Traveling to see another opthamologist. Who should I see?

[Vicki In Oregon]

I have exhausted all possiblities in my city.

I dont know what is best for me....

If I go to Boston for the scleral lens I worry about the comfort of a large hard lens and the expense.

If I go to Dr. Tseng, I dont even really get what the membrane transfer surery is exactly but no one has said that I have read that it completely helped.

I guess I want to try the various compunded drops (unless there is better solution) because here they only offer plugs and restasis. No androgen, NAC, hylaraulic acid, pilocarpine, anti biotic, blood serum drops etc...

Not sure what else is available.

Naturopaths seem to think they can help with anything. But I am afraid it will be waste of $. I know they check hormones and stuff but what if anything can they do to help sjorgens or at least dry eyes? They claim they can over the phone. They talk about nutrition and other things but i can eat well and it not enough. What else do they offer and is it all a crock? they always talk about treating the whole body and getting down to the root of the problems but do they really?

[Lucy]

Vicki-you didn't ask me, but I'll be presumptious (and post) that there is nothing right out of the box to fix what is wrong with you/us. I have been searching for 7 years and others have also. I have been to clinics in Atlanta, Dallas, U of Michigan and on the bulletin boards for 7 years. There is no magic bullet. I'd have found it if there was. Being in contact with all my cyber friends is my lifeline. We know more than the doctors collectively. I've gotten my "leads" from other patients, not doctors.

I have not been to Dr. Tseng because I don't think he could help me. I've been following people who have gone to him for years. I can't recall one person jumping up and down saying "IM OUTTA HERE, I'M BETTER." Not saying one bad thing about Dr. Tseng, but if he was a cureall for us, we'd have all been there and would not be HERE. Obviously not a place to debate that issue here. But, if it was so great, I'd have been there in a minute. My better judgment says it wouldn't help me. That is a personal observation.

The same with the Boston Sclerals. They do not seem to be resulting on recent travelers from this board jumping with joy either. At least, they are not invasive. Again, not a good place to elaborate more. I will be going back for the third time soon, not because they cure my ails, but they do give me some measure of pain control. I have a lot more eye issues going on than just dry eyes.

My post was meant in good spirit and for information ans support to you. Some things just have to be accepted, at least for the time being. Remember, I said it has been 7 years for me and I'm still not there. This doesn't mean the same for you. Our circumstances are much different, but if there was a cure, I'd know about it. So would Rebecca. You will have to follow your heart and pocketbood on what you do next. You have had the good fortune to have people among us here who HAVE been there, or ARE there. When I was thrown into the panic with a bad lasik eye surgery 7 years ago, there was literally nothing........no one to talk to.........no history of such a thing happening. The doctors looked at us and proclaimed: lasik does not cause dry eyes. What dry eyes? What bad vision?

There is a possibility of you pursuing the blood serum drops. But, if I thought that would have helped me, I'd have done that a long time ago. Some people have had small successes with them, but no one is on here posting that they have been miraculous in their use of this stuff. It's hard to find, hard to do and I assume expensive. I have not tried them, but if I had an inkling they might help.......I'd have gone that route.

My GP ran some bloodwork for extensive "food allergy" tests on me. The fee was about $100. While I like my GP very much and he is supportive with my situation, the test results were nothing but a waste of money. I suspected as much--but this was before my diagnosis of Sjogrens and I agreed to it. The tests showed zippo of importance. I should have spent my $100 on the slots.

Please tread carefully and do not fall for schemes and that would/could include homeopathic practitioners. That is my personal belief. You could be taken for a ride because you are so vulnerable and desperate. It's good to see your parents are involved and I hope you stay close with them on your journey. There are just too many unscrupulous people in the world looking to help desperate, sick people like you (us). Best to you. Lucy

PS. On a lighter note, I can almost feel psychics popping up out of the woodwork with the fix for all of us. Go away psychic, bad psychic, slap. We have no money because we are trying to find help for ourselves, so we are not good targets.

[green eyes2]

I think Lucy is right about there being no "magic bullet" fix for dry eyes. Everything is trial and error just to get some relief from dry eyes and to get the condition manageable. I haven't heard of anyone being "cured" by Dr. Tseng or Boston sclerals, but I will say the Boston sclerals have helped me whereas everything else I have tried has failed.

I'm not "over the moon" for the scleral lenses right now (at least while wearing them), but my eyes are much better than before I got them. I'm very happy with the therapeutic effect they have had on my eyes. I can wear them a couple hours and then my eyes will feel really good the rest of the day..at least comparative to what they were before I got the lenses. This may not be the norm for most scleral wearers, though.

