checking in - questions for readers

[chickenlittle]

I am 8 weeks out from lasik. I have had some good days recently - hardly any drops needed during day and only gel at night and I wake up fine. Then I get this feeling in my eye that lets me know I'm in for it. A dryness that will lead to some itching, then stinging, then a full on burn - plus of course blurryness. Then my eyelids swell and turn red. This will last for about 24-48 hours. What is this? Dr Foulks just said I had neuropathy of nerves. Dr Koeffler said my eyes were looking decent. but that my meiobian glands needed lid scrubs and compresses for now. I have been doing, but I don't understand why I get these symptoms sporatically and what it is? inflammation, reaction to drops, time of day????

Thanks for listening,
Belinda

[Rebecca Petris]

I am 8 weeks out from lasik. I have had some good days recently - hardly any drops needed during day and only gel at night and I wake up fine. Then I get this feeling in my eye that lets me know I'm in for it.

Belinda, the ups and downs are classic. The early months especially can seem to make no sense at all. Personally, I had little to no dry eye sensation until 3 months after LASIK when the nerve regrowth apparently was starting. Then whammo.

A dryness that will lead to some itching, then stinging, then a full on burn - plus of course blurryness. Then my eyelids swell and turn red. This will last for about 24-48 hours. What is this?

Itching, redness, swelling... Sounds like allergy flare-ups to me, but nobody can diagnose you over the internet. The thing is, when you're dry, your eyes are more susceptible to everything else, including allergens.

inflammation, reaction to drops, time of day????

Full moon, color of socks? It's so hard to know. Sometimes there is no answer for the ups and downs especially with lasik dry eye and it's just a matter of being disciplined with the routines and waiting it out - and being sure not to slack off during the good times. But it might be helpful to keep a little log of your flareups and see if they seem to correlate with anything. Better or worse on weekends? in certain environments? after more computer use or more outdoors time? etc.

[dianat]

Your situation sounded allergy-related to me as well. We all seem to be more prone to allergies post-surgery. One more perk. I suppose it simply goes hand-in-hand with dry eyes.

My eye allergies are not terribly evident, but hit me hard on occasion for no apparent reason. Consider asking for an allergy Rx that you can have on hand when you have a flare-up. If allergies are the problem, you'll see an obvious improvement.