Older ptosis

[Guest guest]

Hey Loka,

> What was the year of your last surgery? Did you have any problems

> with scarring or infection? And have you had any problems with your

> eyes drying out, or eyelids closing properly? Those are things that

> are personally worrying me. They worried my ophthalmic surgeon, when

> he was contemplating this for me 30 years ago. And at the last

> moment, he said he didn't want to risk it, and said that I would be

> just fine if I didn't have the surgery.

My last surgery was in 1985; it was a third attempt to move my lower

left tear duct to a useful position. The surgeon did it by moving the

canthus closer to the tear duct, sort of a partial undo of the bleph

surgery he'd done nearly 20 years earlier. D'oh!

Scarring doesn't give me too many problems, but the skin around there is

somewhat dry and flakey, up to and including the eyebrows (near the

ptosis repair scars). No infection issues, ever, touch wood.

My eyes don't dry out much, except in hot or windy weather. On the

contrary, I had over-watery eyes (hence the surgery described above). My

eyelids have always closed fully and evenly, but in recent months my

right lid has developed an irritating twitchy " pull " , especially when

it's tired (I'm seeing the ophtho on Monday). Otherwise, it's been

trouble-free for the last 37 years.

> But in my mind it wasn't " fine. " I always wanted to have it done.

> But when he died, that was it. My regular ophthalmologist didn't see

> the need to find another ophthalmic surgeon.

Easy for them to say - they're not the ones with the ptosis! When

shopping around for a surgeon, I'd make sure I found one who has done

lots of ptosis repairs before. I've never seen the need for a

non-surgical ophthalmologist, since ophthalmic surgeons can do

everything they can do anyway. But maybe our medicos just aren't as

demarcated and specialised as in the US.

> Happy winter to you in Australia. It's boiling hot here in Florida.

18 degrees Celsius here today. I forget how much that is in feet, pounds

and acres. Half a gallon, perhaps? 332 bushels? Not too cold, anyway.

Rob W