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I'm a 51 year old female who had been severely myopic most of her life. My eyesight was about -12 (I had very thick glasses) in both eyes with severe astigmatism.
I was getting along great with contacts until about 7 years ago. At that time, I had a retinal tear and holes began developing in both retinas resulting in several laser surgeries to tack the retinas back down. Although seemingly successful surgeries, both eyes developed cataracts and started becoming dry sometime after that. I could still wear contacts up until two summers ago when my right eye could no longer tolerate a contact due to dry eye. My left eye was still ok at that point.
Because I could no longer wear a contact in my right eye, I decided to go ahead and have both cataracts removed and replaced the lens with Toric IOLs. The intended outcome was to have mono vision, but I would still require a contact in the left eye to take care of the residual astigmatism that the IOL could not correct.
The right eye IOL surgery was a huge success. I had to have my left eye done right after that because I was so unbalanced between the two eyes. That’s when my troubles really started. The left IOL came out of the capsule in the eye causing my iris to flake off and clog my eye drains. After emergency surgery to put the IOL back in place, I was left with months of treatments for inflammation and eye pressure. At one point, I was taking five different medications and had to see various doctors sometimes several times a week!! This went on for over one full year.
18 months later I am down to one medication (hallelujah!!!) for pressure (Timolol), but am left with severe dry eyes. I am back in glasses although much thinner ones, because I cannot tolerate contacts in either eye for more than 3 hours.
I have been reading all of your posts and I feel your pain!!! I finally am able to sleep without wondering if I would be blind when I woke up and now I can’t sleep because of the dry eye. This has been a CONSTANT worry. and I am always aware of my eyes being painful etc. I have even lost more than half of my hair from all of the stress, which adds more stress!!! My vision is not great without glasses or with glasses so I am stuck with low vision and dry eye…enough complaining???
I am not sure what type of dry eye I have. The diagnosis changes per doctors visit. The last visit (last week) my doctor told me it was age/hormone related but I have also been told I have some lid disease so I am doing all the usual home treatments most of you do. I am determined to beat this thing because I cannot live the rest of my life like this!!!
Thank you for listening,
Abbygirl
I was getting along great with contacts until about 7 years ago. At that time, I had a retinal tear and holes began developing in both retinas resulting in several laser surgeries to tack the retinas back down. Although seemingly successful surgeries, both eyes developed cataracts and started becoming dry sometime after that. I could still wear contacts up until two summers ago when my right eye could no longer tolerate a contact due to dry eye. My left eye was still ok at that point.
Because I could no longer wear a contact in my right eye, I decided to go ahead and have both cataracts removed and replaced the lens with Toric IOLs. The intended outcome was to have mono vision, but I would still require a contact in the left eye to take care of the residual astigmatism that the IOL could not correct.
The right eye IOL surgery was a huge success. I had to have my left eye done right after that because I was so unbalanced between the two eyes. That’s when my troubles really started. The left IOL came out of the capsule in the eye causing my iris to flake off and clog my eye drains. After emergency surgery to put the IOL back in place, I was left with months of treatments for inflammation and eye pressure. At one point, I was taking five different medications and had to see various doctors sometimes several times a week!! This went on for over one full year.
18 months later I am down to one medication (hallelujah!!!) for pressure (Timolol), but am left with severe dry eyes. I am back in glasses although much thinner ones, because I cannot tolerate contacts in either eye for more than 3 hours.
I have been reading all of your posts and I feel your pain!!! I finally am able to sleep without wondering if I would be blind when I woke up and now I can’t sleep because of the dry eye. This has been a CONSTANT worry. and I am always aware of my eyes being painful etc. I have even lost more than half of my hair from all of the stress, which adds more stress!!! My vision is not great without glasses or with glasses so I am stuck with low vision and dry eye…enough complaining???
I am not sure what type of dry eye I have. The diagnosis changes per doctors visit. The last visit (last week) my doctor told me it was age/hormone related but I have also been told I have some lid disease so I am doing all the usual home treatments most of you do. I am determined to beat this thing because I cannot live the rest of my life like this!!!
Thank you for listening,
Abbygirl