laser EXPOSURE - dry eye

[hurtinis]

I, like everyone else, am looking for a cure. My severe dry eyes happened after an industrial laser exposure. It is amazing to me that the opthomologists I have seen will not attribute my dry eye to the exposure. Even though this all started the day after. I told them I should be a case study. I mean, how often does someone get exposed to a class 4 laser, but they didn't seem interested, or more likely they do not understand lasers. I just want to say that dry eye is caused from something other than the cutting of nerves in lasik. I didn't have surgery but am dealing with the same pain. Eye docs say they don't see damage, but I don't think they know what to look for. If anyone can suggest an eye doc or research center which focuses on dry eye please let me know. I am in a small city in ohio and not impressed with the docs.
The posts I read here bring me to tears because it is like everyone knows exactly how I feel.
I also want to add that I think water softened with salt worsens my eyes from taking a shower.

[Rebecca Petris]

Hurtinis,

Sorry no replies yet. I haven't been on the forum much myself this summer, just starting to catch up a bit and prowling for posts that had no answers

What part of Ohio are you in? - You might try William Faulkner at Cincinnati Eye if you're within range... I know a number of his patients. Smart guy. - I don't know if he's right for you but you are going to need somebody innovative, somebody who has some understanding of the classic sign/symptom mismatch problem in some kinds of ocular surface disease, etc. As a minimum, a corneal specialist ophthalmologist who is more interested in corneal disease than surgery... good place to start.

One piece of advice: Don't let yourself get too hung up arguing about the cause because you might not win that battle at this stage. (Back when I had LASIK >10 years ago, no one even admitted that lasik could cause dry eye - go figure.) Instead, focus on explaining/describing your symptoms and history in detail, use OSDI to quantify symptoms. The ball needs to be squarely in their court to figure out what is wrong and what could help. Keep an open mind though about balancing need for palliative measures versus "cure". Establishing some specific goals is helpful... i.e. is it about reducing pain? Is it about being able to do certain things you can't do now? etc.

Can you wear goggles in the shower? I know what you mean... for me it isn't consistent but I have had period when any water getting in my eyes was awfully irritating.