Re: Saline?

July 14, 2002

Apparently the laser surgery to correct eyesight has

been using people as guinea pigs too . . .

There's some reports that, starting after two years,

and in many cases after five years, people who have

had laser surgery lose substantial night vision.

One lady I worked with had surgery done to correct her

relatively minor vision problem. The last time I saw

her, she had had multiple surgeries, and was holding

her nose to the computer screen to write (her job was

as a writer). She was holding out hope that they would

still be able to fix her vision with MORE surgery.

Rogene

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July 14, 2002

Ari, Yes, the saline in our implants does expire. It is good for a maximum of 18 months at 77 degrees F. Think about this--this saline is put into our bodies which are minimum 96 degrees F, and yet manufacturer recommendations state 77 degrees F is the max temp. The same sterile saline that is used in nursing to irrigate/clean wounds is usually thrown in the trash after 72-96 hrs for fear of microorganisms growing in there. Go figure how any MD can rationalize that saline in implants is "okay" to use and "doesn't expire or go bad." e ----- Original Message ----- From: ariaded Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 11:23 AM Subject: Saline? Hi everybody. I just wanted to share something that I thought about yesterday. I went for my annual eye exam since I wear contact lenses. As I was sitting there examining the different types of contact lenses I noticed one thing they all had in common. Expiration dates. The contact lens is placed inside a vial or container filled with sterile saline solution. The same things our implants are filled with. I find it crazy that something that we put in our eye that we can remove later has to have an expiration date (the saline solution to rinse them with does too) and something that we have put inside our body supposedly safe for an indefinite amount of time have different standards. If the sterile solution goes "bad" after a certain amount of time wouldn't our implants do the same? I have worn contact lenses since I was 16 and just now am I realising this. Just a thought.

July 14, 2002

Not all contacts have silicone in them. I had that same concern, and have addressed it with my opthomologist several times. He told me that there are many types of contacts with silicone in them, but there are just as many without. He knows my entire hx with implants, and told me that he would never put my health at further risk just to have contacts. I also had punctal plugs for a while because I have Sjogrens and my eyes are soooo dry. I had heard that punctal plugs are made of silicone, so I freaked out. But when I told him no way do I want anymore, he understood, and explained to me that he doesn't use punctal plugs with silicone in them. They are silicone free, and he showed me the ingredients, which I can't remember what was in them. I still declined to get new ones, and instead we opted to cauterize my tear ducts and stay away from any chemicals. And my contacts I currently use are Frequency 55--silicone free. e ----- Original Message ----- From: shihtzusrock@... Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 12:17 PM Subject: Re: Saline? I too have worn the soft contacts since 1980. When I went to see my neweye doctor this past winter, he noticed I had listed on my patient formthat I had a massive silicone BI rupture last May 2001. He asked me if Ihad any of the usual symptoms BI women experienced. I told him yes. Hewent on to tell me that the soft contacts I have been using are the oneswith the lowest amount of silicone in them. That's the good news; Thebad news is they are probably going to be discontinued in the next fewyears. He suggested I either try hard lenses (no way-I hated those!) orhave the laser eye procedure. I'm too scared of the laser thing. He wentinto detail of how all of the extended wear contacts are made mostly ofsilicone and if someone had a reaction to silicone the way I did, hewould not Rx these contacts. He said there was not enough research andif I DID end up having a reaction he'd have to write a paper & he'drather not have to do that.I was somewhat miffed at his attitude of "having to write a paper" butthen again at least he was honest with me about the fact he hadn't seenmuch research on this and didn't want to chance my vision.I found all this interesting. I'm not going to mess with my eyes. I canwear glasses, even though my Rx is very bad. They now have the newlenses out that are very thin. But being that my vision is that bad, Ifound I had to go with very tiny frames to reduce the thickness of thelenses. Yes contact are more comfortable than glasses too.

July 14, 2002

e--

Three questions: Did your ophthalmologist recommend cauterizing the tear

ducts due to profuse lacrimation? When do you have this?

Have you been tested for the antiphospholipid syndrome aka Syndrome?

Bonnie

July 15, 2002

Bonnie, I don't know for sure that I've been tested for the antiphospholipid syndrome. I think at some point several yrs ago I was when I was being worked up for MS. They were doing every lab test known to man. The cauterizing of the tear ducts is not done due to profuse lacrimation. It is done for the exact opposite reason----lack of moisture/tears. You can either insert punctal plugs into your tear ducts or have them cauterized. Both seal the tear ducts so that the moisture that is created is maintained and not lost, and therefore stays in the tear duct and helps to further lubricate the eye and keep it lubricated. I was trying to have my punctal plugs put in every 6-12 months, because they do eventually work themselves out. But usually I was just getting them placed with my yearly eye exam. The cauterization doesn't last as long as the punctal plugs do, so my doc recommended coming in every 3 months to have the ducts cauterized. But that didn't happen. But my insurance did pay for it as my doc coded it as surgery, so they covered it. I actually like the plugs better and think they work better, but having a FB (foreign body) in my body AGAIN just makes me a little nervous. So that's why I opted for the cauterization. e ----- Original Message ----- From: Bos@... Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2002 4:56 PM Subject: Re: Saline? e-- Three questions: Did your ophthalmologist recommend cauterizing the tear ducts due to profuse lacrimation? When do you have this? Have you been tested for the antiphospholipid syndrome aka Syndrome? Bonnie

July 15, 2002

Thanks for the info, e. Have talked to so many

who have dry eyes and/or lacrimation and a few who

also had the punctal plugs.

Dry eyes are one of the outstanding features of

the very common antiphospholipid syndrome--as is

dry mouth; an ENT can tell if the partoids are atrophied

by simply sticking his finger in your mouth; there is an association with dehydration with the antiphospholipid syndome.

I felt fantastic after three days on a saline IV but we

didn't know why--and the feeling only lasted a couple

of weeks--this was back in the early 90s; that and a sub-

sequent test (diabetes insipidus) now make it obvious

why. This syndrome seems to be recognized readily in Europe but only sometimes in the US.

I did find that the FDA started a registry for it last

year--so we'll probably hear more about it in 20

years or so. I remember that MD,

was talking about this syndrome with silicone illness

back in the mid-90s but I unfortunately didn't pay enough attention to what he was saying.

As I'm sure you know, one can be dehydrated and

not know it; one can have mildly dry mouth and

not feel it. In my case, the parotids weren't producing

but the other salivary glands were working overtime.

And, of course, the placement of the dental caries

bore this out.

The National Organization of Rare Diseases lists

Sjogren's under "foreign body reaction" and although

I had all the symptoms and very low titers of SS-B abs,

I didn't have it. . . or. . .one can get rid of it. There are quite

a few things that physicians are taught are permanent that are

not. . .such as retinal tears (just went through one that

healed after nine years and a speechless retinal specialist)

You just might want to check back and see if you were tested

for this and what the result was. It may eliminate the need

for cauterization. Who knows?

Bonnie

July 16, 2002

Hi Bonnie:

Thanks for the info--you are very well read. It's nice to have you here.

-Marie

July 17, 2002

Is it because the saline is inside somthing that they think it is safe?? I don't understand that either since the saline in IV bags also expires and they make a big deal about not using it once it is expired. It just shows us once again that they only care about making the big bucks off implants, bottom line!