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Hi, this is my first time ever posting on a website like this. I am hoping that if I share my experience that I can help someone or that some of you can help me. Let me first start by giving you all a short background on myself. I have always been a soft contact lens wearer. I have a condition called anisometropia, which means my eyes have unequal refractive power and spectacle correction causes me to experience a difference in image magnification between the two eyes causing double and even triple vision. Therefore I can not wear glasses. I have always had great success with contact lens wear. Let me also tell you that I worked in the eye industry for over 10 years as a optometric assistant and I fit contact lens. So I have a little more knowledge of the eye than other patients. Well, my story begins when about 2 years ago when my right eye always felt like I had something in it. I went to my optometrist and was told I had irritation from contact and given steroid for 10 days and was fine. This same sensation happen 4 more times over the next 9 months. Then in March 2013 this feeling got continually worse and it was both eyes now. Eyes were gritty, burning and always felt like something was in my eyes. Some days were so bad that I could barely open my eyes. In July 2013 my doctor looked at my eyes and really had no idea. All of the staining was superior. Although the staining pattern was not really consistent with dry eye so he did the Schrimer's test anyway to rule it out. My scores were 10mm/12mm. So not bad! At this time he mentioned to me the words Superior Limbic Keratoconjuncitvitias (SLK). He was only an optometrist so he did not have all the other stains to use to diagnose this so he referred me to a local ophthalmologist. He went ahead and started me on Restasis because he thought it would help with whatever was going on. He had me discontinue contacts for a few weeks and put me on steroid,etc. Now, remember I can not wear glasses so I was pretty much blind for those 2 weeks not to mention the pain. At this point I was miserable. After two weeks my eyes were worse and I finally had my appointment with the ophthalmologist and thought I would finally get some answers and solutions. Long story short I seen this doctor over the next few months and he told me I did not have SLK. He only used Lissamine green stain on me. He told me that I had developed "an immunity" to contacts and my eyes were rejecting them. I found this hard to believe I had been without contacts for 7 weeks and my eyes were worse. I knew something else was wrong. I decided to do a little research and made myself an appointment with a corneal specialist to discuss LASIK and see if he could figure out what was wrong with my eyes. In the mean time I had a pair of glasses made with my right eye lens corrected only and the left lens plano. I am legally blind in my left eye, so I was and am still functioning with seeing 20/40 out of one corrected eye. Really sucks!
I finally had my visit with the corneal specialist in November 2013 and within 5 minutes he diagnosed me with SLK. I know there are a lot of anti LASIK people out there, but I have no other option. Can't wear glasses and now with SLK can't wear contacts. Anyway, doctor wanted to calm down the SLK and hopefully proceed with LASIK so he put me on a strong round of steroids and would check me back in one month. Well, in that month my pressures doubled and the SLK was significantly worse. I was tapered off steroids and scheduled for Conjunctiva Resection surgery in January 2014.
I had the Conjunctiva Resection surgery in January 2014. The surgery itself was horrible but if it was gonna work, I was willing to do anything. At my one month post op, my eyes were still very irritated and I had that familiar feeling again. Doctor told me that it could take months for my eyes to heal and get full benefit of surgery. Well at my 3 month post op my eyes are still very irritated and feel horrible. He stained with rose bengel and said that the SLK was significantly better and that the surgery was successful. I asked him why my eyes felt so bad still and why were my eyes so bloodshot and red. I have never had such red eyes, the areas under my lids where the stitches were are so red. I asked him if the surgery could of caused my eyes to be dry. He said No, but did a Schrimer's test anyway. I was actually excited for the test. I had been on Restasis for 9 months and was anxious to see how it was working. Well, my score was less than 1mm on both eyes. I was so confused. He does not think it is from the surgery but I think it has to be.
Has anyone else had this surgery and is this common and will it eventually go away? Today my eyes feel very bad most days and tolerable other days. In addition to the constant pain, my vision with these glasses is horrible. I can not drive at night and do many things that I used to do. I am 42 and have an 8 year old son and this last 18 months have the worse in my life. I am so frustrated because I know I will never see well again. I am hoping to get them feeling better and possibly get back into a contact lens in my left eye at least.
This is what I am currently doing and taking. I was on a steroid for the most part of the last 10 months and my pressures get pretty high. Just stopped Lotemax 6 days ago.
Daily, I do the following
Hydro eyes 4 per day
Barlean's Omega Swirl 3 tsp per day
Restasis 2 times per day
Lastacaft once daily
Oasis Tears Plus 3 times per day
Lid Scrubs daily (I do this because from past experience I know help with oil production.)
