When I went for my ICL consultation, I discussed my severe dry eye problem with
the doctor. Restasis alone was not helping me. He recommended tear duct drain
plugs. They are exactly what they sound like: little plugs that are inserted
into the tiny holes in the corners of your eyelids to prevent your tears from
draining away. Normally when tears accumulate in the eye, the tears drain out
through these tiny holes and out into the nose. The plugs prevent this from
happening. My doctor said I don't make enough tears and the tears I do have
drain away too fast.

There's a good diagram on this site:
http://www.goodhope.org.uk/departments/eyedept/plugsdryeyes.html

Before insertion, my dry eye was severe enough that I would often wake up during
the night with my eyelids literally stuck to my eyeballs. Sometimes I would
wake up from searing pain in my eye after I rubbed it in my sleep when it was
stuck. I would have to fumble around for my artificial tears on my nightstand
and often end up splashing tears all over my face before finally getting some
close enough to my eyes to have it drain in and loosen up my eyelids. This was
a regular occurrence. Since having the plugs inserted last April (I started
with just the lower drains plugged, but ended up getting the upper ones plugged,
too), I have not once woken up with my eyelids stuck to my eyeballs. Now, I
still have dry eye--I do wake up and find my eyes to be uncomfortably dry, but
they're not so dry that my eyelids stick. I do continue to use Restasis and I
sometimes still use artificial tears during the night.

The upsides to the plugs are 1) they help! and 2) they're usually covered by
insurance as they're considered 'medically necessary' (assuming you've met your
deductible). They were $250 per plug.

The downside is that when you do tear up, the tears have nowhere to go but out
and down your face.

I was given the option to have the plugs not inserted all the way in (the tips
were visible when I pulled my eyelid down), but I don't know why anyone would
want to do that because not only do you run the risk of pulling them out if you
rub your eye, I could feel them on the surface of my eye when I looked to the
far side. So I chose to have them pushed all the way in. Just took a few
minutes (he inserted them that very day) and wasn't painful at all. You just
feel a some pressure. I can't tell they're in there at all, other than the
improvement in my dry eye level.

The plugs were inserted about 6 weeks before my ICL surgeries. After ICL, I
could not detect any impact on my tear levels. I did note, though that my dry
eyes exacerbated the post-YAG discomfort. But that was just during the 36-hours
or so after the procedure. After that, tear levels were back to normal levels
(for me).

Nancy


----- Original Message -----
From: davidken10
To: piolusers@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 8:02 AM
Subject: [piolusers] dry eye


Hey guys, i suffer from pretty bad dry eye on daily basis,im
considering icl but want to know if the procedure makes dry eye worse.
Has anyone expierinced long term dry eye due to this surgery or did it
subside over a few days or so? thanks


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