Michigan Doc

[jads]

Morning,

stumbled across Dr Jacobi and thought this blog about dry eye patients and treatment was great! He is an ex dry eye patient himself. Definitely worth looking up I'd say.

http://suburbaneyecare.com/dry-eye/w...eye-symptoms/#

[MLE]

I'd also like to plug another Michigan doctor- Dr. Matthew Yeomans at Lansing Ophthamology. He is the corneal specialist at the practice. He has truly "felt my pain" through this frustrating process. He has one of the best bedside manners of any doctor I've seen (across all specialties). He is kind, caring, knowledgeable, and never makes you feel rushed. He is open to new ideas and stays informed. Best of all, he was willing to learn a brand new procedure (meibomian gland probing) for me. I had probing performed in Florida and needed it again, and he stepped up, bought the equipment, trained and performed probing so I wouldn't have to go back to Florida. I don't know too many physicians who are already very busy and performing a lot of other surgeries and procedures who would be willing to do that. Really love the guy.

-MLE

[Rebecca Petris]

Nice link jads. Going to re-post a bit here:

Unfortunately, when doctors do take the problem seriously and take action, what often happens during the course of treatment – which typically takes months – eye doctors then must suffer the frustration of the patient. Dry eye sufferers have difficulty coming to grips with the fact that the cure may come so slowly that improvement, as it occurs, is almost imperceptible.

As a result of this slow healing process, the patient frequently loses faith in the doctor’s plan and, more often than not, becomes noncompliant. The doctor, in turn, instead of reiterating the importance of the treatment by a lot of talking and explaining, mentally bows out.

I think he really, really nailed that one. It's really hard for patients to have patience with something that does not seem to be helping. Remember all our discussions here about symptom improvement lagging way behind improvement in signs, etc. - all pointing to the value of being under good close supervision and being methodical and patient with treatment. But I think there's an additional piece missing that could definitely help patients stick with treatments and that is having sufficient effective palliative remedies - you know, all the goggles & gear & all the practical sorts of tips we tend to talk about here with humidifiers, computer adjustments and so on. It's a lot easier to be "compliant" when you're not suffering constant pain. It is this palliative side that by and large eye doctors are not so great at - though I have to say they've improved a LOT over the years. Very different world ten years ago that's for sure. I now routinely get phone calls from folks who begin, "My doctor said I should get some kind of moisture goggle, can you help?" Or calls from patients whose doctors have clearly given them some good practical tips. Even five years ago I never had calls like that.