Starbursts and ghosting, dry eye sensation without actual dryness.. HELP

[diydry]

I’m glad to hear about your probing success Phoenix! I will have to consider this at some point. That corneoplasty sounds intense, I think a good scleral lens can fix those aberrations if they are indeed caused by lasik.

[diydry]

Hey, thanks for throwing that out there. Surface abnormalities definitely could be a cause too. No corneal specialist has mentioned it to me yet. When I tell my doctors about my visual fluctuations and ghosting they just think it’s a tear film thing. I’ll ask directly next time. Did they do any tests to tell you had a wave in your cornea or other disorder with the epithelial cell pumping? It would be helpful for me to rule that out definitively because right now i’m just speculating based on my history (i.e. no aberrations for several months after surgery), so thanks for bringing it up.

Update after probing:

guys, ditch lipiflow and IPL, probing is where it’s at. I did probing yesterday and can already feel a nice difference. I’m in front of my
computer with no burning sensation. My Dr said there’s no point doing lipiflow before opening the glands, it’s a waste of time and money.

anyways I am very happy with probing so far. My eyes feel like normal eyes now. Probing is nice because it is I instant result. It’s not like lipiflow where you leave the clinic not knowing is your glands unblocked. With probing you actually see the oil pop out of the gland. While I was getting probing I could see the oil accumulating in my eye. You also hear and feel the pop of glands unblocking.

unfortunately however, dr told me my visual distortion comes from abnormalities to the surface of the cornea which was caused by lasik. He says he can fix this with a corneoplasty but ugh that’s another surgery ! I was convinced dryness was the cause so this is new to me. I’ll wait however, what is it is dryness and time heals it up..

Super glad you feel good...so you do have surface abnormalities from lasik? That seemed like the most possible cause imho.

Here is a recent study on how cataract surgery negatively affects the meibomian glands.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubme...ct%20meibomian

Here is a recenr study on how lasik negatively affects the meibomian glands. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubme...ik%20meibomian

Both studies are fairy recent. It’s great researchers are finally waking up to the importance of our meibomian glands. Too bad most clinicians are not, unsurprisingly.

My gusss is any visual aberrations are still related to your dryness. Even if there’s no staining, if you have even a little mgd it still affects the tear film and surface of your eye, which affects the way light is refracted in subtle ways. It’s physics. Oil refracts light differently than water, so any abnormal combination of tears can cause distortions. Just think about when you are swimming underwater, all the light is distorted. To answer your question, when my symptoms improve, I do notice less ghosting and halos. Sometimes I notice virtually none at all. But it fluctuates. Here’s a research study exploring this topic. Cutting edge stuff! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubme...sual%20quality

I think it remains to be seen whether scleral lenses have therapeutic qualities or if they just help the symptoms. I’m not aware of any studies on whether it can help the root cause, but I did have one provider who said that wearing sclerals for a year can break the cycle of inflammation and get the eyes into better shape where you don’t need to wear the lenses anymore.

I want to throw this out there...you said you believe the artifacts this person is seeing is related to dryness. That's possible of course, but I know from my experience with my injury, my cornea has a wave in it. That causes the light to scatter and causes starburst, halos, double vision or ghosting, lack of clarity, etc. if I put a drop in or a contact on, the liquid fills the gap and I can see perfectly.

Have you seen a corbeal specialist? I think this may be an irregular astigmatism. Could also be the inability of your epithelial cells to properly pump liquid through the cornea. Have you ever been told you have corneal edema?

Jist throwing out a different opinikn in case it helps.

[MGD1701]

Hi diydry
if you can detect your allergy sources, you might not need allergy drop which makes eyes dryer.
Just pay a bit attention. Assume you have done IgE allergy blood test? It might help but still can no detect all.

[MGD1701]

Hi phenix, thanks for sharing great news.

Probing
Seems you have a decent/knowledgable dr. He is right, probing should be done prior to LipiFlow.
Did he mention if probing can make glands grow??
Why your dr recommend probing, because you have scar tissue?? Thanks!

