Related eye problem?

[rhohltjr]

Do any of you dry eye'ers have any experience with an eye condition/infection
known as a Chalazion? Chalazions are an infection related to tear glands and ducts. In 1997 I had a Chalazion removed surgically from my left upper eyelid. It (lefty)is also the eye with the worst dry eye symptoms.
If any of you are Opthomologists or know more about it, please let me know if the surgical removal of Chalazions results in the destruction of the tear gland/duct. Perhaps I don't have enough functioning tear ducts :( and my bad dry eye is a result of the Chalazion surgery :( ???

Thanks in advance.

[Rebecca Petris]

Do any of you dry eye'ers have any experience with an eye condition/infection
known as a Chalazion? Chalazions are an infection related to tear glands and ducts. In 1997 I had a Chalazion removed surgically from my left upper eyelid. It (lefty)is also the eye with the worst dry eye symptoms.
If any of you are Opthomologists or know more about it, please let me know if the surgical removal of Chalazions results in the destruction of the tear gland/duct. Perhaps I don't have enough functioning tear ducts :( and my bad dry eye is a result of the Chalazion surgery :( ???

Thanks in advance.

Robert,

The bulletin board is brand new (just launched this weekend) so you may not get many replies immediately but as time goes on I think there will be more people around - including doctors - who may be able to answer your questions better. In the meantime I'll take a stab at it.

Honestly, I do not know much of anything about chalazions myself. But I am thinking perhaps you had some meibomian gland dysfunction before your LASIK. The chalazion may or may not have been related but I think people may get styes as a result of chronic problem with the meibomians. Incidentally that may mean you were not a very good candidate for surgery. I think there are a lot of people with "sub-clinical" dry eye, that is, who have something wrong but not necessarily enough to bother them all the time, and are pushed over the edge into a more symptomatic condition by having nerves severed in the flap creation process during LASIK. - If you have a poor lipid layer due to MGD, this should be evident in a tear break-up test. (By the way, any unfamiliar terms, check out the Encyclopedia (http://www.dryeyezone.com/encyclopedia/index.html).) Poor lipid basically means that even if you produce enough tears, they'll still evaporate so quickly that you'll have dry eye symptoms.

Anyway that's a longwinded way of saying maybe it's not the chalazion surgery that's at fault here but rather the underlying problem that led to the surgery.

You have a lot of meibomian glands (around 50 in the upper eyelids and 25 in the lower) but they may need more help than flaxseed oil. Lid therapy can be very very helpful. Also, many patients take an oral antibiotic to jumpstart the process and help get those secretions flowing (minocycline or doxycycline usually).

[dianat]

Robert,

That sounds like a question for the experts. I will tell you, however, that I had a chalazion removed in grade school from my lower lid. I never did, and still don't, think there was any reason to believe that "duct" to be permanently damaged. I recall the doctor simply cut and lifted hardened material from the area and cleaned it out. I went on to wear contacts after that for a number of years after the removal of my chalazion.

My guess, and I'm just a schmuck trying to make sense of all this, is that the very fact that you and I got chalazions might have been an indication that our eyes/glands/and whatever else were compromised to begin with.

I'm sorry you're in this predicament. I hate to see new people join the boards.

Diana

[rhohltjr]

Robert,

The bulletin board is brand new (just launched this weekend) so you may not get many replies immediately but as time goes on I think there will be more people around - including doctors - who may be able to answer your questions better. In the meantime I'll take a stab at it.

....The chalazion may or may not have been related but I think people may get styes as a result of chronic problem with the meibomians. Incidentally that may mean you were not a very good candidate for surgery. I think there are a lot of people with "sub-clinical" dry eye, that is, who have something wrong but not necessarily enough to bother them all the time, and are pushed over the edge into a more symptomatic condition by having nerves severed in the flap creation process during LASIK. - If you have a poor lipid layer due to MGD, this should be evident in a tear break-up test. (By the way, any unfamiliar terms, check out the Encyclopedia (http://www.dryeyezone.com/encyclopedia/index.html).) Poor lipid basically means that even if you produce enough tears, they'll still evaporate so quickly that you'll have dry eye symptoms.


