I am looking for hope and help. I had LASIK surgery 3 weeks ago with a very reputable surgeon. The flaps were done with Intralasik and the mapping was done with Wavefront. My daytime vision is excellent and my eyes feel great - no dryness or problems during the day.

However, I am experiencing severe (and I am not exaggerating) problems in low light and night including:
1. Major glare - car lights are so huge I can't see the cars at all, just huge balls of light
2. Very large starbursts within which I see the full color spectrum (like a rainbow)in each ray. These are also very large, e.g., the rays from a headlight go higher than the telephone poles and a starburst from the sun reflected on a building go 5 stories in all directions.
3. Moderately large halos that I see on every light at night or dusk including the tv, candles, etc.

Obviously these are so severe that I can no longer drive. I get bad headaches and nausea even from riding in a car at night.

I am a healthy, young woman in my early 40s with 3 children. At this point, I am debilitated and am afraid that I will lose my job/career (they are currently letting me leave at 4 pm so I can get home before dark) and that I will be like this forever which would be too horrific to imagine at this point.

My questions:
1. Does anyone know of any cases as severe as mine that actually did significantly improve?
2. At what point would I realistically know that chances are it won't just get better?
3. I have read about alphagan drops...are there any side effects?
4. I am too afraid to think of going back for any more surgery right now but is that recommended in a case like mine?
5. Are there any other options for someone like me? At this point, I can't even drive in an emergency.
6. Other than headache medicine, any advice about the headaches and nausea from (I assume) the visual noise and overload.

Thank you for reading my post and heartfelt thanks in advance for any help/hope/advice.

Kathleen

Kathleen,

I'm sorry to hear of your problems. My first suggestion is to not panic just yet…there is plenty of time to panic later. At 3 weeks postop you are a long way from having whatever final vision you will have.

Obviously something is not as it should be. What has your doctor said? This is the person who is most able to determine what may be causing these problems.

There are many, many cases where very severe halo and starburst do resolve with healing, but normally there is a need for management or treatment of severe problems. By first determining what is causing the problem, you and your doctor will be able to determine the probability of small, minor, or major improvement.

Normally, at three months (six months max) the eye will have settled down and would give you a good idea of what vision you will have, HOWEVER if your problem is caused by something the requires treatment or management, the poor vision may last forever if you don't get the treatment or management.

Most patients h

Thank you very much for your message. At my first follow-up appointment, they essentially said "wait and see" since it was right after the LASIK procedure. I am going for my next visit later this week (my surgeon is actually presenting at the Academy of Ophthalmology meeting until later this week). I will definitely report back regarding what he says.

I think the final part of your message got cut off...not sure if you wanted to add something at the end of your message?

Thanks again.

Kathleen

Yes Kathleen, there was quite a bit more:

Most patients have not reported any side effects with Alphagan P, but you need to discuss this with your doctor because your individual circumstances (health, other medications, environment, allergy, etc.) will be important.

There are immediate, short-term, and long term-possible resolutions. All depend upon the actual causation. The easiest thing you can do immediately is use light to reduce the size of your pupil. At night you can shine a small flashlight across (not at, across) your eye to make the pupil restrict. This should reduce the halos. In an emergency, you may want to drive with your courtesy light on. Alphagan P would be an obvious next potential step. You may need an enhancement surgery to resolve the problem, if it is a refractive (undercorrection or spherical aberration) type problem.

The headache and nausea make this sound like something that is not the normal run of the mill problem. This may be an unusual rise in intraocular pressure, swelling of the cornea, all sorts of other things can potentially be causing this problem and only a doctor’s exam will be able to help narrow down all the possibilities to the probabilities. Some potential problems may need care straight away. Others may resolve or need care later.

You obviously need to talk with your doctor. The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) ends Wednesday, so you can expect your doctor to return soon. If you are still experiencing dizziness, you may want to call the doctor's office and visit with the on-call ophthalmologist.

Also, if your doctor was presenting at the AAO, we may know each other. Feel free to discuss the points I've raised and perhaps say hello on my behalf.

Glenn Hagele
Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance
http://www.USAeyes.org
http://www.ComplicatedEyes.org

I am not a doctor.

I've been using Alphagan-P for two years with minimal side effects - mild drowsiness and dry eye. I highly recommend it.
You describe halos and starbursts similar to mine; I cannot drive at night without the Alphagan.
Good luck!

Thank you again for the several replies and very helpful suggestions on my severe lowlight and night vision problems. I saw my eye surgeon yesterday and he prescribed alphagan-p and pilocarpine .5% as a back-up if alphagan doesn't work. He also wrote a script for new glasses with a mild correction and anti-glare coating which I already ordered and should receive in a few days.

He attributed my problems to corneal swelling and is "99.9 % sure" (his words) that the problem will significantly improve within 3-6 months and that the drops and glasses should make it easier to manage until then. He said he is basing his optimism on 3 factors: 1. that I had good corneal depth 2. normal size of pupils/not large pupils and 3. my original moderate amount of myopia which was around 3.5.

While he kept reassuring me this is "normal", I have to say that from everyone I have talked to and research I have now done online, my case seems on the extreme end and not "normal" at all so it did seem a little "dismissive" to be told repeatedly that this is "normal" and basically not to worry about it. I am very relieved however to hear that it sounds likely I will return to more normal vision eventually.

I will keep you posted on any improvements - and thanks again. This site has been very helpful to me.

Kathleen

>I've been using Alphagan-P for two years
>with minimal side effects - mild
>drowsiness and dry eye. I
>highly recommend it.You describe halos and
>starbursts similar to mine; I cannot
>drive at night without the Alphagan.Good
>luck!

I think that "normal" is doctorspeak for "it has happened before."

Not to offend the doctors here, but it is easy for a knowledgeable doctor to become complacent in the event of a complication when that complication is one that has previously been well documented with articles published in peer-reviewed journals and an appropriate treatment plan is reasonably well known. My personal experience is that if a doctor knows what to do about a complication, it is described as "normal" – a normal complication. What is really being said is that it is not an unknown complication, but has been described in the medical literature.

To a patient, "normal" means what is expected. Anything unexpected is NOT normal. To a doctor, "normal" tends to mean that it may not be expected, but it’s not exactly surprising.

Two peoples separated by a common language.

Glenn Hagele
Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance
http://www.USAeyes.org
http://www.ComplicatedEyes.org

I am not a doctor.

I just had lasik and am in the same boat you are and was wondering what your outcome was? Thanks.