My Second Conjunctivochalasis Surgery and My Overall Results
My second conjunctivochalasis surgery on my right eye was much easier than my first surgery on my left eye.
My conjunctiva in both eyes was loose and folded over due to my chronic dry eye and prolonged inflammation, and my doctor said that it was an issue that needed to be addressed in order for my blink and tears to function properly.
Getting ready for the surgery
I drove myself to this second surgery (a five-hour drive), and I planned to drive myself home the next day. I had a consultation with my doctor before the surgery so that he could check on how my left eye was healing a month out from the last procedure. He was pleased with the results, but I was a little hesitant about proceeding with the second eye because I had not yet experienced any benefit from the first surgery.
My doctor explained that because my eye had been inflamed for so long, healing would take time. He said that I could wait on this second surgery but that the issue would still be there. I had driven all that way, and I was prepared to have the surgery, so I decided to go ahead with it. I also had a fifth intense pulsed light treatment before the surgery.
Differences between the first and second
During this surgery my doctor followed similar steps as he did for my first one. However, the fold in my conjunctiva in this eye was not as pronounced, so he did not use as much numbing solution. I believe this helped my eye get back to feeling normal faster, because during the first procedure he injected a lot of numbing solution into my eye. For a few days afterward, my eye was constantly leaking out the solution, and I felt like I couldn’t close it completely.
Also, the cautery tool that he used to tighten up the tissue this time was different; it was more powerful, and I could feel the heat on my eye toward the end of the procedure. I told my doctor that I could feel some heat, and he put some additional numbing drops in my eye just to finish up the procedure. The heat didn’t hurt; it was just a little unnerving: the feeling of heat on my eye. When I looked at my eye later, I even noticed that a couple of my lower eye lashes had been slightly singed.
After the procedure
After the procedure my doctor put some gel over my eye, which made driving difficult. When I left my doctor’s office to drive to my hotel, it was dark outside. Luckily, my hotel was only a short distance away because I could not drive very far at that point.
When I got to my hotel, I gently washed my face and wiped the gel off of my eye. Surprisingly, my eye felt almost normal that evening. Last time, my eye felt irritated for several days. But this time my recovery was practically nothing. My eye felt like it had before the surgery almost immediately; although, it stayed red for a few days.
The overall results
I went back for a post-surgery check-up a month later, and my doctor said that my conjunctiva looked like it was healing nicely. As of my writing this, three months have passed since my second surgery.
Have my eyes improved in that time because of the surgery? If so, the difference has been slight. I have had additional IPL procedures and have made other changes as well, so determining whether the surgery was necessary and successful or not is hard to do. It definitely did not set me back in any way; however, its benefit is unclear to me at this point. Also, I am still investigating other issues that could be contributing to my dry eye symptoms.
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