My right LASIKed eye sees pretty good most of the time(THANK GOD). I am 20 /20 in the vision tests I have, the left eye is NOT 20/20 and vision ranges depending on how I sleep, what sort of greasy glop I squirt in it the night before, how much sleep I get, antihistimines, and what time it is(better as the day progresses but never 20/20). The ONLY difference in the eyes is the chalazion in the left eye in 1997. Being severely nearsighted as I was, I also have had PVDs in both eyes(Posterior Vitreal Detachments) which is where the vitrious gel detaches from the retina and causes a humongous floater in your line of sight. I have these floaters in each eye yet I am sort of 20/20 in the right, and sort of not :( in the left. Don't appologize for the newness of this site. Last week there was nothing. I appreciate this site.


.....
You have a lot of meibomian glands (around 50 in the upper eyelids and 25 in the lower) :eek: WOW! That many? I thought there were about 6. :D I don't think my chalazion did as much damage as I once feared, yet I have no explaination for my left eye.



but they may need more help than flaxseed oil. Lid therapy can be very very helpful. Also, many patients take an oral antibiotic to jumpstart the process and help get those secretions flowing (minocycline or doxycycline usually).
I am in the right place here. My actual opthamologist(not the LASIK do'er), said I had "Meibomitis" and had me take a battery of oral antibiotics, I did the lid scrubs as much as possible and compresses. He said my Meibomitis was gone yet my vision and dryness problems continue(oh yeah, I also had about a year and a half of RESTASIS - cyclosporine). Perhaps I should continue the scrubs and compresses? However, I wish I could find a simpler substitute for the warm water towel compresses as they are so messy. AND I am always searching for (drum roll) the perfect eye drop. ;) By the way, my LASIK do'er said I had plenty of tears before I had the procedure. My actual opthamologist said I wasn't a good candidate, but not until I started to notice my dryness problems, and asked them for help too.

[Rebecca Petris]

Robert,

What was your prescription before LASIK?

I think that those of us with very high prescriptions are most at risk for bad dry eye afterwards, for the simple reason that more tissue - hence nerves - are removed.


I thought there were about 6.

I wouldn't know how to verify this mysefl (smile), just repeating what I've read. By the way, there's a really nice page on meibomian gland dysfunction (which is also called meibomitis or meibomianitis, I prefer meibomian gland dysfunction however because it can be abbreviated MGD and I'm lazy) at http://webeyemd.com/faq/EDCor/mgd.htm .


However, I wish I could find a simpler substitute for the warm water towel compresses as they are so messy. AND I am always searching for (drum roll) the perfect eye drop. ;)

I do dry compresses. I have a little cloth baggy filled with rice. It's about the size of a small eyeglass case. I pop it in the microwave for about 35 seconds to make it as hot as I can stand, then leave it on my eyes till it cools down. Very handy. Actually, an eye doc friend of mine made it for me! I've had it for a couple of years now. It works really well becaue of the weight of the rice and how it conforms to the eyes, and it retains heat a lot longer than a towel.

I wish there were perfect eyedrops around that would cure us all. Personally I've had better luck with Dakrina and NutraTear than anything else, so I've never gone back to the usual drugstore ones. Actually I know a number of patients who were not helped by Restasis but were by Dwelle/Dakrina.

[rhohltjr]

Robert,

What was your prescription before LASIK?

I think that those of us with very high prescriptions are most at risk for bad dry eye afterwards, for the simple reason that more tissue - hence nerves - are removed.


I think my prescription was 20/200+. I was so near-sighted I could barely
see anything clearly past my nose.



...I do dry compresses. I have a little cloth baggy filled with rice. It's about the size of a small eyeglass case. I pop it in the microwave for about 35 seconds to make it as hot as I can stand, then leave it on my eyes till it cools down. Very handy. Actually, an eye doc friend of mine made it for me! I've had it for a couple of years now. It works really well becaue of the weight of the rice and how it conforms to the eyes, and it retains heat a lot longer than a towel....


Rice is something I have a lot of. I was using one of those microwave heat packs but have read that is not the smartest thing to do because of the danger of scalding or burning. Your rice packages seem to be the perfect
solution.



... Personally I've had better luck with Dakrina and NutraTear than anything else, so I've never gone back to the usual drugstore ones. Actually I know a number of patients who were not helped by Restasis but were by Dwelle/Dakrina.

I have never heard of Dakrina or Dwelle before this website. :rolleyes:
I am looking forward to trying them.

[Rebecca Petris]

I think my prescription was 20/200+. I was so near-sighted I could barely
see anything clearly past my nose.

Me too. Unfortunately very high prescriptions post a higher risk of persistent dry eye after LASIK because of the larger amount of nerve loss. That's one of the reasons why I now think that surface ablation is a better way to go and... for the very high prescriptions, no laser.