Eye problems

[hruss]

hi all,

i am home from a surgery in Germany two weeks ago but i have facial and most of all eye problems.
it is all very red and cannot closes all the way down, so it gets dry .
the only rescue for the eye as the doctor told me is to sew it on Monday. we try to cure the redness with my mom who is here to help me and then on Monday i will have it sewn.

Has anyone had it sewn and do I need a plastic surgery after that to delete the tracks of the stitches? How long have you had it for?
It is very difficult to navigate with one eye and my mom will stay here for one more week, but can't be here during the whole period! how did you cope with the whole situation?

Thank you,
Hrissy

[Joef]

Laci-Lube baby! ... eye drops and eye oitment !! gonna keep that eye wet.....   do you have a eye gold weight ?.. helped me a LOT....  I would do that before getting the eye sew shut... ouch....

[Joef]

one more thing that helped me ...

make sure your eye is clean ... I know it sounds obvious... but when the eye does not blink right it can;t clear out foreign objects.... on close look in the bathroom mirror... (or wash it out in the shower) I would take out eye lasses out of my eye all the time... and is soon as I remove it.. it felt a lot better !!!!!

Females... stay away makeup around the eyes... Guys.... be carefull of electric shavers!! once I stopped using one... my eye got a little better.. I think little bits were getting in my eye...

[jazzfunkanne]

hi, am glad the ops all over for you, did they save your facial nerve i know you were worried about that, plenty of laci-lube in the eye and dry eye gel, i have a gold weight in my eye  which helps me blink.

[Kaybo]

Hrissy~
I am sorry I have not been able to sit down & write  LONG response to your PM - seems like I always save those for when I can really answer them good and then I have them forever - I never seem to have a LONG period of time time altogether!!  SORRY!  What have you been putting in your eye so far??  I used Refresh PM (ointment) 24/7 for the first 7 years until I got a wieght put in.  The weight was a life saver!!  I did have my eye sewn shut for 3 months (from about 3-6 months) because it got scratched and the cornea was damamged SOOOOOOOO bad. Aside from the fact that it didn't look that great (got lots of stares), it was BY FAR EASIER to care for then because I didn't have to mess with it AT ALL!!  If you need to have it stitched because it is already damaged, then I would do it so it could heal, but if the Dr. wants to do that indifinitely because he doesn't know what else to do - there are other options - external or internal weights, stitches, plugs, etc.  I just had it done in the office (with a local even though I have no feeling in that side) and then when I had it reopened, there was no scarring or anything.  I have had 7 operations on my eye now & never any plastic surgery.  However, the last one was done by an occuoplastic surgeon so I'm sure he took some care - you could come here and he could work on you & I would take care of you!!  We'd have a grand time!!  Let me know what happens!

K

[hruss]

Thanks for the advice girlies!!

My eye does not close all the way down but the lid moves - the doctors say it needs 3 mm more to close firmly. the doctors want to sew it for a month or two and meanwhile they hope that lip angle will start move so it will be a good sign for them that the eye will move too. I will do my facial exercises and hope that these will help too. There is a slight improvement from surgery till so far although as I say it is very slight.

eye is very red, doctors told me that the outer slice is damaged so they need to shut it. now i use Torbex - antibiotic ointment 3 times a day and every 2 hours i put Vidisic - another ointment on basis of Tears Naturell  doctors from Germany gave me.
I will tell my brother who is in NY right now to bye the ones you recommended, we do not have them in Bulgaria unfortunately.

thank you for your replies again.
Hrissy

[Kaybo]

Hrissy~
The Refresh PM (& any ointment I know about) will leave your vision BLURRY, but you must endure to preserve that cornea!  Sounds like they are on the right track of wanting to sewn it shut so it can heal.  It really isn't bad - kind of good actually after having had to mess with it so much!!  If the Refresh PM works well for you, I can certainly send you some later on.  I use Systane drops during the day now that my eye has improved and it does not cause vision to be so blurry!

K

[mimoore]

Hi Hrissy,
I think, for me, the eye has been the biggest pain of this journey. I think it is great we have this forum so you can ask others how they cope. There is no sense in reinventing the wheel. I am sure you will get lots of great advice.
This is how I have coped for the last 5 months:
I wore an patch at first, with a piece of wet gauze and tons of laci-lube (preservative free). I also would add drops throughout the day.
I found when I soaked in the tub my eye felt great.
At night I put tons of laci-lube in and use 2 pieces of paper 3M tape and over that I appy an eye bandage (that sticks) and have no trouble with the eye popping open. I have never had any issues with my cornea.
I shower with clear swimming googles (the strap is way down at the back so I can still wash my hair).
I made my own moisture chamber glasses. Here is the link (hope it works, if not look up eyewear). http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=7688.0 Honestly the glasses have been the best way for me to cope...driving, walking the dog outside.
On the advice of Satman I bought Harley googles and they have been great for on our boat.
All of my doctors suggested having the eye sewn closed and I kept putting it off, in hidesight I so wish I would have gotten an eyelid wieght right away and had it removed when things got better. I tried the external weight and sadly because I have asian like eyes it did not work out well.

