Sorry about your boyfriend's grandmother Michelle.
Unfortunately we will never be able to get together because we are not allowed to exchange phone numbers or addresses or e-mail addresses here.
Tony, don't leave! We'd miss you too much! Nobody wants you to leave!
I wouldn't worry about being dependent on the plugs Michelle. If you are, you are. It's not terrible, if they help you. It's good that your insurance will pay for it. Mine did not have a problem with it either. My tear ducts are permanently closed. My doctor cauterized them shut. At the time, we didn't have the option of using the "Smartplugs" (the ones that go all the way into your tear duct and dissolve after a few months.) They weren't out yet. (And he says that with my luck, he'd put them in and they'd go ALL THE WAY IN like they should, and mold to my ducts and then I'd have an allergic reaction, and he wouldn't be able to get them out!) I only had the regular silicone plugs. They helped, but the problem was that my tear ducts dilated around them. My ducts would get a little larger because of the foreign object in them, and the plugs would fall out or move and irritate me. (The final straw was when one moved into such a position that it scratched my cornea. He IMMEDIATELY removed the other three!) My tear ducts just kept on dilating with each larger sized plug. That would create a gap and my tears would seep out through my tear ducts anyway. Eventually we exhausted all of the available sizes. I went through two or three different sizes. He wanted to give me the next size up, but it was too big and it wouldn't fit. Cauterization was the only available option. Or my eyes would dry out so much that I'd end up with permanent scarring and vision loss. Since the cauterization of all 4 tear ducts (most people only get the two lowers ones done, but I needed all 4) I have much more tears. They may not be the right quality, but the quantity is better. There are still a lot of times when I don't have enough tears, but the goal was to make it so that I wouldn't have any more bad corneal abrasions. If you can believe it, I was a hundred thousand times worse before I had the punctal occlusion done. I have never regretted it for a second. The only thing is that they don't recommend using Restasis if you have plugs or have been cauterized.
Tony..we know you are out there! What is all this crazy talk about final posts and stuff? Where are we supposed to get our Eye Witless News from if you don't talk to us anymore!!!???
Elyse - Thanks for the condolenses for my bf's grandma. I appreciate it. Also, thanks for sharing your experience with the plugs/cauterization. I think my worry over them is just mostly my mental state. I'm still having a hard time dealing with the fact that I did this to myself!!! When my eyes weren't plugged, and I had good days, I knew that they were capable of being normal, or atleast close to normal, and it gave me some peace in all of this. Now that they are plugged though, I wonder if they are only good because they are plugged, if they actually are normal, etc. Obviously, I want to be comfortable, so I do WANT the plugs, I'm just kinda disappointed it had come to this. I remember months ago thinking that plugs and Restasis were only for those who were REALLY bad off...but now I'm trying them both, and the more options I exhaust, the more worried I get when I still have bad days. Sorry to be such a baby, Elyse...you've been down roads alot worse than me, and you handle it all with alot of grace. Me on the other hand....I'm going crazy . I just want to be normal again like I was before I made the huge mistake of letting someone cut and laser my eye. Maybe by March...when these new plugs wear off .
Anyway, I'm know that is what we all want..just to have normal eyes again and not have to deal with all this crap! Afterall, we certainly deserve it!!! Anyway, my eyes are pretty crappy today, which is probably why I'm feeling low.
Hi Faith and Missy - I hope that you guys are both doing well today!
Michelle
Last edited by moderator2; 12-08-2005 at 07:56 AM.
Reason: please read and follow the posting rules - no emails
Sometimes a motorcycle shop will have googles that you can try on. Then you could order them online or somewhere with prescription lenses. I think that they would be really helpful for you, but maybe kinda expensive.
Last edited by azebo; 08-02-2008 at 05:04 PM.
Reason: please read and follow the posting rules - no emails
Please read and follow the posting rules - no emails.
Please read the posting rules which explain that offering or asking off board contact is not permitted. The boards are to be used for on board sharing, only. The email and private message features are turned off so that use of the message boards remain anonymous. The only contact you may make with members is to post on the board.
Are my sinuses going to drain into my eyes? Is that why I get pink eye after a sinus infection sometimes? Or is it just that my immune system is so crappy? My sinuses are so congested, and I worry that the longer the sinus infection sticks around, the larger my chances of it having some affect on the eyes. So far my eyes are just chapped from the cold weather. (I am not looking forward to the snow tomorrow! I think I am going to hibernate!)
My sinuses are still very congested. (The decongestant I was prescribed was keeping me up until 3:00 in the morning!)
Missy, I think putting a time table on when you want your eyes to be back to "normal" by is just setting yourself up for a big let down. Don't tell yourself that maybe after the dissolvable plugs are gone in March you will feel better. But hey, if the plugs help then you should just get more put in in March. But just try to get used to the fact that they might never truly be normal again. You do know that when they do Lasik surgery, they cut some of the nerves that cause tear production, right? That's why people with dry eyes should never be allowed to have Lasik. I had asked my doctor about it once for myself, being that he is also a Lasik surgeon and he laughed at me! LOL!It would be a surefire way to make sure that my eyes never get cured! (not saying that yours won't get better, but I have pre-existing dry eyes that would get a hundred times worse with Lasik. I can't even imagine!)
Today it just didn't matter how many times I put drops in. They stayed very dry. But then again,*everything* is dry! Every time I sneeze my nose bleeds! I wish my cars heating system came with some sort of humdifier! Hello, auto makers of the world? Are you out there?
Tony, don't disappear on us. How is the vision doing?
Okay, considering I have this infection and bug. "Okay" meaning blurred until I get over this, the antibiotics out of my system, the folds lasered, glasses, then "okay" takes on a true meaning.