[phenix01]

Update after probing:

guys, ditch lipiflow and IPL, probing is where it’s at. I did probing yesterday and can already feel a nice difference. I’m in front of my
computer with no burning sensation. My Dr said there’s no point doing lipiflow before opening the glands, it’s a waste of time and money.

anyways I am very happy with probing so far. My eyes feel like normal eyes now. Probing is nice because it is I instant result. It’s not like lipiflow where you leave the clinic not knowing is your glands unblocked. With probing you actually see the oil pop out of the gland. While I was getting probing I could see the oil accumulating in my eye. You also hear and feel the pop of glands unblocking.

unfortunately however, dr told me my visual distortion comes from abnormalities to the surface of the cornea which was caused by lasik. He says he can fix this with a corneoplasty but ugh that’s another surgery ! I was convinced dryness was the cause so this is new to me. I’ll wait however, what is it is dryness and time heals it up..

[diydry]

Also antihistamine really really dried out my eyes too so I avoid those like the plague! I’m guessing you’re off them now? So you think your eyes never got better after taking the allergy meds? Sorry I’m trying to find the original post (typing from my smart phone).

[diydry]

Here is a recent study on how cataract surgery negatively affects the meibomian glands.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubme...ct%20meibomian

Here is a recenr study on how lasik negatively affects the meibomian glands. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubme...ik%20meibomian

Both studies are fairy recent. It’s great researchers are finally waking up to the importance of our meibomian glands. Too bad most clinicians are not, unsurprisingly.

My gusss is any visual aberrations are still related to your dryness. Even if there’s no staining, if you have even a little mgd it still affects the tear film and surface of your eye, which affects the way light is refracted in subtle ways. It’s physics. Oil refracts light differently than water, so any abnormal combination of tears can cause distortions. Just think about when you are swimming underwater, all the light is distorted. To answer your question, when my symptoms improve, I do notice less ghosting and halos. Sometimes I notice virtually none at all. But it fluctuates. Here’s a research study exploring this topic. Cutting edge stuff! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubme...sual%20quality

I think it remains to be seen whether scleral lenses have therapeutic qualities or if they just help the symptoms. I’m not aware of any studies on whether it can help the root cause, but I did have one provider who said that wearing sclerals for a year can break the cycle of inflammation and get the eyes into better shape where you don’t need to wear the lenses anymore.

I think the bandage lens is actually helping. It might be that the eye lid had been causing mechanical damage to the cornea that had no tear film to protect it from each blink. With the lens in place the cornea is now protected from the damage of the eyelid and is starting to get a chance to recover. (Hopefully)

This gives me hope that the slceral lens will help even more since it is larger and filled with saline.

How are you doing?

Were you diagnosed with lid wiper epitheliopathy? That would be great if you got some answers. My eyes feel so good in contacts. For me, it's protection against environmental stimulus. Blocks the wind and keep the sensations to a minimum.

let me ask you, if you apply ointment to your lids and eye to lubricate them, does the pain reduce or go away?

[ebi1368]

[QUOTE=diydry;n215120]

The first is that there always was some ghosting post-lasik and once we notice it, because we’re obsessing on our eye condition, it became hard not to notice (many lasik patients have some visual aberrations moreso than before the surgery but it doesn’t bother them).

I am pretty sure I did not have the visual disturbance at first because they are so annoying.

Second, my provider says that the aberrations I see now are due to dryness.

Even when I do not have staining on my cornea or I do not feel that my eyes are dry I still see the ghosting. Of course it is worse when my eyes are dry. THe other thing is that when I put eye drop I see the ghosting is changing in direction. I do not know why.

Third, there is some process of “overhealing” where the corneal tissue regrows after several months such that it’s not refracting the light as it did after surgery. I’m not really clear how this works or if this is even measurable.

My visual disturbance just happen over night. I took antihistamine for allergy as my GP told me. Then in the morning, I had sever dry eye with cornea staining. Since then I have visual problem. Can my cornea overheal in just less than 8 hours?

[ebi1368]

It is so weird because I only have problem in one of my eyelid and it is the eye with better LLT.

[ebi1368]

https://ibb.co/kHrZtU

I could not upload pic. Here is the link

@dano6533@gmail.com Let me know what you think

[ebi1368]

I did lipiflow was weeks ago and then one week after my doctor did manual expression. I can’t tell I am feeling and difference. I am going to try IPL.

I also asked for my lipiview results. On my right eye, i have 70nm but most of the gland in lower lid is gone. The rest of gland in other lids are quite healthy. I don’t understand why. My doctor said it is probably the picture. I think she is right because on my left eye with 37 nm I did not lose any gland.

[ebi1368]

dano6533@gmail.com How is your eye doing?