After Iridotomy - eye pain and headaches 2 months later

7 laser shots per eye! ....... I read that if the iris is too hard to penetrate, that they have to use 2 different lasers. Is that why you had so many ?
The doctor did not get into any of these kinds of details with me during my consultation.

Were you told, or can you tell if your holes were placed under your upper lids or out to the sides?

Not knowing any of this , means I wouldn't be able to ask about it. I would rather know everything, instead of being surprised..... or should I say, "attacked" with 7 zaps I was not prewarned about.

Truly, your coming forward with your personal experience is really helpful.

Thanks so much for sharing

You are smart for researching and checking first. I normally do, but I was limited on my time for appointments and trusted this doctor. I had absolutely no clue what he was going to do. He basically lied and told me something totally different than what happened. I had absolutely no idea that he was putting holes in my irises at all!

Get this he did tell me that some people can get up to 20 shots per eye. So when he did seven in each eye, I thought that I got off easy. Then I find out later that even more than one is bad. My holes are at the very top of my irises in the 12 o’clock position. Also my eyes started watering immediately. At night if I lay on my back the corners fill up with water. If I am on my side water runs out sides. That makes eyes crusty in mornings. Now I have to put thick lube in my eyes every night. It has been so awful.

What makes me the most angriest is that I was lied to by every person in that office. Then after they admitted that it does cause problems said I would get used to it. Like I said, I am basing this on my own experience, but if you have no issues with glaucoma or high-pressure, I would really hesitate in getting this procedure done. Maybe my auto immune issues caused me extra issues. Who knows. I also know that this is the worst things that I have ever let a doctor do to me. It has affected me mentally as well as physically because I can no longer do things I did just a day before!

I have never had balance issues in my life. Like I said, I was target shooting and my aim was perfect. Now I can’t judge distance or anything. I have no clue why this affected me so greatly. I’m so angry at myself for not doing better research. I think the reason why I didn’t do the proper research is because he told me it was a completely different name of the surgery. So I did not look up LPI.

Can I ask why you are still considering doing it? I am still trying to find a way to close up the holes, but I am so worried about even more damage. Just remember that those holes will be damage to the eye and you will get cataracts even faster. Cataracts are like scar tissue forming over an injury in my opinion.

If I were you I would get an appointment with a neurologist. Balance and depth perception issues should be investigated. Even if it happened immediately after Iridotomy, it can still be due to either that or something else.

I admit the doctor scared me somewhat when he said that people end up in the emergency room with a closed angle attack and by then it is too late to save their vision because by that time it is very hard to try and get their eye pressure down.

I was wondering if maybe the placement of your holes had something to do with the severity. Some reviewers say that it is best to hide the holes under the lid where they won't give you any problems. But you have dispelled this. Moorfield's eye hospital (UAE site) says the holes can be closed with a stitch in rare cases where they are debilitating to the patient. So I guess you are not the first person this has happened to.

I would have never known what to research, since, like you, I wasn't told any procedure name I could look up. When the optometrist told me I had narrow angles and needed to have small holes put in them, I almost fell off the chair.... I mean putting holes in my - or anyone's eyes - I had never heard of such a thing. She did not give me the name of the procedure - just "small holes", and told me it was something that people have done all the time, and that it was an in office procedure that takes 5 minutes and will allow the eye fluid to drain properly.

Easy Peasy Right?

I happened to have an appointment with my family doc a couple of days after and mentioned about the recommended small holes. He said "Glaucoma". I answered " no, small holes". He again said "yeah, Glaucoma". I was not registering. I went to the computer and looked up narrow angles, and there it was "narrow angle glaucoma" . I went on to read the medical online description of LPI and its possible side effects that are supposed to be rare and not bothersome when they do occur, with ghosting being one of the visual disturbances mentioned. This is all the knowledge I had when I next went to the ophthalmologist.

I had not read any actual patient reviews yet....

So when I saw the ophthalmologist, he mentioned "small holes" . When I said the name "iridotomy", he looked surprised and uncomfortable and said "that's right".

I feel that they purposely omit information so that the patient cannot do research, because they know it will likely scare you and have you running for the hills. Still, they don't know a person's situation , and they should be forthcoming with all the details, otherwise, they are making a life changing decision for you. Some people may not mind it, but I have never been a fan of the Mommy Doctor.

