Just done probing...

[SaraLC]

By complete chance, I discovered Mr. Myer Yodaiken from the Dry Eye clinic in Manchester UK did gland probing and manual expression.

I was doing a follow-up appointment with him to see how well I was doing with my partial blinking and Lipid layer.

He completed the probing and expression late yesterday afternoon.

He cleared a fair number of blocked glands, over half in my top lids. You could feel the probe clear the gland and hear the pop!

I've had very mixed messages about the state of my glands on my journey to heal my post LASIK dry eyes. From "there are only a few blocked glands", "mild MGD" to "it's just lid hygiene".

My eyes are still bloodshot this morning and little sore, from the intrusive nature of the treatment and the bad oil getting into my eyes.

Hi Quattroboy, how was your experience with pprobing and with Dr Yodaiken? How are you and your eyes doing these days? Thanks

[Milo007]

I wish the same. Recently I visited the local doctor who treated me for some years in the past -
still just recommended drops and to follow up in one year - only spent 1 min in slit lamp.
Still no lid hygiene nor compress etc. She even said she has never seen gland images when I presented mine.
My plan was to do an easy stuff but after hearing this, I gave up.
To educate myself is more partical (as there is nothing we can do about it) and
my eyes have been better and better as a result.
The more I have learnt, the more I have realized how terrible it has been.

Same scenario here. Wasted three years trusting my local opthalmologist who said it wasn't a significant issue at all and regular eye drops would be sufficient. I wish I could slam the medical fraternity here with charges of neglect of duty.

[MGD1701]

I wish I hadn't trusted so-called professionals so much.

I wish the same &
paid huge price: much gland loss, paid LipiFlow to save glands + slim chance to work again.

Recently I visited the local doctor who treated me for some years in the past -
still just recommended drops and to follow up in one year - only spent 1 min in slit lamp.
Still no lid hygiene nor compress etc. She even said she has never seen gland images when I presented mine.
My plan was to do an easy stuff but after hearing this, I gave up.

To educate myself is more partical (as there is nothing we can do about it) and
my eyes have been better and better as a result.

Hi Dowork123 yes I do still tend to blame myself a little. I wish I hadn't trusted so-called professionals so much.

I'm doing much better but it's been a frustrating journey.

To be honest I'd have been happy living in ignorance for another 10 to 20 years. But gods what state my gland loss would be at that point!

Well let me say this also, I believe that when people like us are in here with problems, it was nearly unavoidable. I could be wrong about that, I’ve been wrong a lot on this journey. But it seems that people in here that shouldn’t have had a problem with lasik, or myself, a superficial abrasion, they tip into a severe category. There’s a reason why. Even if we don’t know it yet, there’s something driving that inflammation, blink pain, dryness, etc. beyond what we can see. Some underlying issue that wasn’t made apparent until the inflammation began to run wild. I believe had I not had floppy eyelid syndrome for years, my abrasion would have resolved. But there was no way for me to know that would happen. Just like you never thought lasik would do this. I remember asking the doctor, will this ever ****ing heal? He said, it’s superficial man, we just have to figure out why you’re having erosions. Well that didn’t go as he had thought. I mean 6 doctors had no idea what was going on with me. How can I blame myself when the medical community doesn’t even have a clue what’s going on? The first 5 doctors didn’t flip my eyelids. If they had, they would have seen the papillary conjunctivitis. I was not properly cared for. When you’re in a lot of pain, you really don’t care, you just want the pain to stop. I was uneducated. I had no way to advocate for myself.

My point....when I look back and think what could I have done different, the answer is nothing. I literally did everything I could to fix this. Getting the dust in my eyes was not supposed to do this. It hadn’t 100 times in the past (I’m exaggeratijg but it’s gaooebed a lot). I had a lender tell me not to let it bother me. They didn’t think it was the dirt, they told me their mother gardens all the time and gets dirt blown up into her face/eyes constantly. So again, I had no clue what was going on. Could I have prevented it in the future if it hadn’t happened on that day in October 2017? No, I couldn’t have. So I know that would have happened later at some point.

My hope is that you can come to a similar realization. The self blame was eating me alive from the inside out. I’m going to say it out loud, this was not your fault. You had no idea that you had an underlying issue that would have caused this. It’s hard to believe and accept that I know, that’s why you have to figure it out in your own. So I hope you get to that point. Im very happy you’re doing better. When I see someone doing better it gives me more hope for all of us.

[quattroboy]

Hi Dowork123 yes I do still tend to blame myself a little. I wish I hadn't trusted so-called professionals so much.

I'm doing much better but it's been a frustrating journey.

To be honest I'd have been happy living in ignorance for another 10 to 20 years. But gods what state my gland loss would be at that point!