I use....

Refresh, Celliuvisc (individual vials, the lids pop off and can be pushed back on)

Good luck, we really do understand. Feel free to ask more questions.
Michelle  

[calimama]

Hi and sorry for your troubles.

I had bad double vision which has not fixed so i wore an eye patch for the first 4+ months, so i know how hard it is to get by with only one eye (no puripherial vision or depth perspection), but i did learn to get used to it and managed pretty good with just one eye (i did NOT drive though). Now the DV has cleared up and i am wearing the eye patch outside and in places (the subway) where i am concerned about debris. I wear eye glasses at home and at work. I put in drops every hour or two (or as needed to feel good) but really think that the ointment is better... and worth the blur. I put in oitment and then tape my eye closed at night (some advise against this, but it was suggested to me by opthamologist and it has worked great - paper tape only). It was never suggested to me to sew my eye (but either of the two n.surgeons i saw post surgery, or either of the opthamologists i saw, a few times each). i think that was because my cornea was doing well (worst verdict was that it was a little irritated, in the early weeks). I attribute this to wearing the patch and keeping it lubbed.

If the docs say sew it, i would, because your eye is forever, so do what you must in the short-term to care for it.

Good luck and hang in there.

Trish

[hruss]

hi all,

 i just had my eye shut and will be like that for 3 to 6 months, as the doctors say. they also suggested having an IV with methanol or smth like that every day for 10 days in row which will quicken the process of recovery for the facial nerve and they will be able to remove the stitches in 15 days as they say (i slightly can't believe it to be that fast, but it may help me - even if it takes a month it will be better than 3 months).

trish, I am glad that you no longer have the double vision!!

Kaybo, thank u for the invitation, but my cornea was very irritated and they did not want to wait any longer. There was a kind of wound in my pupil and i have to go on with no hesitation any longer! I will visit you some other time for sure!!!

Michelle, i told my bro to order foam which i can stick to my sunglasses as you had done on yours. Thank you very much for the advice and the link you posted!!

will keep you posted!!

Hrissy

[HeadCase2]

Hi Hrissy,
  I hope your eye is beginning to feel better after the eye closure.   If you get back to eye drops for a while after the eye is "re-opened", try several different brands.  When I had dry eye for a while after AN surgery, I found that some brands irratated my eye, causing redness, while other brands did not cause redness.
Regards,
  Rob

[calimama]

The optometrist said to avoid using drops/lube with preservatives. Even if you don't have a reaction from the preservatives, these drops are not designed for use several times a day, for many months. Apparently eyes can develop and intolerance for the preservatives with excessive use, so for regular use (as many here do) go for preservative free ones. It kind of makes sense because if you are not using drops often, the bottle will sit around for a long time (hence the need to longer shelf life). But if you go through bottles in a matter of weeks, then the preservative is not necessary.

good luck,
Trish

[texsooner]

Trish, I had not heard about the long term effect of using drops with preservatives, however I haven't seen an eye doctor yet since my surgery.  I've had 2 post op visits my ENT/neurotologist and told him my biggest issue is the dry eye. He asked what I was using for eye lubrication and I showed him my Refresh Liquigel bottle that carry with me all the time and use many times during the day.....he didn't have a problem with it. However, even though he's a great ENT and surgeon, I don't think he knows all that much about treatment of the dry eye issue. Thanks for posting this information. Even though is much less handly and economical, I think I'll switch to the Refresh Celluvisc(preservative free version).

I would love to hear from anyone else regarding long term use of eye drops with preservatives.

Patrick

[hruss]

Trish,

thank you for the information too!!!

Michelle,

my brother got the foam to stick it to my glasses when he comes back next week! thank you for the advice. Can you post a link or explain how to make it precisely?

Hrissy

[mimoore]

Hrissy the foam pieces have typically come in sets of left and right and I just read that they willl now be sold in just a right or just a left. That is great news for us.
Anyway to answer you question: the foam will come with a little center piece (throw that away, it is used for the tranquil night dry eye treatment... I bought that but that is another story) there is an adhesive on the back, peel the paper off and stick inside your sunglasses closest to the frame edge. A bigger pair of glasses works best. I change it the first of every month. It ends up with drops, make up on them and I love how a new one feels so fresh. I prefer the unlined foam. Good luck I am here if you need me. Freedom again, you are going to LOVE it!
Let me know what you think.
Michelle