I would have likely gone ahead with it if it had not been for my GP saying Glaucoma. I had no idea that there was something actually named "marrow angles". I thought she was just describing a part of my eye anatomy, because she also told me I had "little eyes" - At least she didn't say "beaty little eyes".
After the meeting with the ophthalmologist, I was ready to book it, but something told me to go online and try to learn more. This is when I saw the patient reviews and warnings. That stopped me cold. I thought that I had better tread carefully at this point. Your story is very powerful. I suppose if you had it done during some kind of an autoimmune flare, the inflammation would have made the healing longer, but you said 4 years.

I am looking into the alternative - phacoemulsification. But they don't like to do this unless the person is at high risk of an angle closure attack. The thing is, I don't know how high my risk is.....how closed are my angles? .....half the eye..... just a bit.....narrow but not closed...... possibly experiencing high pressure I would not know about because it is not happening during the doctor visit?

I wasn't given any of this information, and I didn't know to ask because I had not read that far yet . So now that I have, I have to wait months to ask the next eye doctor. I don't have eye pain or headaches, but I still worry everyday since I learned that I have a risk. I am trying not to let it get to me too much. I keep hearing those cliches: Ignorance Is Bliss..... What You Don't Know Can't Hurt You..... I hope you find out what is going on with the issues you are having.

I can also say from lots of experience that what you DON’T know can also hurt you, too!

High pressure in the eyes is what they say they want to avoid of course. However, like you’ve already said, you do and did not have high pressure or headaches either.

I know doctors do indeed lie. I think I already mentioned that I had one doctor even do a hernia surgery on me and I never even had a hernia!. When you do get your appointment with the other eye doctor, I would advise you not to even mention the narrow angle at all. Let that doctor tell you if you have narrow angle. I told you that just a few months prior a doctor had reported that my eyes were clear and no trace of glaucoma. Then suddenly I get narrow angles? Very odd if you ask me.I would not alert to the other doctor what was said because doctors do stick together. When that doctor did that hernia surgery on me, I could not get any doctor to reverse it in the United States because they will not go against each other. I had to go to Mexico to get stitches inside of me removed because they were cutting me to pieces inside. I could not breathe deep for 18 months! After the stitches were removed, it was instantaneous relief even though the surgery itself caused me pain. I do not trust doctors at all anymore. They have damaged me severely.

For some reason, this LPI procedure has affected me more than anything because it is affected my vision, my balance, and my life because I cannot do anything now that I used to do that has anything to do with my eyes. Like driving for instance. It has made me miserable.

The fact that they told me I would get used to the problems also proves that they lied to me. There are problems with that procedure. The fact that your doctor said EXACTLY the same thing, word for word that was said to me screams “run”. It must be something that they do. Just tell patients lies just to get money in their pockets. They will go about their lives after they’ve ruined yours and they have no cares at all. I will go to my grave saying that this is a barbaric procedure that should never be done to anybody unless they have serious headaches and extremely high pressure and that is the only choice they have. But to do it just in case is insanity.
I do think the balance issues I am having is also neurological because the eyes affect the brain tremendously. That is a known fact. It’s like when spin yourself around and your eyes look weird. Yes that makes you dizzy. So my eyes are making my head dizzy, so it is a neurological problem because of what they did to my eyes. This procedure had a serious domino effect in my life. That doctor did nothing but scare you to death for no reason. He made you worry about something that was not even an issue.

Wow, you have had really bad luck with doctors.... I hope it won't stop you from seeking out someone who can help you.

I was looking up ratings on top ophthalmologists, with one being a well known glaucoma surgeon. In the patient reviews of him was this one man who said he had had his Iris damaged by his eye doctor where he lived. So he travelled to see this well known Glaucoma surgeon who ended up fixing his Iris to where he could now drive again and look into the sun once more. He did not say what procedure had ruined his Iris, but if he is seeing a "Glaucoma" specialist, maybe it was an iridotomy that did this. Did you ever get anyone else that has a big reputation, to check your eyes out for possible damage from the Iridotomy that may be reversible?..... or to check that the IOLs you had placed in your eyes, are not shifted and causing you some of the symptoms you have?

And that is a great idea to stay silent and see what the doc has to say.

Yes….I have had many terrible experiences. Too many to even list. It it sounds unbelievable, so I don’t mention it because people look at me like I’m crazy for having such bad luck so often.

