10 months later...
Hello all.
Thanks for all of your questions and comments. It has been inspiring to hear from you and to see my blog web analytics climb higher from visitors around the world!
I continue to enjoy glasses-free life - I often forget that I have bionic eyeballs! I chose not to go through a second corneal tattoo and to just live with the glare I have - and continue to experience. I did notice my brain adjusted a TINY bit. Now I only notice the glare every few days... I have to really look for it. However, dark restaurants with bright light sources can create a lot of glare/halo-ing. But only indoors. Never a problem on the street (though I had bad streaking pre-ICL...so it's there, just not worse than before). My severe dry eye also exacerbates the problem. Nothing unfixable with some eye-moisturizing solution drops.
In 2-3 months, I will hit the 1 year mark - and the end of free follow-up treatment period. A reminder that the "life-long guarantee" is not really the case if you look at the fine print. I am going in for a final follow-up in 3-4 weeks when I return home for x'mas from my newly adopted home in New York City! I doubt I will change my mind about getting a second corneal tattoo. Will try to give you guys an update then!
Otherwise no new issues to report!
Thanks for all of your questions and comments. It has been inspiring to hear from you and to see my blog web analytics climb higher from visitors around the world!
I continue to enjoy glasses-free life - I often forget that I have bionic eyeballs! I chose not to go through a second corneal tattoo and to just live with the glare I have - and continue to experience. I did notice my brain adjusted a TINY bit. Now I only notice the glare every few days... I have to really look for it. However, dark restaurants with bright light sources can create a lot of glare/halo-ing. But only indoors. Never a problem on the street (though I had bad streaking pre-ICL...so it's there, just not worse than before). My severe dry eye also exacerbates the problem. Nothing unfixable with some eye-moisturizing solution drops.
In 2-3 months, I will hit the 1 year mark - and the end of free follow-up treatment period. A reminder that the "life-long guarantee" is not really the case if you look at the fine print. I am going in for a final follow-up in 3-4 weeks when I return home for x'mas from my newly adopted home in New York City! I doubt I will change my mind about getting a second corneal tattoo. Will try to give you guys an update then!
Otherwise no new issues to report!
Thanks again for continuing to keep us up to date! I posted the following in an older entry, but have moved it to here in case you can answer.
ReplyDeleteI did some researching online, and a researcher at UofT has actually done a study on our specific side effect (known as positive dysphotopia). His recommendation is that the iridotomy holes be placed at the fully-exposed temporal position of the eyes (i.e. 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock) rather than in the concealed superior position (i.e. 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock). In his reaserch, 75% less patients experienced glare when the iridotomy is in the temporal position; however, it is rare for doctors to do a temporal iridotomy since it is counter intuitive. The theory is that when the iridotomy is placed at the superior position, light can refract through the tear meniscus (i.e. the tear bubbles that form at your eyelid) under your eyelid and into the holes. Because it is refracting, the light is more focused/pronounced than if the light were just entering a fully-exposed hole. Nothing is proven though. I guess it's a little late to have a temporal iridotomy done anyways, but it's nice to possibly know the reasons. I contacted this researcher directly and he said that he has found that corneal tattoos can be effective.
The Doctor is supposed to call me today or sometime next week about my situation and what my options are and hopefully that will help put my mind at ease somewhat. I think I might proceed with the ICL implants in a couple of weeks and then look into correcting the glare later (if it continues to bother me). By the description of your glare, I think mine is worse. I can see the horizontal white line more often than not, even while driving on an overcast day with polarized sunglasses on. The glare is persistently present while working on my computer in a well-lit room. the glare is worst when there is a sun-lit window in a room with the lights off.
I'm really leaning towards the corneal tattoo option. I was happy to hear that my doctor has the equipment and expertise to do this in house (since not all of them do!). Hopefully this is a "routine" procedure for him -- I'd really like to get some numbers to understand the percentage of patients experiencing glare, and the success rate of corneal tattoos. Hopefully he will share this on the phone :-)
I have some questions regarding the tattoos:
1.) Were there any tests done before confirming the need for tattoos? Perhaps they had you try contact lenses with a dark outer ring to see if that eliminated the glare first? If the lenses eliminate the glare, you would think that the tattoo would as well.
