New Dry Eye Sufferer - Lasik, Need Advice

[Ccoughlin]

Hi,

I live in Minnesota and got Lasik 5 months ago. It induced dry eye in me, and sometimes I feel like a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality - one day it will be pretty good, the next day bad (when it's bad, my vision is blurry, which is really frustrating). I have three young kids, many pets, a busy life and this is very inconvenient not to feel "sharp" all the time like I used to with my glasses. By the way, my vision is perfect (20/15) when I put drops in, but then it goes away. The dr. told me to stick with the restasis, the plugs, the drops, the heating mask, the goggles, so I am doing everything I can.

Questions for you:

- Did any of you see greater improvement from Lasik dry eye in the 6-8 months? I'm hopeful that this will continue to improve to the point that it goes away. Hope springs eternal.

- I notice, lately, that I can see well in daylight, but not well in malls, restaurants, anywhere that lighting is lower - is this due to dry eye? I also have halos, starbursts when driving at night

- This is a depressing thing to deal with (5 months and on). I have almost a "guilt" that I did this to myself by getting Lasik - has anyone felt this? I was doing fine with contacts/glasses, and I had no idea Lasik would be this hard.

- I'm starting Theratears nutrition - anyone had luck with that?

- I'm thinking of getting very low-level (0.50) glasses for night driving & low-light situations. My dr said I don't need them, but he hasn't had to drive/live this way! Thoughts?

Thanks for listening - Chandra

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi there and welcome!

- Did any of you see greater improvement from Lasik dry eye in the 6-8 months? I'm hopeful that this will continue to improve to the point that it goes away. Hope springs eternal.

Oh totally. You'll find a lot of people whose worst periods were actually later than that 6-8 month window - who got better a year, two years later or even longer. One of the most important messages to get early on is that it is NOT too late for improvement.

I notice, lately, that I can see well in daylight, but not well in malls, restaurants, anywhere that lighting is lower - is this due to dry eye? I also have halos, starbursts when driving at night

The former sounds like a reduction in contrast sensitivity. That can be measured clinically and if you have the opportunity I would ask a doctor to do so (though perhaps not at your lasik clinic where they might not embrace the idea). It CAN be caused by dry eye but if it is CONSISTENT it is probably much more likely due to what they call spherical aberration induced by the surgery. The other factor is the possibility of your pupils, which get larger the lower the lighting is, getting larger than the fully/smoothly treated area of your cornea.

This is a depressing thing to deal with (5 months and on). I have almost a "guilt" that I did this to myself by getting Lasik - has anyone felt this? I was doing fine with contacts/glasses, and I had no idea Lasik would be this hard.

Par for the course around here Very important to fight off that kind of thinking. Nobody did this to themselves.

I'm thinking of getting very low-level (0.50) glasses for night driving & low-light situations. My dr said I don't need them, but he hasn't had to drive/live this way!

If they help, by all means go for it. There are some situations where you literally need a stronger prescription in dim light. Don't expect it to fix it all though, again due to the possible aberrations factor.

By the way, my vision is perfect (20/15) when I put drops in

That's true for virtually anyone (unless they've got problems at the back of their eye). It does not necessarily mean that all your vision issues are from dry eye. Having a really good liquid layer over the eye adds a little refractive power and can correct for some surface irregularity - till it drains out a few minutes later.