The reason that I'm not thrilled with my scleral lenses right now is that my my new right lens that I just got a few days ago is constantly fogging up every 10 minutes. If I want to see clearly I have to put drops in my right eye every 5 to 10 minutes. The "defective lens" that I just returned never fogged up like this. The only thing I can think is maybe they didn't plasma treat this one. If my lens was not fogging up like this, then I think I would be happy with the lenses. The fogging I'm talking about is like having some gel in your eye and you can't see clearly, so it is not something I can get used to. I'll have to contact BFS next week if this foggy vision continues...sigh.

[Vicki In Oregon]

That's all I ask for....to have something that makes it easier to manage this, not a cure. I lost hope in a cure when the Sjorgens diagnosis occurred. I just am not sure what route to go. Would love to be able to wear the boston lens in place of my glasses along with pain relief which is #1. Not sure Dr. Tseng can do enough to make it so I can ever wear my contacts again and maybe even if i thought i could it may not be in the best interet of my eye. but we are talking major improvement for me to even consider that because now my goal is just to be comfortable with my glasses alone, which I totally am not. I wear my thick glasses but it feels like I have tight dirty contacts in there all the time. When I first began wearing my glasses over my contacts i would sometiems think oh my contacts are killing me only to realize I was not wearing them! And to tell the truth, before dry eyes, my contacts never bugged me the way my dry eyes do now. Sigh. Green eyes are you going to exchange your lens again? Have you spoken to them? When you get the lens fixed will you wear them all day?

[green eyes2]

Hi Vicki,

I just wanted to let you know that I am seeing clearly today with the lenses..woo hoo! This morning I soaked my lenses in saline for 30 minutes instead of the usual 3 to 5 minutes that BFS recommends. I also used a brand new bottle of saline. I have had no fogging so far today. I think the hydrogen peroxide I soaked the lenses in overnight probably left a filmy residue on the lenses and caused the hazy vision. I'll let you know in a few days how the lenses have been working out now that I can finally see well. Hopefully, the foggy/hazy vision won't return. I'm still adapting to the comfort, but I only wore the lenses maybe an hour or so a day for the past month due to the messed up prescription so it is like starting over again with them.

[Rebecca Petris]

Hey Green Eyes... just a quick question, are you using the Lobob extra strength cleaner? I always found with my Macros and other gas perms that other solutions made my lenses more prone to fogging.

[green eyes2]

Hi Rebecca,

I'm using the extra strength Lobob cleaner. Maybe I used too much of it??? How many drops do you use to clean your scleral lenses?

You know...I never even thought of the cleaner as being a possible cause of the fogging. That's really good to know. Thanks!

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi Rebecca,

I'm using the extra strength Lobob cleaner. Maybe I used too much of it??? How many drops do you use to clean your scleral lenses?

You know...I never even thought of the cleaner as being a possible cause of the fogging. That's really good to know. Thanks!

Well strictly speaking fogging can come from several things... fit, lens coating, solutions. But I always found that solutions were pretty vital to my RGP experience once I had a good fit.

Here's what I do... In the morning I take them out, rinse them thoroughly in tap water, clean them with lots of Lobob (I dunno, I probably squirt 6-7 drops at least on them and scrub for a bit), rinse them for awhile under the tap again, then rinse them very very generously with Unisol before filling and inserting. Funny, I didn't even know we were supposed to soak them in saline? (I soak mine overnight in hydrogen peroxide and that's it.) But then I'm kinda lazy about following directions sometimes. If soaking them longer works for you go for it!!!

Lens lubricants may also play a role so you may want to discuss options with BFS. I sometimes get fogging after insertion and assuming I really did get them in right, a drop of NutraTear over the top always clears them straight up.

[cts]

Vicki, I found a list of post lasik doctors to help. Even if you did not have lasik yourself, these doctors are probably very experienced in dry eye since that is one of the biggest post lasik problems.
http://www.lifeafterlasik.com/postlasikhelp.htm

I personally would very much recommend holistic healing. Nearly every medical situation I was in was helped by holistic healings but made much worse by conventional medicine. This is just my experience. Chiropractors and acupuncturists always helped me more than MDs. I suffered for a very long time with severe headaches and doctors just gave me drugs which did not even help and only made me sicker from the side effects. I also had surgery which did nothing to help. However, chiropractice and accupuncturists ridded me of my pain with no side effects. The only downfall was the cost as insurance does not always cover it. But I truly believe in holistic healing and believe that the whole body is interconnected and that organs are interdependant on each other. If your liver is not working well, it can affect your eyes severely. If your cervical vertebrae are not completely lined up, it can affect your eyes, your sinuses, your central nervous system. There are many more examples but those are just a few examples of how the whole body is connected. Holistic healing could really help because hormones have a huge effect on dry eye. If your hormones can be rebalanced naturally through holistic healing, it can elimanate dry eye if it is caused by hormonal imbalances.

Good luck!