Dry Eyes

[tracey]

I had my treatment 4 weeks ago and have good vision - in that respect no real problems

My problem is dry eyes - my eyes ache, as if I have had contact lenses in for way too long and the muscles are strained. One eye is worse and feels dry. I have drops, a gel and a paste all of which give temporary relief ( I actually don't care that they blur my vision. I just want the symptoms to go). My eyes are heavy and tired and worsen during the day. I would say symptoms are getting worse, though some days are better than others.

I avoid doing things like reading or sorting the fridge because the effort of looking is too much!

I have read accounts which suggest this condition may be forever and I am worried. How long before I need to consider the possibility that this is a permanent problem, and what questions should I be asking at my follow up appointment Monday? Is there anything else I can do - drink water for example? I would appreciate some reassurance, and know if others suffered similar symptoms and for how long

[born2.B.lased]

Hey there --

While I've never suffered from dry eyes as you have described, the Dr I had my several early follow up exams with kept telling me that I had dry eyes, and it was slowing the healing process (my vision took about 2 months before it got to 20/15). I'm a skeptical guy, so I'm not fully sure how much I trust anything... but I had very noticeable eyesight improvement when I started taking Vitamin E and Omega (fish oil) pills, along with flaxseed oil as well. The next visit my right eye's sight was 20/15 and the Dr said my dry eyes had improved greatly. So maybe those pills/oil did really help. FYI, I really only notice the dry eye a couple times thru-out the day, if I forget to use my eye drops every couple hours.... and sometimes when I sleep at night, and wake up, my eyes will feel almost stuck together. No actual pain such as you describe though.

My main advice is to really grill these guys when you go in for your follow-ups, ask every question you can think of and don't let 'em try to weasel out the door until they have answered them to your satisfaction. My Dr's, even though they're one of the most well-respected in my area, really seem to want to rush me out of the office asap. And when I notice something like that, it must be VERY bad, because I am not a chatty kind of guy. I want to be in-and-out of there asap, myself... but sometimes these people need some semi-polite persuasion to answer questions in a thoughtful manner. :)

[LasikExpert]

The probability is that your dry eye symptoms will resolve with healing. Four weeks is really not so long after having microsurgery on your eyes. We have an excellent article about Lasik dry eyes that you should read. You may find some of the suggested treatments there helpful.