2.) How many tattoos did you have done? There are two holes in each eye -- did he tattoo all four, or just select holes that he though was causing problems?
3.) Did the doctor use a needle tattoo technique, or a laser tattoo technique? Did he say how long it would last?
4.) Were you awake for the procedure? How badly did it hurt relative to the iridotomy? While the iridotomy was unpleasant, I didn't think that it hurt too bad at all. Was it a quick procedure?
5.) How long did it take for you to recover from the tattoo(s)? Could you be back at work the next day?
6.) Did you get any permanent adverse effects from the tattoo?
7.) What does the tattoo look like and how large is it? Would you be able to post a close-up pic of your eye? Apparently it takes an "artist" to match the colour of your eyes, or it can look horrible (but that's not my primary concern). My eyes are brown, so hopefully that's an easy colour match. But really, I'm not sure if the visual appearance even matters all that much since it's under your eyelid anyway. If it takes a funny-looking iris to see without glare, I would gladly take it!
Thanks again for taking the time to blog about your experience and answer questions -- it helps to know that I'm not alone!
Bryan, what did you end up doing? It's been over a year since my surgery and the horizontal white lines are unbearable. It's nice my vision is perfect but if I can't see past the white lines I feel like it doesn't much matter. I often scare myself driving because I have to wear sunglasses even at night.
DeleteAnyway, did you end up trying contacts? Did you get the corneal tattoo? Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I'm furious as my doctor denies he's ever had a patient with lingering negative results. He keeps telling me I'm an oddity a he's never had to deal with this before. Lovely right?
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteKristen: that is really unfortunate. If I were you, I would try the corneal tattoos since that seems like the only solution out there. It didn't work for me, but he offered to make the tattoos darker - through a second round of tattooing, but I declined, because my glare lines aren't visible unless I force my eyes wide open or look way up high in really bright spaces. Good luck. I really hope these doctors stop deluding people with false promises and be honest about the numbers!
DeleteI think the white line glare is worse in my left eye than in my right and the iridotomy holes in my left eye appear considerably larger than
ReplyDeletein the right. Here are a couple of photos of my iridotomies with my
eyes opened wide:
LEFT EYE IRIDOTOMY:
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae301/vifferfun/Eyes/LeftEyeIridotomyv1.jpg
RIGHT EYE IRIDOTOMY:
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae301/vifferfun/Eyes/RightEyeIridotomyv1.jpg
When resting, the 11:00 hole in my left eye doesn't seem to be fully
covered by my eyelid -- I wonder if that's causing my problem? If you
look really closely, it also appears as if my left eye has a third
(but much smaller) hole at the 1:00 position . . . but that's maybe just
an aberration of my iris.
Thanks again!
sorry, this is going to be a short response. i just spent a ton of time writing a response and it got deleted! super busy time of the year as well... here goes:
ReplyDelete-there's lots of research out there: focus on what is practical and actually doable. (see my original thoughts about going to Europe to get the non-iridotomy ICL)
- your glare does sound worse. i have small eyes with lids that cover the iridotomy holes, which is why i only see them in rare circumstances previously described in older blog posts. I still got it though, which is what bugs me!
- in my experience, the doctor will not share % of people experiencing glare... he really tried to minimize this reality, which was upsetting to me after the fact. I think it happens a lot more than he will ever admit.
1) no tests were done - just a series of questions. i knew what I saw so that was proof enough. contacts are very different from what the tiny specks of colour in a tattoo would produced--not very comparable. i am also not a candidate for contacts which is why i got the ICL in the first place!
2) tattoos covered all holes. he confirmed this in a follow-up eye exam. which is why he suggested light may be refracting from a different angle.
3) needle technique. permanent.
4) awake. iridotomy didn't really hurt for me. it's similar to the ICL surgery, except longer and more uncomfortable. hurt a bit more too, but nothing crazy.
5) took 3-4 days to recover. you can work immediately. doesn't affect your vision, just feels dry & slightly irritated. not a crazy healing procedure like the ICL surgery (googles, etc.)
6) I had zero effects - negative or positive. everything was the same.
7) i have very dark brown - pretty much black eyes. So my iridotomies were never visible. Still aren't!
Good luck with your decision!