Tony - Sorry that you are having a rough time lately. Try to hang in there though, ok? We are here for you.
Elyse - Sorry that your sinuses are acting up too. It certainly is that time of the year for things to go wrong with sinuses! I'm surprised that i am not having more problems yet. I do understand that the corneal nerves were severed during lasik. The thing is, in most people, all those nerves heal right back up after surgery. I've read that the nerves can heal for up to 2 years. So, I just pray that my nerves are still in the process of healing, and I will eventually feel normal again. I know that if I accept this is permanent now, it may be easier on me emotionally in the long run, but I am currently NOT in the correct emotional state to accept the fact that I opted to have an elective surgey which ruined my healthy eyes and will cause me to suffer for the rest of my life. I really do think that I NEED to stay positive about this. You are right though...I should not put a time frame on it because it will lead to lots of disappointments, but I really do need to believe that someday I will be normal again. And if time goes by, and I am still not there, I think one day the thought of this being forever will be easier for me to deal with...just not right now .
Anyway, I hope that everyones eyes and sinuses start feeling better this evening. We are supposed to get snow here too, and luckily I'm off work tomorrow, so I don't need to deal with driving in it.
Hello, all- I can't express how sorry I am for my recent rotten moods. This *censored* infection is really stubborn. Maybe one day, I will be "me" again.
Hi Tony, Sorry that you aren't feeling well, please take it easy and give yourself time to recover. I hope that the vision is still doing OK. When do you get the wrinkles lasered out?
Sorry to hear you aren't feeling well Tony. I hope that you are back to normal very soon!
Missy - We didn't get as much snow as they thought, so I wan't snowed in! I actually went out and did some shopping today, and being in the mall and all was not good on my already sore eyes. Hopefully they will shape up for the weekend though! I drove all over trying to find a new sleep mask like the one I used to have (it broke a few weeks ago). Since then I was using this other one, but the straps weren't adjustable, so I kinda had to wrap it around my ponytail a few times to get it to stay tight...it was a pain! Anyway, I finally found the old one I had at a drug store, so I'm happy about that. I wonder if maybe the heat was getting into the other one, since it wasn't that tight, and that is why my eyes feel worse this week.
Believe me, I am stocked up on eye drops for sure! I think I earned some brownie points this week with my boss because of it. I walked up to his desk to ask him something, and he is in the middle of putting eye drops in, so I waited for a second, and then he says something to the effect "Oh..sorry, just putting drops in..I have no idea what is wrong with my eyes these last few months, I guess I'm just getting old, but I'm so sick of them hurting all the time". I immediately realized that the bottle of drops he was using was stragely shaped like a bottle of visine...yes VISINE...a dry eye's nightmare! So, I just had to step in....
I don't know, but something inside me just took over, and I switched into some kind of "dry eye super hero" and started throwing out all this information at him. I asked him what kind of drops he was using and he said he was using Visine to "get the red out" and then another generic brand of lubricating tears (in the bottle). I asked him how many times a day he used them and explained about the preservatives in the bottled tears and about how Visine is a no-no for dry eye. I went back to my desk and sent him a website explaining all this stuff, and then the next day I brought him in a bag full of preservative free artificial tears! I had about 5 almost full boxes sitting around at home of brands that I had tried before I decided to stick with Systane. I thought about throwing them away a few times, but couldn't bring myself to do it since they were all so darn expensive!!! So, I'm glad that I found someone who could use them. He really did appreciate the drops, but he probably thinks I'm a lunatic. He explained that he gets an intense burning feeling in his eyes when he is at his computer all day long and that he didn't think that it was dryness because they watered all the time. So I went into how dryness actually causes watering, but those are just relex tears, etc, etc, etc. And about how his tear film may be unstable, etc, etc, etc. I told him to go see a doctor, but it sounded like dry eye to me! Too bad that even after learning so much about the human eye and how it works, I can't figure out what causes my good days and bad ones!
Well, that is my dorky story for the day. I thought it was kinda funny. I hope that everyone had a wonderful day!
I am watching my eyes really carefully because I don't want to wind up with any infection in them from the sinus problems. That's just not acceptable to me! Not gonna happen! I am determined not to have it happen! But the longer my sinuses stay infected, the bigger the chance of my eyes being affected. I still have a slight fever and a very bad headache. It's also affecting my vision. I get so dizzy that I black out for a second or two.
Tony, I was wondering the same thing. When are you getting the wrinkles "ironed" out? Are you going to wait until you are feeling better?
They reslated me to get the laser this coming Monday. I think I will be up to that. I've been having some nausea at a certain time morning from these Doryx antibiotics I'm taking for the sinus infection. I get over it, and I'm good to go again.
Hey guys,
Sorry you are both having sinus issues. Please try to get some extra rest this weekend, and Elyse - stay inside where it is warm!! Did you guys get any snow last night? We only got a little.
Tony - glad that they are going to take care of those wrinkles on Monday. Before when you were takling about it, it sounded like a pretty simple procedure, so I'm sure all will go well!
Hey Tony, that's good news about getting the wrinkles taken care of Monday. Will they be able to prescribe new lenses then or do you still have to wait? Either way, looks like you'll be pretty close to getting over all the cataract surgery follow-ups pretty darn soon. Won't that be a good Christmas gift?!!
I'm glad to see you're feeling a little like your "old" self, too.
Faith .
Monin', Faith! I'm seeing pretty sharp this a.m. with just my old glasses! Cool to da' max! I don't know if there will be a wait after the ironing or not. I'm ready for all this to be done. If I hadn't of got down with ______, I could've been done with that by now.
. I just want to be normal again like I was before I made the huge mistake of letting someone cut and laser my eye. Maybe by March...when these new plugs wear off 
. 
After walking through the cake, I can lick all the icing off my feet.
