Fuchs Dystrophy and Sjogren

I have Fuch's Dystrophy -diagnosed about two years ago. I had successful cataract surgeries, first 13 years ago, and second 10 years ago. My surgeon was highly recommended by my long-time optometrist. I wish you the best✨

Oh, I'm also autoimmune - Crohn's

Thank you.

I have Fuchs Dystrophy and cataracts,
My older sister had both also and surgeries for both. She has had good results - only thing is the need for cornea transplants is that they require daily drops to avoid transplant rejection..
I haven’t started surgeries yet but will need to within the next 12 months to enable to keep driving.
Best wishes for your ongoing treatments🤗t

Thank you. I see my ophthalmologist next month, so I am anxious to see how this disease is progressing. My eyesight has definitely declined in the past year.

I just got diagnosed with "mild" Fuchs, no symptoms -just what the Dr. saw in my exam. What is anyone doing to keep eyes otherwise healthy? I am 52. The young Dr. said I would need a corneal transplant around age 85 based on the mild finding. Not sure if he was just trying to be encouraging. Thought I would take the best possible care of my eyes now. Anyone have a regimen? I have been using the 2% saline drops and have seen oral supplements touting eye health.

Hello,
I have Fuchs Dystrophy. It was diagnosed at the same time my Ophthalmologist scheduled my Cataract surgery. She warned me that the Fuchs Dystrophy might worsen due to the Cataract surgery. I opted to go ahead. My vision has never cleared up, and it has worsened progressively in the four years since the Cataract was removed. Over the last two months I have also been experiencing pain in that eye, caused by Fuchs Dystrophy. The usual eye drops prescribed to treat Fuchs Dystrophy have never helped. I use them as directed to lessen the damage until I can have the DSAEK surgery.

I am sorry mine is not a story with a happy ending...yet.

@tia50 I was diagnosed with Fuchs Dystrophy after cataract surgery. Interesting that prior to cataract surgery it was not seen on exam. The ophthalmologist recommended Muro 128 sodium chloride hypertonicity drops or ointment. I wasn’t able to tolerate the drops- the preservative burns too much, but I’ve been using the ointment 1-2 x daily. At my last exam he said my corneas looked good, no swelling. The medicine is over the counter so insurance doesn’t cover it. I’m 73.

Thank you for that advice. I have both, plus macular degeneration. Does the ointment keep your eyes moist most of the day?

I have Sjogrens. I had cataract surgery that turned into a nightmare. The cataract surgeon knew I had Sjogren's before surgery. he was concerned it would make my eye drier and nothing else as far as the Sjogrens. He was also concerned that the epiretinal membrane would make CME more likely. My rheumatologist said there shouldn't be any problem with having cataract surgery. First off after surgery, I had extreme corneal edema. All the 14 eyedrops a day made my eye hurt. I think it was the preservatives were irritating. We had to cut it to four drops a day. By two weeks, the corneal edema was done. But my vision which had been 20/50 before cataract surgery was now 20/150. You did read that right. They put a lens in my eye that made me 2.25 diopters nearsighted. The best they could get was 20/60 with corrective lenses. So they blamed the ERM for the trouble. I had ERM removal surgery. I did get better - at my best I was a little better than 20/40 with glasses. But every time I D/C the steroid drops, I'd go into CME. I then developed steroid induced glaucoma,. We tried countering it with glaucoma drops, but it took over so I can't do steroids anywhere on my body anymore. That pretty much means I am dead if I have any major medical problems. The eyedrops were also destroying the meibomium glands in that eye. I went to Bascom Palmer in Miami Florida for help. The doctor there took maybe 5 minutes with me, never reviewed my history and told me he couldn't do anything for me and the ERM surgery had failed. (it had not). I am stuck like this. Since then I have D/C all preventative screening and put DNR on my medical forms. No use. If I break I can't be fixed. Maybe I should add that I was only 65 when this happened. People ask why I have trust issues and shouldn't I want to take care of myself and don't I care about my family? I don't have grandkids and I doubt my kids would care if I keeled over. I do still have vision in that eye and a cataract that people touch only if they want to die in the other eye., The optic nerve is still functional in the surgical eye despite IOP's of 60. I can still read with the nonsurgical eye and I drive. This is all super rare.