Hi everyone,

First off, I want to wish you all continued strength - this is the hardest thing I've been through in life and we should all take pride in fighting hard to live our lives as normally as possible. We are not alone.

I have been off the site for a while, since I had seen a bit of improvement, but I am back as either the cold weather of Boston or my many hours reading per day or some other cause has brought back my double vision in my left eye.

As a quick recap, I had VISX Wavefront LASIK 2 years ago from a "celebrated" and experienced surgeon at his office on the UES in Manhattan. I had dry eye from the start, but I contracted Blepharitis four months after the surgery. I have severe HOAs and reading is generally disorienting to me. Recently, I started having double vision when reading (and when looking at other elsewhere, but it's most noticeable when reading). I'm not sure if it is due to dry eye from my blepharitis, although my hot compresses don't seem to get rid of it, or perhaps somehow due to the temperature now being in the 20s (although I don't remember this happening last winter). The double vision is like having the words I read overlap slightly with one another.

In the past to treat my HOAs and episodes of double vision, I have used Alphagan with some success, and RGPs with some success. I also take TheraTears Nutrition daily, and have done so for almost a year. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to combat this irregularity by other methods? I am reluctant to do punctal plugs because they seem to have limited success (please correct me if I'm wrong). I tried Dr. Holly's tears which helped a bit as well but don't seem to get rid of the double vision for more than a few minutes.

My guess is that I've exhausted all of my options, so that I will have to go back to using Alphagan (whose long-term effects we don't know) or RGPs (which leaves me with worse acuity than I have without them, but clears up enough symptoms to make them marginally worthwhile).

Any words of advice?
Any new (last 6 months) developments that are cause for hope?

Lastly, what is the best way for us as a group (post-LASIK complications) to get more exposure so that people have more of a fair warning before subjecting their eyes to this procedure? I'm interested in hearing everyone's feedback because we are the only ones who know how bad LASIK can turn out and can testify to what goes wrong.

Lastly, does anyone know of a post-LASIK dry eye specialist in the Boston area? Or any good ODs or MDs who see a lot of LASIK complications?

Stay strong,
UC

Hi UC,
I am not specialist, but may be the new onset of double vision in reading connected to the change in prescription? Did you check your refraction recently?

Pavel

Hi Pavel,

I should have been more clear on this - I had weaned myself off of the RGPs a few months back. So this double vision in my left eye is sort of out of the blue, and has nothing to do with my RGPs. The only thing I can think of is that it might be due to my eyes being dryer in the freezing temperatures of Boston. Wearing my RGPs fixes the double vision in my left eye, but my prescription for my right eye RGP is not great so I prefer not to wear them at all...

Thx,
UC

Hello UC,

What type of RGPs do you have? Are they large diameter, and/or custom fit?

From my experience, plus what I have read on this website, RGP success appears to depend on
several main factors: lens fit; lens diameter; diameter of the lens optical zone; lens material; and cleaning regimen used.

I have been wearing custom RGPs since 2002 which correct over 95% of my HOAs without aggravating my dry eye. Also, I follow Dr Grant Mason's suggestions for dry eye relief whenever my tear quality seems to degrade, such as when I have a cold or sinus problem.

Good luck,

Lynne