How long have you suffered from dry eye?

[khmedia]

I'm quite curious to know how long others have suffered from this condition.

I feel getting this feedback will help me

- feel more optimistic that I can live with the condition and 'cope'
- am generally curious

On a related note. Part of me had this mental image that my oils are like a petrol tank in that they have a limited supply of oil (unless topped up). I sometimes think that as the years pass the amount left goes down and down. Please take what I am saying here very lightly. Is this mental model realistic. I guess it is all about keeping the glands open via the methods outlined on this forum?

[khmedia]

To answer my own question. I've had dry eye for 1.5 years. I am no diagnosis, in that no one has ever told me what I have apart from 'You have chronic MGD - do hot compresses'.

[patrick]

Dry eye after lasek refractive surgery in 2005.
My eyes and myself have never been the same ever since..😕

[Guest]

I'm same as Patrick - severe dry eyes caused by LASIK surgery. I've had it since the moment the local anesthetic wore off after surgery.

re "I feel getting this feedback will help me

- feel more optimistic that I can live with the condition and 'cope'
- am generally curious"

Yes, you can definitely cope with it - it's a learned thing, but trust me, it's totally 100% doable to have a happy life despite eyes that suck beyond belief.

[patrick]

Hi Saag, i guess we're in the same boat regarding the cause and duration of our dry eye issues.
I see we also signed up here approximately at the same time.
However,my dry eye problems started out a little different than yours. After the surgery my eyes needed to heal for a few days and that was excruciatingly painful. But that is normal and to be expected with the lasek method.
So,i was in pain for a day or three and suddenly the pain vanished almost instantly.
After that my eyes were perfectly fine for at least a few years. (In retrospective i know my eyes had already fallen victim to dry eye disease). I was just asymptomatic,because my body was compensating until the point that wasn't possible anymore. From there my eyes started to feel increasingly dry and uncomfortable.
Over the years i went to numerous ophthalmologists and each has a new explanation for my dry eyes. What is also striking is that they don't even agree about the fact if i actually have dry eyes. Some say it doesn't look all that bad while others state that i have severe dry eyes. Who is right?
What i do know is that i've contracted (posterior) blepharitis somewhere in the timeline after the refractive surgery. Thanks for that! It is uncurable and needs lifelong treatment. Now that i officially have mgd the doctors are very keen to say that my dry eye symptoms are caused by Blepharitis. I am a 100% sure that blepharitis is only secundary and it is not the culprit of my problems. All this is the result of aqueous tear definciency that is caused by decreased nerve sensitivity in my corneas due to severing the nerve endings during the lasek surgery.
All dry eye problems in people who had refractive surgery in the past come down to only one thing. The nerve endings in the corneas that were cut never regenerated back to baseline level. Or to a level where they can accomodate a fully functioning tear system.

[Irina]

All dry eye problems in people who had refractive surgery in the past come down to only one thing. The nerve endings in the corneas that were cut never regenerated back to baseline level. Or to a level where they can accomodate a fully functioning tear system.

The question is-why then not ALL people who had refractive surgery have dry eye. If this is the nerves issue , then most people must have dry eyes. However, most people are happy with the result and they don't have any eye problems. I think that there is something else in common between those who has dry eye after surgery .So, we need more researches. Until that , we don't have an answer, but only some assumptions.

[patrick]

Irina, i think more research has to be done indeed. Just to find out what goes wrong in people who end up with permanent or longterm dry eyes after refractive surgery.
Meanwhile it doesn't hurt to do some thinking ourselves to try to understand what could have caused these problems. What all these people have in common is that they had their corneas cut. And why does one person have no problems at all while others have lifelong issues with their eyes? because everybody is different. The outcomes of what exactly happens when you cut human tissue and how it will regenerate is never completely predictable. That is what makes refractive surgery so extremely dangerous. Maybe the people who are left with symptomatic dry eyes had pre existing dry eyes without they knew it. Could be that the screening before the surgery failed to point out that the involved person is not suitable for having a particular procedure done to their eyes.
Fact is that in 100% of the people who at some point had refractive surgery the nerve density in the corneas will never grow back to pré operative levels. (that means also the people who are completely happy with the results).

[khmedia]

Like Patrick I have (posterior) blepharitis only mine wasn't caused by LASIK but rather organically for no reason. I have my suspicions having taken a large course of Accutane in my teenage years. It is good to hear the positivity by Saag. And also, Patrick I've been there with doctors who have said 'they don't look dry to me' That one is pure laughable. I've found the ignorance associated with the disease uncanny to say the least, particularly by those in the medical profession who you would think would know or care more.

[paras1234]

Hi I also have severe dry eyes since Lasik done after 2004. No solution till now from doctors , dealing with it by keeping Hopes that someday some solution might arrive.