone.......so, there are other causes for that...they told me for years that I had MGD....yes, I did have a couple of glands clogged, but that was just a consequence of the chronic dryness and inflammation...

            Francesco



            Originally posted by jlg_uk View Post
            Congrats Francesco

            As eyelid surgery could be a possible direction for me, I'm very interested in your post and the progress you are making overall. I know you said this was your last thread, but feel free to let us know how you get on.

            Hopefully the remaining pain will fade soon and the effects are permanent for you!
            Last edited by Francesco; 22-Jan-2009, 14:05.

            Comment


            • #7
              Wow, I'm so happy for you!!! This is brilliant news.

              I think your story will inspire others who've had such pain. Maybe you can come back to visit and inspire others from time to time.

              Fantastic
              just keep swimming...

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              • #8
                Yea! Congratulations! I am happy for you for figuring out the problem and finding a way to fix it!

                Your story might very well help some other people here.

                --Liz

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                • #9
                  wonderful news; compare tarsorraphy and blepharoptosis

                  So thrilled for francesco and his triumph! Hats off to his persistence and creativity, in the search to a solution!

                  Just want to add that tarsorraphy, or the suturing of eyelids to reduce the size of the eye's opening, was once done more often than it is, today, to relieve severe dry eye symptoms. I sense that tarsorraphy may not be as precise as was francesco's surgery, because his surgery was designed to remedy a specific malformation. . .but the general idea of reducing eye aperture is common to these procedures.

                  For those of us facing natural aging, moreover, blepharoptosis, or the overhang of puffy tissue in the space between eyebrow and eye, can sometimes produce a welcome reduction in eye aperture, reducing de-wetting. I have been told by a good eye doctor to be very careful to avoid any significant correction of blepharoptosis, if this should happen to me as I age, since I will benefit by some increased closure of the lids, and should take advantage of it (:^). . .
                  <Doggedly Determined>

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                  • #10
                    I am so thrilled for you Francesco! That is wonderful to hear. And it shows what persistence, persistence, persistence and keeping up your hope can do. Sometimes the problems and solutions really are unexpected and elusive.
                    Rebecca Petris
                    The Dry Eye Foundation
                    dryeyefoundation.org
                    800-484-0244

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                    • #11
                      Just to add onto the list of congrats! I am so happy for you! This just shows that we just need to keep on trying to find solutions.

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                      • #12
                        Francesco,

                        Congrats on you success. I sent you a PM-I'm interested in going to see the same doc that you saw and asked for the contact details in PM. I am just posting this in case you don't see it. Please let me know!

                        And I'm very happy for you!

                        Danny

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                        • #13
                          I'm sure that many other readers of this bulletin board join me (and the posters before me) in congratulating you on such a fine success.

                          Your particular solution sounds terribly, terribly drastic . . . but I'm sure that you wouldn't have chosen to do it had any of your efforts to discover other, less invasive, strategies worked.

                          Bless your parents for their emotional and financial support, bless the previous docs who tried to help, and most of all, bless the doc who achieved such a dramatic change in your life.

                          Thank you for making this particular post. I love the title of your thread -- wouldn't it be grand if each and every one of our current posters got the opportunity to make such an entry!

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                          • #14
                            Franscesco,

                            Congratulations! That is such great news and I am so happy for you. Thanks for sharing to encourage others!

                            -Shells

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                            • #15
                              Yeah this is the same surgery that I had. Unfotunately I developed severe chalasis, with the conjunctiva flopping over the lower eye lid (very prominent, didnt need to be a dr to see it). Then I had it excised and my problems multiplied by 1000. Maybe I should have selected a better doc. I dont know why this happened to me.

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