Daily Headaches

[David]

I had custom wavefront 9 months ago and have tried to be a patient patient but I suffer from headaches daily and do not know how much more I can stand. I'm afraid I don't have all of my numbers but can say that in my follow ups with my Dr. (but not my Lasik Dr.) my vision with both eyes is 20/20 with the right at 20/30 and the left at 20/20. I live at 9200 feet in altitude in a dry climate and have been using eye drops very frequently (every 15 minutes) which helps momentarily but I still cannot shake the disparity in vision between the two eyes. My nondominant eye is the one that is crystal clear and the dominant eye is undercorrected (although great for close up). I have monovision now but did not ask for it and am having a hard time getting used to it. I have been using Restasis and flax seed on a daily basis since the 3rd month and do not feel as if they are helping. I also have a great deal of difficulty in low light as my right eye does not pick up the available light like my left eye does.
I'm close to giggling at the irony to be fitted for contacts and reading glasses after spending so much time and money on Lasik (but not quite--my head hurts too much).

[LasikExpert]

There are several things that can be contributing to daily headaches after Lasik. We have more details in our article about Lasik Eye Strain.

The dominant eye is the one that looks directly at an object (nondominant looks from the side at a slight angle). The dominant eye being myopic means that it is probably working overtime trying to focus on mid-range and distant objects. This alone can cause headaches.

Dry eye is most certainly a candidate for the cause of your headaches. That frequent of use indicates a rather severe dry eye problem, but it really sounds like you are using artificial tears to provide a temporary change in refractive error to compensate for the slight undercorrection. Yes, you can have dry eye, but the temporary good vision may be because of increased thickness in tears, not because your lack tears. You may find a contact lens reduces your use of artificial tears.

Your doctor can perform the tests necessary to determine to what extent dry eye is the direct issue. We have detailed articles about Lasik and dry eye and dry eye treatment that may be helpful.

Remember too that the tearing system is directly connected to the nasal and respitory system. If one has a problem, the other probably does too. Lasik can exacerbate other issues, so you may want to take a more general health perspective to the problems.

It is probably time for you to see your surgeon for an evaluation.

[David]

Glenn,
Thanks for the response. Is there a chance to change eye dominance? I have an appt with my surgeon in two weeks and you are right...my vision is greatly improved for a short time after drop insertion.

[LasikExpert]

Yes eye dominance can change, but not necessarily just because your dominant eye is now myopic. Eye dominance and convergence are very complex.

I predict that much of your difficulty will resolve with a contact to fully correct that one eye and bring balance between the two.

[David]

Glenn,
Again thanks....I would hope to be a candidate for an enhancement as well--could that help with the difficulty I have in low light situations in that eye?
DW

[LasikExpert]

Enhancement surgery may help, depending upon the exact reason you have halos around light sources at night.

The dry eye alone could cause halos around light sources.

[DryEye]

This sounds similar to what I have been experiencing.
In regards to monovision, how different are the eyes in terms of correction?
Is the dominant eye always the undercorrected one?
What is a good disposbale contact lens for to try out post lasik?
Thanks