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Hi all. I'm a new member here and am also a member over on Rebecca's D'Eyealogues as well. I am amongst the group of individuals whose dilemmas were sparked by refractive surgery. It will be sixteen years ago this April that I had ALK (Automated Lamellar Keratoplasty) surgery. I was severely myopic (-14 & change) and I was young (20) and well, frankly vain. The surgery corrected my vision to a "sort of" 20/20 with haziness, ghosting, startbursts and mild dry eye. The dry eye was only a minor issue during year one of my recovery. I had little to no dry eye symptoms in the years that followed until two years ago. I'll go more into that in a bit, but I should also mention that back in 2000 I started to become nearsighted again and ended up bouncing around to 6 or 7 different O.D.'s and tried out about 1.7 billion different types of contact lenses (give or take a million 
) trying to get some sort of vision & comfort solution. Long story short, I ended up finding an expert contact lens fitter on Long Island who specialized in fitting individuals with corneal complications who was able to fit me with lenses that gave me "good enough" vision and were comfortable enough to wear all day. The details of that of course are more a subject for the D'eyealogues site. But the point is, I had settled on a medium which I deemed livable.
That is... 'til dry eye came back into my life in the fall of '06.
At first, it simply meant having to limit my lens wearing time: a bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world. Last April, the dry eye got to a point that I had to stop wearing my lenses to work - I am a software engineer and easily spend 60+ hours a week in front of the computer. At that point, my O.D. said my dry eye was mild but he had me start taking Restasis. I am still on it, and have also been taking ~2800mg of Omega 3s daily, but I have gotten much worse. Since September, I have pretty much had a constant burning sensation in my left eye and an on again / off again gritty sensation in my right. My symptoms are at there worst when I am at the computer - and as I mentioned that's a pretty big chunk of my time.
I just went back to my doctor last week and he confirmed that my condition has worsened. He said I have MGD and both of my corneas have some divots and abrasions. My current situation isn't horrible, but it's getting bad. What really concerns me is that it seems my condition has slowly, but steadily been getting worse over the last two years - so where am I going to be in another two??????? Does this just keep steadily progressing or do you level out at some point?
I know there are many different causes for dry eye, and in my case the refractive surgery and extended computer time certainly don't help. But I am curious as to what others have experienced with regards to the progression of their symptoms. Has anyone been able to at least halt their progression???
) trying to get some sort of vision & comfort solution. Long story short, I ended up finding an expert contact lens fitter on Long Island who specialized in fitting individuals with corneal complications who was able to fit me with lenses that gave me "good enough" vision and were comfortable enough to wear all day. The details of that of course are more a subject for the D'eyealogues site. But the point is, I had settled on a medium which I deemed livable. That is... 'til dry eye came back into my life in the fall of '06.
At first, it simply meant having to limit my lens wearing time: a bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world. Last April, the dry eye got to a point that I had to stop wearing my lenses to work - I am a software engineer and easily spend 60+ hours a week in front of the computer. At that point, my O.D. said my dry eye was mild but he had me start taking Restasis. I am still on it, and have also been taking ~2800mg of Omega 3s daily, but I have gotten much worse. Since September, I have pretty much had a constant burning sensation in my left eye and an on again / off again gritty sensation in my right. My symptoms are at there worst when I am at the computer - and as I mentioned that's a pretty big chunk of my time.
I just went back to my doctor last week and he confirmed that my condition has worsened. He said I have MGD and both of my corneas have some divots and abrasions. My current situation isn't horrible, but it's getting bad. What really concerns me is that it seems my condition has slowly, but steadily been getting worse over the last two years - so where am I going to be in another two??????? Does this just keep steadily progressing or do you level out at some point?
I know there are many different causes for dry eye, and in my case the refractive surgery and extended computer time certainly don't help. But I am curious as to what others have experienced with regards to the progression of their symptoms. Has anyone been able to at least halt their progression???
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