Back from Dr. Latkany

[stephgurl1986]

Hi everybody! :-)

So I'm back from Dr. Latkany and NY (amazing city btw)...
Okay,so he told me I have occular rosaeca (without having any sign on my skin) and I have allergies. He told me to get tested on food, environmental things (I just know pollen so far, but it has to be a lot more because my eyes are always horrible no matter if its winter, summer, norther Europe or Africa) :-) He gave me Pataday eye drops to use before I go to bed. He showed me how to do the lid massage and it became obvious that I was always doing it wrong (a pushed a bit too low) and he said it would take about 1 month to see an improvement. He told me to use cold ice bag during the day (which is hardly possible because I'm at university the whole day).
My major problem was always the extreme redness in my left eye which causes pressure pain and the blood vessels never go away. I have posted some pictures a few weeks aga, I'm sure you remember. Anyway, he prescribed me XIBROM 0.09% (5ml= 206$, I was kind of shocked in the pharmacy) to put it in the left eye. But I'm only allowed to start using that next month.
What else? I said I have "junk tears" and that my eyelids look 20 years older than I am (I'm 22). He "stealed" my lower plugs because he believes it's not good that my tears stay longer in my eye. To be honest I haven't noticed a difference without the plugs.
He said that I sleep with my eyes open (which I knew before) and that my blinks are only half way (or something like that) but that I couldn't change that. In adition, my eyes are quite big which worsens the whole situation.
Yep, that's basically it. He was very nice and explained a lot and I was in his office for around 35mins.
The best thing he said was that he believes he can get me to a satisfying stage - I'm far far away from that now. I'll have to e-mail him in 3 weeks and he will let me know what to do.
In addition he told me to stop trying contacts and not to go for the redness removal surgery at first.

Anyway, it was worth it. I finally know I have rosacea and I don't have to worry about all the sjögren stuff anymore. At least, it is very unlikely that I have sjögren now.

Just wanted to let you know. You are always so helpful so I thought I'd let you know about my visit.

I'll let you now about my progess.
This week I'm having four accupunture sessions with a Swiss lady. it its VERY weird. When she puts the needels in your face I can see a lot better (I need glasses) and my eyes start tearing and tearing... (I have done a lot of accupuncture before and I never noticed anything but that woman is amazing even though frightening).
I'll get tested on allergies next week.

So, I'll keep you updated and sorry for this confused thread! :-)

[lboogie]

That is great that you had a nice visit! I'm all the way on the west coast, I think a plane ticket is probably about the same price for me!

Interesting to hear about the lid massage -- I wonder if I'm doing it right? Rebecca -- any chance we could get a video of a proper lid massage?

Good luck to you!!

[blackberry]

Thanks for sharing

It's always helpful to hear the advice that people are getting from the good doctors. Keep us posted on your progress. I, too, visited Dr. L last year and was diagnosed with ocular rosacea. I have found it very hard to get rid of, so any advice you have is appreciated.

[bassfan]

I've seen him a few times and he diagnosed and told me about everything you've stated except the rosacea....interesting.

[Francesco]

yes basically same stuff to me too with rosacea....i did all the allergy tests including food but all negative..

[Julie1]

Hi Stephgurl,

I'm glad that you had the opportunity to see Dr. Latkany last week. I also saw him April 2007 and thought he was very helpful as well. He helped me understand why I had eyes that were sore and red all the time and explained that my eyelids were about 20+ years older than my real age (I was 26 when I saw him). I have ocular rosacea with mild signs of facial rosacea. He told me everything that he told you with the exception of XIBROM.

It sure seems like there's a lot of people that have ocular rosacea and that it goes undiagnosed for a long time. I'm glad to hear that you're on the right path now.

Let us know of your progress!

-Julie

[skygoddess]

I came to many of the same conclusions about my diagnosis on my own. Only, it took me over two years to do so!
I probably could have saved myself lots of pain and suffering if I had went to NY first.
I have a contact allergy test scheduled for Wednesday, know something I am coming in contact with is contributing to my misery.
I hope soon to know exactly what.

[rubyslippers]

How did he diagnose the rosacea on the eye when you don't have it on the skin? Sometimes both my eye and cheek feel sunburned but there is absolutely no redness on the skin.

[skygoddess]

I also do not have much in the way of redness. I read an article on Web MD once that said you can sometimes have only Ocular symptoms,
or ocular symptoms sometimes are the first manifestations of the disease.

I started going to the dermatologist for help with my lid problems.
He saw the rosacea right away and treated me pretty aggressively for it.
I had more redness in my skin than I realized, because now I am much more ivory toned.
What I thought was my natural coloring , apparently was not.

[atta]

Hi Stephie

Its great news that you got an exact diagnose.
I'm on anti candida and LDN and my eyes condition is stable in the last 2 weeks. The redness is 50% reduced - I was wishing for more, but till yet, not happend
Like you I got some blood vessel net on the oupter part of my worse eye, which doesnt disappear like the other vessels(It's been a year). I thought it realted partially to the allergy.

[stephgurl1986]

I've had that net of blood vessels long before the dry eye started. I remember when I was 13 and got contact lenses the blood vessels were already there but they were only slightly visible and did not hurt at all... I hope the eye drops Dr. Latkany gave me help, otherwise I'm going to have a surgery...

[untkicker29]

For those of you who have seen Dr. Latkany and have been diagnosed with ocular rosacea, has he said that he has had patients get the condition under control to the point where their symptoms were barely noticeable?

[stephgurl1986]

Well, he didn't say that but he kind of promised me to get me in a condition that is statisfying - I'm curious how but I believe him somehow.

[Stanza]

I'm glad you found some answers, I hope the treatments will work.

[stephgurl1986]

Just wanted to update:
I've had four acupuncture sessions during the last two weeks with that strange lady I described above.
When she put the needles in, my eyes started tearing and tearing (not because of the pain) and now I just came home and looked into the mirror and I have never seen my eyes being so white (not really white, there are still lots of blood vessels, but still whiter than usual) in years...I'm curious how long this will last. I will only see her again in October because she usually has her office in Switzerland and just comes to Berlin from time to time. The next time I'll see her I'll have 10 acupucture sessions in 4-5 days.
She totally believes that my eye problems are due to toxication and that's why I have to drink special teas 3x/day for half a year, I get special homoepathic medicine and I have to wash myself in a certain way...it's all very weird but it seems to work somehow...