Question - are my eyes dry or not?

[RFREITAS]

Dear all,

First i am sorry for my englis, it's not my native language... so probably you will find some mistakes.

I have lasik 3 years ago, and after the surgry my eyes went so so dry... i had two really bad months after the lasik.
For the next 3 years... my eyes were sometimes more or less and others really bad!

In January i went to my doctor (not the one that operates me) and we told that my eyes were ok! I was so confused, because i felt them dry and was tolding me that they were not dry. The Schimmer test was ok, the tear brakeup was ok... so they were not dry!
So i was happy, confused but happy with the news. So i was feeling very good until the beginning of the summer... My eyes started to feel really dry again.
Last week i went to the doctor again and after the examination we told that my left eye is ok, but my right eye is just a little dry...

Does anyone relates with this? Is this normal?

I woul appreciate your feedback because sometimes i feel like maybe i am crazy!

Have a nice day!

[Rebecca Petris]

Question: When they did the Schirmer test, did they apply anaesthetic drops first? If not, then what they were measuring was your ability to produce reflex tears... you can have a good score on unanaesthetized Schirmer but still have poor basal tears (that's the ones you make all the time, not just when the eyes are irritated) which is important).

In any case there are a lot of people with dry eye symptoms whose eye surface and tears appear normal... This especially tends to happen with post LASIK dry eye. So you are definitely not crazy. Also, dryness can fluctuate quite a bit, especially with things like changes in environment (heat, a/c, allergy season, etc).

[RFREITAS]

Hello Rebecca,

First thank you so much for the dryeyezone it is a great place!
And second, thank you for replay.


About your questions i am not sure, actually i don't remember. I know that he used Rose Bengal as diagnostic tool to see if the cornea had damages, and it was ok.
Because i was confused i asked about the Schirmer test and it has a good result. And he told me that it should be ok because my eyes were not dry.

He also told that probably my eyes were more sensitive and probably because i spend so many our at the computer and a/c.

I read Surya post on "Plug a Doctor":

"He did bunch of tests. Surprisingly, I am not showing clinical symptoms of dry eyes, except for veins and redness. My aqueous tear test are all good (all the tests I scored greater than 15). TBUT is good and MGs are good, oil coming out with very little pressure. Tear meniscus is normal/good. I have been taking large doses of fish oil and doing warm compresses lately. Guess they are helping a lot. Demodex test -found 3 mites in 8 lashes. Lids are little droopy, but not bad.

My eyes/veins get easily inflamed and become red when using computer or at malls or outside. After listening to my whole history of symptoms, he told me that over years with contact lens wear and heavy computer use, my blink rate has gone down along with corneal sensitvity. And then I had LASIK which made it worse. Dr. Tseng told me that my glands are all in good condition, I have to blink more frequently and harder. He told me that from today on my important thing to do daily whenever I am free is to blink consciously every 5 secs. Overtime, the blink rate would return to normal if done religiously. He is confident that my redness and veins will subside or go away.

I was hoping that I had conjuctivachalasis and I would get the veins removed along with that. He said I don't have any conjuctiva wrinkling/chalasis, and not to think about any surgeries.

Even though I am not happy with the outcome, I am very satisfied with the diagnosis. Since I went so far, I asked him for vitamin A cream. From today on I am going to add blinking and vitamin a cream to my routine. My next steps are to try Prokera, lipiflow and allergy shots. I am a stomach sleeper and he said that could contribute to nighttime dryness/redness. I am going to sleep on my back from now on. He also suggested to check for sleep apnea."

At the time i felt like i could have written that. But after this summer, i was disappointing. My last 3 years were really hard, and for since january i was feeling so great!!!

I wish i lived in USA so i could try different doctors. Here, in Portugal, it's not easy!

All the best!

[bakunin]

Olá RFreitas,

Aqui no fórum acho que a maior parte das pessoas possuem sinais clínicos que não correspondem aos sintomas. É o meu caso também.

Acho que as pesquisas nesse sentido são bastante recentes ainda. Uma grande referência nesse assunto e muita informação: http://www.bostoneyepain.org/

Eu postei sobre o meu caso aqui: http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...ght=#post85023

[RFREITAS]

Olá Bakunin

Que bom ler português! Fiquei tão contente quando li o comentário... pensava que era a única pessoa de língua portuguesa com olho seco (ou qualquer coisa parecida!).

Muito obrigada pelo feedback!

Eu tinha o olho seco antes da operação LASIK, mas pensei que olho seco era tipo pelo seca... gotas e aquilo passava. Só percebi a dimensão depois da operação, os primeiros 3 meses foram terríveis... gotas de 10 em 10 minutos e depois quando começaram a melhor... uma bela depressão que me acompanha até hoje!! Yeahhh!!

Como disse no início do ano fui ao médico e ele disse-me que olho não estava seco, mas eu sinto-o seco! Diagnóstico: a córnea não apresentava lesões, o tempo de quebra da lágrima estava bom, o teste de Schirmer deu acima da média. Andei feliz da vida e sem pensar nos olhos até ao Verão. Deduzo que o tempo quente e seco não sejam favoráveis. Assim, a semana passada voltei ao médico, que voltou a dizer que o olho não está seco, quer dizer, o esquerdo não está e o direito tem uma ligeira "assadura". Fiquei contente... mas confusa! Não está seco, mas incomodam-me em ambientes de ar condicionado, vento... ou sem motivo aparente...
Fiquei na dúvida se exagero, invento... ou estarei ligeiramente louca Coloco gotas de manhã e à noite, embora sinta necessidade de hidratar durante o dia... há em mim uma resistência e não o faço. Pontualmente coloco vitamina A durante a noite. Há alturas em que está tudo bem... outras que parece que tudo gira em volta dos olhos. Imagino, que o antidepressivo não deva ajudar muito... mas ando a tentar fazer o desmame!

Daí ter vindo aqui na expectativa de um feedback! Vou ler o site que me enviaste, parece ter informação relevante.

Entretanto, poderás dar-me o teu contacto? Seria bom ter alguém que tem empatia no que sinto e não acha que sou uma exagerada!

Obrigada!

Rute

Olá RFreitas,

Aqui no fórum acho que a maior parte das pessoas possuem sinais clínicos que não correspondem aos sintomas. É o meu caso também.

Acho que as pesquisas nesse sentido são bastante recentes ainda. Uma grande referência nesse assunto e muita informação: http://www.bostoneyepain.org/

Eu postei sobre o meu caso aqui: http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...ght=#post85023