Hot/cold compresses as needed
My next appointment is May 16th and I am going to ask for punctal plugs but I still don't understand how I got dry eye so suddenly if it is not related to the Conjunctiva resection surgery. I truly feel the surgery caused this. What is really scary is that this doctor told me back in December that he would do the LASIK first then do the SLK surgery if that is what I wanted and I said to do the SLK surgery first. I can't imagine what my eyes would feel like if I would of did LASIK first. The corneal specialist that did the surgery and that I am still seeing is a world renown surgeon and one of the best in his field. I want to trust him, but none of this makes sense and sometimes I think he is not as concerned as I am. He told me that I am the first patient he has seen with SLK this bad since the early 80's and that this surgery was not common. So how he is sure it did not cause this dry eye!
Any suggestions or comments are welcomed. I need to deal with one demon at a time and the first I need to conquer is the pain. Then I will worry about the vision part. I don't need to tell any of you how depressing this is. My entire life has been changed and not one minute goes by that I am not thinking about my eyes! As mentioned before I worked in eye industry for a long time and it has been a blessing and a curse through all of this. It is nice to be educated on the subject but other time I wish I did not know how bad this can get.
Thanks for listening!
I finally had my visit with the corneal specialist in November 2013 and within 5 minutes he diagnosed me with SLK. I know there are a lot of anti LASIK people out there, but I have no other option. Can't wear glasses and now with SLK can't wear contacts. Anyway, doctor wanted to calm down the SLK and hopefully proceed with LASIK so he put me on a strong round of steroids and would check me back in one month. Well, in that month my pressures doubled and the SLK was significantly worse. I was tapered off steroids and scheduled for Conjunctiva Resection surgery in January 2014.
I had the Conjunctiva Resection surgery in January 2014. The surgery itself was horrible but if it was gonna work, I was willing to do anything. At my one month post op, my eyes were still very irritated and I had that familiar feeling again. Doctor told me that it could take months for my eyes to heal and get full benefit of surgery. Well at my 3 month post op my eyes are still very irritated and feel horrible. He stained with rose bengel and said that the SLK was significantly better and that the surgery was successful. I asked him why my eyes felt so bad still and why were my eyes so bloodshot and red. I have never had such red eyes, the areas under my lids where the stitches were are so red. I asked him if the surgery could of caused my eyes to be dry. He said No, but did a Schrimer's test anyway. I was actually excited for the test. I had been on Restasis for 9 months and was anxious to see how it was working. Well, my score was less than 1mm on both eyes. I was so confused. He does not think it is from the surgery but I think it has to be.
Has anyone else had this surgery and is this common and will it eventually go away? Today my eyes feel very bad most days and tolerable other days. In addition to the constant pain, my vision with these glasses is horrible. I can not drive at night and do many things that I used to do. I am 42 and have an 8 year old son and this last 18 months have the worse in my life. I am so frustrated because I know I will never see well again. I am hoping to get them feeling better and possibly get back into a contact lens in my left eye at least.
This is what I am currently doing and taking. I was on a steroid for the most part of the last 10 months and my pressures get pretty high. Just stopped Lotemax 6 days ago.
Daily, I do the following
Hydro eyes 4 per day
Barlean's Omega Swirl 3 tsp per day
Restasis 2 times per day
Lastacaft once daily
Oasis Tears Plus 3 times per day
Lid Scrubs daily (I do this because from past experience I know help with oil production.)
Hot/cold compresses as needed
My next appointment is May 16th and I am going to ask for punctal plugs but I still don't understand how I got dry eye so suddenly if it is not related to the Conjunctiva resection surgery. I truly feel the surgery caused this. What is really scary is that this doctor told me back in December that he would do the LASIK first then do the SLK surgery if that is what I wanted and I said to do the SLK surgery first. I can't imagine what my eyes would feel like if I would of did LASIK first. The corneal specialist that did the surgery and that I am still seeing is a world renown surgeon and one of the best in his field. I want to trust him, but none of this makes sense and sometimes I think he is not as concerned as I am. He told me that I am the first patient he has seen with SLK this bad since the early 80's and that this surgery was not common. So how he is sure it did not cause this dry eye!
Any suggestions or comments are welcomed. I need to deal with one demon at a time and the first I need to conquer is the pain. Then I will worry about the vision part. I don't need to tell any of you how depressing this is. My entire life has been changed and not one minute goes by that I am not thinking about my eyes! As mentioned before I worked in eye industry for a long time and it has been a blessing and a curse through all of this. It is nice to be educated on the subject but other time I wish I did not know how bad this can get.
Thanks for listening!