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I was terrified of an eyeball injection

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Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#181

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To be more precise, androgens (especially DHT) suppress inflammation in the meibomian glands. I strongly recommend dissolving an oral pill of hyaluronic acid twice daily -do not swallow the pill whole, it won‘t dissolve and you will shit a tiny gelatine egg. Besides that eye heating masks and lid-hygiene (e.g. blephacura) do wonders. As for AR expression, I believe L-Carnitin should also improve it. Creatine should i…

Interesting. I already take hyaluronic acid for my gum disease. But I’m not sure you understand. My dry eyes are basically gone. And it’s only been a few months. Every time I take the treatment it gets better. Not just that but the lights sensitivity, glares, and migraines are basically down to 10%. I understand the hesitation however. I hope you continue to improve.

It does sound interesting (I also suffer from light sensitivity and glares, in winter it’s especially bad) and I will give us n=2, what‘s your dosage of TT?

You just take it a week and feel better? I can try that much.

But oral hyaluronic acid should truly be a, no, the first line treatment for dry eye and many eye doctors don‘t even knowing about it is another medical tragedy.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#182
post #173
post #113

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No offense to you, but this attitude is exactly the problem here. I know it's not rational to be very concerned about this, but I also know that the entire duration of that procedure, I will be thinking "KNIFE. IN. EYE." In the world I normally inhabit, knives should not ever be in eyes, so this is an incredibly stressful thought, stressful enough that I might do something crazy like MOVE WHILE A KNIFE IS IN MY EYE.…

Well, by looking at all the answers, I obviously missed my point. Sorry for that :-) (I'm not a native english speaker as you noticed so it may also explain the misunderstanding ?) Of course this is not how I talk to my patients... I usually explain the cataract surgery procedure as follows : "the only thing you will feel is water on the side of your face, and the only thing you will see is a very powerful light. You…

I am Deaf. How would you proceed if you need to do eye surgery on a Deaf person. I think they need to be knocked out. First, they care about their eyes more than other people and second you can't communicate with them during the surgery.

My own experience. I had to do an examination of my nose and throat with a camera on a stick (don't know the exact terminology). The doctor wanted to tell me something and I couldn't react because I couldn't turn the head to lipread and finally I tried to tear out the stick out of my nose and I struggled with the doctor and got a heavy slap on my hand.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#183
post #157

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Yeah, I get that. The issue is not that it wouldn't work, the issue is that I think it would be more traumatic for me then a normal person, and I base that assessment on the fact that putting contacts in is more traumatic for me than a normal person (like "extremely traumatic" vs "something so non-traumatic that they voluntarily do it to themselves on a regular basis").

I wore contact lenses for 10 years, before getting lasik. The first time, it took 30 minutes to get them in. For the first few months, I really struggled. Eventually it got easier, and in a short time I could put them in first time, every time We're taught from a young age to not put things in our eyes, and it does take time to overcome that. The thought of it might be extremely traumatic now, but if you did it every…

> We're taught from a young age to not put things in our eyes, and it does take time to overcome that.

I don't think we're really "taught" this, but is jut part of our innate programming. I never taught my cat anything, and I'm fairly sure if I were to put anything in her eye she would be less than happy about that, even if it doesn't hurt her.

I certainly never recall my mother telling me off for putting things in my eyes.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#184
post #4

I wonder if some people cope better with knowing less. If the procedure for removing the stitches from my eyeball had been explained in advance, I'd still have them now. Going in, I'd imagined the best possible outcome. This, of course, didn't bear much relationship to what followed. No doubt some people would have steeled themselves first given more information. (And perhaps been more stoic!)

This is one of those things that probably depends on the person, as well as the exact procedure. For some, "as little details as possible" is probably the right approach, for others "as many details as possible". For most of us? Probably somewhere in-between.

One of the advantages of giving details is that it builds a bit of a trust relationship with the doctor.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#185
post #140

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I'd be a bit mad myself in that case, any board certified ophthalmologist should be well aware of the use of surgery as a treatment for strabismus; especially ones specialized in pediatric ophthalmology since it's better to take care of it at a young age while there's higher neuroplasticity (so a higher chance of the brain properly adapting to the corrected vision).

Maybe it's less of a thing in France, or it was at the time (early 2000)? You're right about neuroplasticity, even if I get it fixed now I don't know if my brain would adapt to it.

I had my first strabismus surgery in the early 80s in the UK. It was not considered unusual and was handled in the local hospital. The technique has barely changed since 1839, apparently. [1]

After surgery, there are some simple interventions, like wearing a patch covering your 'good' eye the majority of the time, so that your other eye gets wired in more. However, they recommend against this if the eye is unlikely to gain much function.