Where was that specialist that fixed that guy’s Iris located? Do you know? I would travel to find someone that could fix my eyes if they had a great reputation. I would love to know what happened to that man whose Irish was damaged. I’m so beside myself every day with all these issues with my eyes that it’s really affecting me mentally to be honest. I’ve had such bad luck that I am very paranoid to even try though.

I hope that you get a second opinion soon, so it will relieve your mind. I know how these doctors can scare you because you don’t know whether to trust them or not. The best thing I can advise is also to trust your gut feelings as well. Every time I have went against my gut feelings I have regretted it. I actually went into cancel the hernia surgery because I did not feel right. I did not believe that dr. He came in and talked to me back into it and told me I was making a mistake if I canceled the surgery. On the LPI I also said no way am I going to do this if it has any chance of messing with my vision. I should’ve listened to my gut feeling because it cost me $40,000 out of my pocket to reverse that hernia surgery and I have scars and permanent damage from what he has done to me. My eyes will never be the same.

I hope that you will find a great glaucoma eye surgeon to at least consult with, so that they can tell you what is going on and if it can be helped. The patient who said his Iris was fixed by a Glaucoma Surgeon, was from Canada. I came across a video on Youtube since I was looking into Phacoemulsification / Clear Lens Exchange CLE as a possibility if not now, then maybe in the future if I need to do something. I found the video impressive. It was by a surgeon who now works in Canada, named Dr. Ike Ahmed. So I looked up more on him to get some patient reviews. Most were positive. I don't know this doctor or area, but you can see how a glaucoma surgeon may be able to help. The one I am seeing in 4 months is not a glaucoma specialist. Hopefully I won't need one, but if I do, I would probably go for a consult to Bascom Palmer Eye Institute-University of Miami Hospital

These are the ratings on him that I looked up: (The man with the damaged Iris is the 10th review down I think)
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/3782459/Dr-Ike-Ahmed-Weston-ON.html/
This is the video I had come across by this surgeon

What a small world! I already called the Bascom Palmer Institute. They have another one in Florida that is closer to me but that location said it was closed for construction. I do need to get this repaired. Finding one to trust is my biggest issue. Most everyone I have seen never listens or cares. If you look clean and can walk they think you are just fine.

Thanks again for sharing. Keep me posted on what another dr says. My report said no sign of glaucoma at all. No high pressure either. I am guessing that this is just another thing drs do for money that is just not necessary. Like all other things they try and force on us for “our health”.

I noticed that doctors don't give information on what to do or not do should you not go through with the surgery.....you know - what you can do to prevent an attack. A person has to look all of this up online. It does make you know where their priorities are $$$$ I mean a person could go and get their pupils dilated not knowing it could bring on a closure attack. Or maybe take a steroid from another practitioner that could raise their Intra ocular pressure to a dangerous level. I get what you mean.

I find it rare to find a doctor who is willing to fully explain all options. They only talk about the one they want. I figure that in a hospital like the Palmer Eye Institute, or Wills Eye Hospital, and others that are similar with their huge reputations, that they don't just hire anyone. The doctor must have to have a very good and long track record.

The number of times you were hit with the laser does not seem right??

I really don't want my eyes touched. I want to just forget all this and move on. But, I need to find out from a doctor how much risk I am really at. Since it is not a glaucoma surgeon I will be seeing, they don't have anything to gain since they don't do Iridotomy. They use advanced equipment, so they should be able to tell me how narrow my angles really are.

I hope you will post if you find someone who helps you. I really wish you the best.

I will post here if I get help. Also please remember to have them check your eyes before dilating. They are suppose to do that anyway, but every dr I have seen insists that they have to dilate first before dr will look at your eyes. Keep in mind that dilating automatically causes angles to narrow. That is a fact and I believe that is how and why they are able to get away with scaring people.

Think about it….who goes around dilating their eyes all the time? So it is not a problem until they dilate eyes. Only one dr I seen did not give me any grief when I asked not to be dilated because my eyes have always been sensitive to light. That dr took a picture instead. Lots of time all those tests they do to people cause more harm. No one in my family has ever even had cataract surgery The drs hurt my eyes so much that my poor eyes developed cataracts. I was too young for that!

Let me know what other dr says. Take care.