I've been offered free MIBOFLOW by my Dr, has anyone here had it done?

[pennyparade]

As to amniotic membranes. They do an excellent job of healing the epithelial cells of the cornea and reducing inflammation. However, the cause of the dry eye must be addressed with maintenance therapies. If the osmolarity of the tear film is not addressed then the inflammatory cycle will continue.

Indrep, I have seen you repeat this many times - can you explain why you don't believe treating the inflammation will improve the osmolarity of the tear film?

[Phillips55]

"As to amniotic membranes. They do an excellent job of healing the epithelial cells of the cornea and reducing inflammation. However, the cause of the dry eye must be addressed with maintenance therapies. If the osmolarity of the tear film is not addressed then the inflammatory cycle will continue."

I agree, I don't think amniotic membrane therapies will work with everyone and I've done my best to say that whenever I post about about it. Someone with Sjogrens will probably not get lasting relief from AMT because the underlying autoimmune disorder is not being treated. However for patients with dry eye from Lasik, PRK or any type of corneal damage, I would strongly explore Prokera or any type of amniotic membrane therapy. The difference in my right eye after treatment has been nothing short of astounding. And I had my AMT 3+ years after lasik , so no matter how long it's been for you, I would look into it. There are so many quacks and B.S procedures out there for dry eye that are simply designed to part suffering dry eye patients from their hard earned money. It amazes me how many of the dry eye specialists also perform Lasik. What a joke, they basically create the disease and then turn around and charge you for the cure.

After going through my lasik disaster and seeing how screwed up things are in the medical industry I will never trust a Doctor or procedure at face value again. However there are some things that do work out there, and you do have to take the plunge and try every thing you can. That's why I love this website, real patients can come here for unbiased opinions and advice.

[neilw]

Phillips55
I just noticed that you had answered my earlier question about Prokera, so thanks for the update. This certainly sounds like a very encouraging treatment. My wife has ocular rosacea so AM will not treat the underlying cause, but if it can give an improvement in the symptoms for an extended period, it is still better than anything else on offer.

[Phillips55]

neilw,
has your wife you tried cliridex or tea tree oil on her eyelids? I have rosacea and cliridex also has been a huge help for both eyelid irritation and oil flow.

[eyes78]

Phillips55 - have you ever tried using your own washes made with tea tree oil or have you just used Cliradex? I too found some relief with Cliradex but it is so expensive. I was hoping to find someone who had a proven recipe/method.
Thanks for any tips.

[Phillips55]

Phillips55 - have you ever tried using your own washes made with tea tree oil or have you just used Cliradex? I too found some relief with Cliradex but it is so expensive. I was hoping to find someone who had a proven recipe/method.
Thanks for any tips.

No I havent, I find the cliridex extremely convenient and if you use a sterile scissors and zip lock bag you can cut the wipes in two or even three which greatly extends the life of a box of cliradex. Thanks!

[Long Time Dry Eye]

I just had the MiBoFlo treatment yesterday. It was done as a 3 step process. First there was the debridement of the all lid margins. The Dr scraped off anything that might be blocking any of the glands. Second was the heat and massage with the ultrasound gel. Third was the expression of the glands. He then suggested a follow-up treatment in 3-4 weeks with only the second step being done. The treatments yesterday cost me $300/eye. If I return for just the heat and massage, that will be an additional $150/eye. I personally am not sure of the benefits of that part of the treatment by itself. The instrument used for the massage was flat and would have benefited with a curve...it was difficult to get into all corners of the lids. As far the the massage, I had to keep asking for more pressure to be used since it was being done so lightly that I didn't feel any "massage". My eyes are definitely improved feeling today...will see how long it lasts. The cost of this was an improvement over what I had previously paid for the lipiflow procedure and both were similar.

[Peppermint]

Long Time,
How are your eyes feeling these days? Have you had any subsequent MiboFLo treatments since your post?

[Minni]

Look I doubt anyone here has the answer to this Q, thus the answer will be "silence" - but for the record, I'm trying to tie loose ends together.

