Dr. Robert Latkany in NYC

[dryeyes4ever]

Dr. L

I sent him an email today (even though he said he doesn't have time to answer them) which I was going to follow up w/a phone call b/c I've had a REALLY bad week & I wondered if he could prescribe something else.

I was surpised when he called me back w/in 5 mins! On my visit 2 weeks ago, he had prescribed Bepreve & told me to stop Restasis in 2 weeks (which would be today). This time when he called I told him I also had a cold which I don't think is helping things. He told me to stop all drops & only use a cold pack & refridgerated Refresh Plus moisture drops for 10 days.

I have an app't in 2 weeks but he told me he could see me sooner if I'm still having problems. I was very impressed w/how quickly he responded!

[LisaLis]

Hi Dry eyes, wow I'm so glad he got back to you right away! That's great! I just saw a few dr.'s today an allergist that Dr. Latkany recommended I see. the allergist did not agree with patanol that Dr. Latkany prescribed. Those dr.'s always disagree with each other. He suggested cromolyn and a nasal spray for me. He also did some allergy testing, but just basic stuff. I'm allergic to almost everything but it was basic testing dust,pollen, guinea pigs, dogs,etc. I am not going to take anything right now or continue seeing him right now because he wants me to take meds. I started with an accupuncturist today, a chinese medical dr. He told me my body is toxic. I am changing my diet. He told me not to use any steriod drops or meds or it will interfere with what he is doing and it won't work. He said the problem is coming from inside my body not my eyes. He said it is an allergy. I just hope it works.
Let me know how you come along with this.
Lisa

[dryeyes4ever]

Hi Dry eyes, wow I'm so glad he got back to you right away! That's great! I just saw a few dr.'s today an allergist that Dr. Latkany recommended I see. the allergist did not agree with patanol that Dr. Latkany prescribed. Those dr.'s always disagree with each other. He suggested cromolyn and a nasal spray for me. He also did some allergy testing, but just basic stuff. I'm allergic to almost everything but it was basic testing dust,pollen, guinea pigs, dogs,etc. I am not going to take anything right now or continue seeing him right now because he wants me to take meds. I started with an accupuncturist today, a chinese medical dr. He told me my body is toxic. I am changing my diet. He told me not to use any steriod drops or meds or it will interfere with what he is doing and it won't work. He said the problem is coming from inside my body not my eyes. He said it is an allergy. I just hope it works.
Let me know how you come along with this.
Lisa

My eyes feel MUCH better not using any drops. They're still dry, but they aren't burning as much & don't feel gritty at the end of the day. I think I've only used moisture drops 3 times today. My eyes are still red, but are MUCH better than normal.

I had a blood test yesterday recommended by the nutritionist I see. This tests 100s of food sensitivities as well as chemicals. She told me 75% of the population has food sensitivities but only 3% have true allergies. I'm curious to see if I'm sensitive to anything. I won't know for a few weeks.

It does bother me when the doctors never seem to agree w/what each other is doing!

[LisaLis]

Hi Dryeyes,
I called Dr. Latkany's office a little while ago. My eyes are killing me! I'm sitting here crying about it like a baby. I am so sick of this pain! He wants me to come in too see him. I'm going in on friday. Wish me luck. How are your eyes feeling by the way?

Thanks, Lisa

[Reggie]

I pretty much had an identical experience to katya while visiting Dr. Latkany. Visited him in 06 and he gave me the impression that dry eyes weren't really a big deal. Told me that PROSE would be a waste of time and money and that I shouldn't bother pursuing it (boy was he wrong). When I told him about the fact my vision with glasses isn't as clear as it is with contacts, he actually said he could perform LASIK to give me 100% clear vision and that there was a chance that the dry eye wouldn't get any worse. In my honest opinion, one shoudn't go to any doctor for dry eye treatment knowing that he or she is performing LASIK as well. It's almost like going to rehab at a place that sells alcohol out of the back room.

[Guest]

In my honest opinion, one shoudn't go to any doctor for dry eye treatment knowing that he or she is performing LASIK as well. It's almost like going to rehab at a place that sells alcohol out of the back room.

Can't generalize to every doctor... while my LASIK surgeon was useless for treating my dry eyes, the new doctor I switched to about 3 years ago has been wonderful and has helped me a lot (and guess what... he just happens to also do LASIK once in a while... not sure if he still does, but he was when I first started seeing him). If I had ruled him out as a doctor just based on his LASIK time, I'd have missed out on a really good doctor.

I think a better screening criteria might be IF you go to a doctor for your dry eyes, and that same dr. also suggests you get LASIK, run out of that office as fast as you can!!!!

I think the problem is not that a dry eye doc is also performing LASIK... the problem is a dry eye doc suggesting that a person with dry eyes go ahead and get LASIK anyways.

[LisaLis]

latkany

Hi Reggie,

How are your eyes doing now? What helped them?