Also, do note that, unless you had stereoscopic vision before age 3, almost all specialists believe you can never gain stereoscopy, but you can probably regain some function. (There are signs that VR headsets can help people or regain stereoscopy, in some cases. [2])

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6389657/ [2] https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/ist/ei/2018/000020...

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#186
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's less of a thing in France, or it was at the time (early 2000)? You're right about neuroplasticity, even if I get it fixed now I don't know if my brain would adapt to it.

I had my first strabismus surgery in the early 80s in the UK. It was not considered unusual and was handled in the local hospital. The technique has barely changed since 1839, apparently. [1] After surgery, there are some simple interventions, like wearing a patch covering your 'good' eye the majority of the time, so that your other eye gets wired in more. However, they recommend against this if the eye is unlikely t…

> here are signs that VR headsets can help people or regain stereoscopy, in some cases.

Personal anecdote: I purchased myself a Valve Index ~2 months ago, and have noticed changes in my visual perception after use including limited stereoscopy and general improvements in my binocular fusion (as I said above, my left eye mostly provides limited peripheral vision - but following a VR session I will see my field of view expand on the left side and more of that eye is now being used). At 30 years old this is something I never would have believed possible, especially given it never happened following my two surgeries when I was younger.

Do I think VR is going to restore my limited binocular function to what it would otherwise be at my age? Not with my corrected vision in my left eye being so much worse than my right, full binocular fusion just isn't going to happen (I can force it and it gives me a migraine within minutes).

Do I think there's more than "signs" that it can help people with less severe gaps between their corrected vision (re)gain full binocular fusion and stereoscopy though? If I can see improvements I have no doubt that somebody with a less severe case can get back what they should have had in the first place.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#187

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Going in for a retinal exam (in Metairie) today, I took heart from the author.

Stay strong soldier! Hope everything turns out alright. If you get the dilation your eye's will look like you are possessed by a ghost, for the rest of the day, and you might scare children ;).

It was fine they just told me to get the sleep apnea and blood pressure under control (ie lose weight fatass)

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#188
post #138

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Anything can be dissected (pun intended) to the point of disgust. Milk? That’s just cow blood that goes through one weird sweat gland. Honey? That’s bee vomit.

Thanks. I hate you.

Do you enjoy eggs? :)

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#189
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you also not struggle to touch a hot stove? I think it is a similar feeling. Genuine question too - I've got a friend who is comedically brave and doesn't experience pain the way that other people do who might express a similar idea. He just already knows that its unusual and not the default.

That’s an interesting idea. I think I’d be able to touch it, I know I’d dislike it immensely though. But this question helped me clarify my thoughts around this more. It’s the distinction between rational fear vs irrational fear. Assuming clean water the fear of opening your eyes underwater is irrational, it’s not going to hurt you or do any long term damage. The example from the story about getting an injection on y…

Well, I think you're getting close, but you still seem to be coming at this from a place of presumed superiority, mostly due to the separation of fears into 'rational' vs 'irrational'. Part of TFA is that they were not given enough information - is it irrational to fear some one stabbing your eye just because they are also confident that it will be for your betterment? From your water example it is clear also that you've learned that some water is safe to open your eyes in and built confidence in that knowledge - what if you hadn't had those experiences? Where I grew up the water was painfully cold, frequently polluted, and silty enough that I wouldn't be surprised if you got a scratch on your eye from doing that. I learned to open my eyes in the water in a public pool and discovered that I could do so with only minor irritation. If the chemical balance had been different that probably would not have been the case.

I think another perspective that might be helpful is to think of this in terms of the flinch reflex. Anyone can control theirs (this is an emotional process, sure), but the difficulty involves how sensitive they are, how strong the input is, how necessary they deem the action, and how afraid they are of potential consequences. Again, I don't think 'rational' or 'irrational' comes into play here or explains anything extra, I think in your case for example you are probably not jumpy (overly sensitive), and confident that your outcomes will be acceptable. I think the author was probably a little jumpy and was not confident in the outcome of an eye-poke.

Re: I was terrified of an eyeball injection

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is to take the entire day off of work, take xanax, and do the motions without panicking. The feeling you're describing is literally panic from an anxiety disorder. If it it's interfering with your adult responsibilities (like going to the doctor), that's the right time to use medication to get through it.

My toddler recently scratched my cornea with a finger, and while I was completely traumatized, I was able to go to the doctor and allow them to treat me. The phobia is not quite debilitating, just strong.

I have pretty high pain tolerance, but I can't handle eye injuries. I had a scratch on my cornea back in high school and I still remember how there was no ignoring it and nothing that alleviated the pain. Got a corneal ulcer a few months ago from the fancy 24/7 contacts the optometrist sold me. It wasn't near as bad as I remember the scratch being, but I definitely called into work and hid under the covers for a full day.
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