I'm post LASIK dry eye, I had no symptoms before LASIK I was aware of. LASIK tipped the balance. My NHS consultant reckons dry eye would have got me anyway but he does LASIK so hey make of that what you will.

I know now for a fact, based on my diagnosis, this would have hit me anyway. I think the abrasion just hit the fast forward button 10-20 years sadly. I didn’t realize I had symptoms either, until months after the initial pain. I thought, man, years back I would tear first thing in the morning upon waking. Just recently, last two years, last few hours of the night, my vision would get blurry. Not bad, but I couldn’t read the clock on the microwave from my couch. But I thought nothing of it. Now I’m realizing it was the beginning of all this. Then not taking care of my eyes properly didnt help. Had no clue my sleeping was causing this. Glad you’re still doing better.

I just want to say, the reason I typed this was in hopes you would forgive yourself. Not sure if you’re still beating yourself up over everything, but I was for a year. I finally got over it recently. I think knowing I had this problem, I know for a fact it would have surfaced. I just have to deal with it now and thankfully I have a plan. The key is finding a good doctor and a good plan.

[quattroboy]

Did you do a schirmer test ? No
What were the LLT before Lipiflow in May ? 60 and 70 I had TBUT of 3 and 6 seconds!
Your LLT in November before probing is 100 + 87.
You said you had loss gland. Do you know if there are some atrophied or they are just blocked.? Both, lost a lot of glands, around grade 3
LLT of 100 is very good so what is your symptoms ? foreign body sensations and gritty

I'm post LASIK dry eye, I had no symptoms before LASIK I was aware of. LASIK tipped the balance. My NHS consultant reckons dry eye would have got me anyway but he does LASIK so hey make of that what you will.

[quattroboy]

FWIW, The cheapest I know for lipiflow is http://www.bbroptometry.co.uk/ - £499 for two eyes. I found them professional and helpful.

Thank you the is very good price!

[quattroboy]

quattroboy Did you feel that strange 'popping' on all your glands? I had probing done and only felt popping on a few, though the doc said all my glands were blocked with scar tissue inside. I'm really unsure whether to believe them or not. They were saying the glands could scar up again and I might need more probing...my oil layer is low again but I don't know if they're blocked with hard oil or scarred shut inside again.

Yes I heard something but felt the probe clear the blockage.

[mbperso]

quattroboy
A few questions if you don't mind in order to understand which step has improved:
Did you do a schirmer test ?
What were the LLT before Lipiflow in May ?
Your LLT in November before probing is 100 + 87.
You said you had loss gland. Do you know if there are some atrophied or they are just blocked.?
LLT of 100 is very good so what is your symptoms ?

[Meibum Ian]

Overall my eyes do feel much better but like many of you, I'm waiting for that moment where they fall off a cliff again. Seemingly even when feeling good you never seem to be able to relax with this condition.

With you on that. You have good reason to feel better though - it's not through chance that you do.

Again I find it frustrating that my Lippiflow early this year wasn't going to be as successful as it could have been given the scaring and blockages on my glands. So I may well consider doing it again, luckily I can afford it.

FWIW, The cheapest I know for lipiflow is http://www.bbroptometry.co.uk/ - £499 for two eyes. I found them professional and helpful.

quattroboy Did you feel that strange 'popping' on all your glands? I had probing done and only felt popping on a few, though the doc said all my glands were blocked with scar tissue inside. I'm really unsure whether to believe them or not. They were saying the glands could scar up again and I might need more probing...my oil layer is low again but I don't know if they're blocked with hard oil or scarred shut inside again.

[quattroboy]

Hey all.

Sorry I've been bit busy the last few days. Sadly I was attending my father in laws funeral Wednesday.

So it's now nearly 4 days since my probing.

Overall my eyes do feel much better but like many of you, I'm waiting for that moment where they fall off a cliff again. Seemingly even when feeling good you never seem to be able to relax with this condition.

My eyes were sore until yesterday but there is a slight complication, I seem to have an infection in my right eye, so it's still red. I'm currently on a seven-day antibiotics course of drops, which are working. Don't know if it's related.

The probing was done using the slit lamp so he could see the glands clearly, he spent some time ensuring the probe was positioned correctly.

I've not had any problems with lid inflammation in the morning.

Again I find it frustrating that my Lippiflow early this year wasn't going to be as successful as it could have been given the scaring and blockages on my glands. So I may well consider doing it again, luckily I can afford it.

quattroboy was it quite obvious that your glands were blocked inside with the popping? I went to the US to have mine probed - wish I had known it could be done here!! - and was told all my glands were scarred inside. But I only felt the pop on a few glands.

[ebi1368]

There is a scan from May but I just don't have a copy. Never thought to ask.

I am happy that you are improving.

Have you ever felt that your upper lid is inflamed especially in the morning?