I have have occular rosacea. I saw Dr. Latkany again today. He is very nice. I went for allergy testing a few weeks ago and I was allergic to all of the basic allergens. Dr. Latkany thought I was allergic to a lot from looking at the basic list. He thinks my eye problems are definitely from allergies. He said my dry eyes are a secondary problem. He said the inflammation is the main problem caused by allergies and the dryness is from the inflammation. He wants me to get another vacuum system in my house and maybe a hepa filter system for our central air. I'm also taking zertec and patanol. He wants to see me in April. He said that he can load me up on medicines but they won't help. He did say that he can give me an oral steriod that will get rid of this but he thinks the inflammation will come right back afterwards. He brought up possibly using a contact lens to create a barrier between by lid and my eye. He thinks it may improve my condition. He wants to wait until the next appt. I did tell him that my problems started when I first started wearing contact lenses 20 years ago. He said contact lenses have come along way from 20 years years ago

The other Dr. I saw on Long Island happens to have an impressive background. I didn't like her she seems to over medicate and it didn't help at all. The office was like a factory and the people at the desk had an attitude. I'm going to wait and see what happens with this.

[dryeyes4ever]

Latkany

Hi Reggie,

How are your eyes doing now? What helped them?

I have have occular rosacea. I saw Dr. Latkany again today. He is very nice. I went for allergy testing a few weeks ago and I was allergic to all of the basic allergens. Dr. Latkany thought I was allergic to a lot from looking at the basic list. He thinks my eye problems are definitely from allergies. He said my dry eyes are a secondary problem. He said the inflammation is the main problem caused by allergies and the dryness is from the inflammation. He wants me to get another vacuum system in my house and maybe a hepa filter system for our central air. I'm also taking zertec and patanol. He wants to see me in April. He said that he can load me up on medicines but they won't help. He did say that he can give me an oral steriod that will get rid of this but he thinks the inflammation will come right back afterwards. He brought up possibly using a contact lens to create a barrier between by lid and my eye. He thinks it may improve my condition. He wants to wait until the next appt. I did tell him that my problems started when I first started wearing contact lenses 20 years ago. He said contact lenses have come along way from 20 years years ago

The other Dr. I saw on Long Island happens to have an impressive background. I didn't like her she seems to over medicate and it didn't help at all. The office was like a factory and the people at the desk had an attitude. I'm going to wait and see what happens with this.

Lisalis - It looks like we were at Dr. Latkany's office the same day (march 2nd). I do like him too. He put me on Doxycycline, 100 mg 2 x a day (I told him I really wanted to try antibiotics b/c it's something I haven't tried for my dry eyes). He told me he has hundreds of more things to try if this doesn't work (which really gave me a lot of hope).

He said to stay off the prescription drops & just use Refresh Plus tears (they're preservative free). I still do the lid scrub every morning (Thera Tears Foam) & use a cold compress occasionally. My eyes are definitely still quite dry but w/o all the prescription drops, they burn less & seem a little less red.

I had food sensitivity testing & found out I am sensitive to a lot of things & am trying to eliminate them from my diet.

[LisaLis]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give an update on my recent appt with latkany. I have a lot of allergies and had gotten some patch testing done from an allergist. Latkany said its looks like I'm allergic to the world. Anyway he prescribed doxyclycline daily. I am also using systane preservative free drops during the day. He wants me to use celluvisc gel drops for night. I can't really use the ointments because they have lanolin in them and am allergic to that ingredient. I like the systane preservative free drops a lot, not the utra those irritated my eyes. He wants to see me in another month. He also said something interesting about allergy testing. He said just because its negative does not mean that you are not allergic to it. The eyes react differently to the skin on your body. He told me I'm also sensitive to BAK even though the patch test said negative. The drops that he used to look at my eyes with the slit lamp burned my eyes.
He said "you are sensitive to BAK".
How are you doing dryeyesforever with the doxy??

[Hopeful2]

Hi Lisalis,

If you are sensitive to lanolin, you might try 'Duolube' or "hypotear'. I believe one of these ointments is lanolin free.

[Guest]

Hi Lisalis,

If you are sensitive to lanolin, you might try 'Duolube' or "hypotear'. I believe one of these ointments is lanolin free.

I use hypotears ointment and you're right Hopeful... it is lanolin free

[LisaLis]

Hi thanks for the info on the ointments, I'll look into those.

[LauraK]

Dr. L Visit this Week

I have been suffering from dry eyes for the past 4 weeks following Lasik surgery. I went to see Dr. L yesterday and was told that I have been misdiagnosed and that I have ocular roscaea and to stop taking everything. It's not helping. Even OTC drops. I am really scared to stop eveything, but feel I need to follow his protocol. What has been everyone else's experience who were told to stop taking everything? Are you doing any better?

[sandra lee]

Hi Laura

I have stopped all preservative free artificial tears for over 2 years now and with my new regiman,YES my ocular rosacea has improved.

[LauraK]

What are you doing to treat it? He even suggested that I look at contacts lenses to act as a barrier. I had Lasik 4 months ago, and that's when my problems started. I never had problems with contact up until that point.