In the world of optometry & opthamology, there's diagnoses of:

(1) ocular rosacea
(2) blepharitis
(3) spheroidal degeneration (that's me - but the Optho's also suspected I have so-called Blepharitis - ha ha)

In the world of people with electrosensitivity, there's been diagnoses of:

(1) rosacea
(2) retinal detachment of a programmer long exposed to high-EMF computers
(3) Dr.Robert Becker, author "Body Electric" - found cataract in inner part of eye of those exposed to EMFs

ALSO: Dr.Lagerholm (Karolinska) found that those who had been labelled "rosacea" (quote/unquote) in actuality had skin whose configuration resembled fishermen who were SUNBURNT from a long time at sea.

So if you're the type to connect dots, and appreciate a birds-eye HOLISTIC view, then you'll see that in reality, many SO-CALLED cases of "ocular rosacea", "blepharitis" & spheroidal degen. ARE ACTUALLY EMF-RADIATION, ELECTROSENSITIVITY, OR WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT.
BUT NOT ONLY THAT, ITS ALSO CHEMICAL-BURNS FROM EPOXIES OUTGASSING FROM ELECTRONICS!
IT'S ALL DOCUMENTED IN "Invisible Disease by Nordstrom, and Black-On-White by Granlund-Lind"

[littlemermaid]

thus the answer will be "silence"

Actually, no! I am very interested in 'rosacea' eye and skin sensitivity to different types of light and read some of the papers you are thinking about there. There have been people here with eye damage from lights and laboratory equipment, and some with sensitivity to computer screens, eg http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...highlight=lamp.

Nice article, Spmcc

The treatments yesterday cost me $300/eye. If I return for just the heat and massage, that will be an additional $150/eye.

Is that a reasonable price for MiBoFlow?

[Minni]

Actually, no! I am very interested in 'rosacea' eye and skin sensitivity to different types of light and read some of the papers you are thinking about there. There have been people here with eye damage from lights and laboratory equipment, and some with sensitivity to computer screens, eg http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showt...highlight=lamp.

Well, yes (note that I had added a posting at the tail end of your linked thread). If you look way back at the archives, note that I'm the first one to bring up on DEZ the issues of computer & fluresence & outgassing as culprit. Prior to that, its like nobody was linking all this, rather mostly speaking of LASIK, infections & stuff like that.

Nobody is hardly facing CHICKEN / EGG - WHICH COMES FIRST?? (except for authors like Becker, Nordstrom, Granlund-Lind, and a Canadian author - forgot his name - but didn't get around to reading his book.

Could be that radiation / radiation + outgassing-chems / bright-fluresence + outgassing chems
.... PREDISPOSES infection & redness (rather than the other way around!!

It's HIGH CRIME that the uncaring med.field have been ignoring & worse, suppressing the truths conveyed in Invisible Disease & other such books, however boring they are!
After all, THEY are getting paid to go thru the boredom, NOT the patients!
Yet they force US to go thru the boredom, all because they're not doing their jobs properly.

[indrep]

Pennyparade,
This is a rhetorical question: If only inflammation is treated, is it treating what is causing the inflammation? A patient can have multiple reasons for increased osmolarity. If the meibomian glands have atrophied or become fibrotic no amount of inflammatory treatment is going make them produce oils for regulating evaporation. The result of this is a hypertonic tear film sending signals to the brain for an inflammatory response to start the healing process.

What is necessary is a treatment protocol that breaks the negative feedback loop and that may include therapies for increasing goblet cells and mucin production, meibomian gland improvement and aqueous production. Once a protocol is discovered, compliance is critical to the success of the treatments. Dry eye disease is a chronic condition that many, if not most, times will require life long management.

[Phillips55]

Indrep,
I've seen a few of your posts where you mention the negative feedback loop and especially about how AMT's like Prokera cause further irritation in the eye that doesn't break the loop. I was just wondering if you could fill me in a little more about this feedback loop because my tear quality is still not great. I personally saw great improvement with Prokera but it definitely has big drawbacks. One it is hugely irritating and it also only covers about a contact size area of the eye. I think it helped me because I was a post Lasik and I think the Prokera helped with the flap area that never really healed and the surface of the eye. However I still have pretty bad inflammation and irritation in for example the area of the eyes that the Prokera didn't cover and I am hoping to explore the more traditional AMT where it is sewn onto the eye because If I'm not wrong they can cover more of the eye that way and also hopefully it will not cause the irritation Prokera does.

[indrep]

phillips,
When I speak of breaking the negative feedback loop it is in regards to creating an environment that allows healing for the cornea. Each person's ability to achieve that environment is different due to length of time the dryness has been present, systemic disease issues, other medications prescribed, etc.