Hello, I am new here and just found your forum out of desperation. I will give you some history first. I have a long story, so I would appreciate anyone taking the time to read it all and offer any advice at all.
My 80 year old Mom (who happens to live with my husband and me here in southcentral York County, PA) had her AN removed in 1981, 25 years ago!, (University of Maryland in Baltimore, Dr Michael Salcman) with facial nerve totally severed, right-sided facial paralysis. At that time, my mom was not counseled nor advised at all about how to deal with the devastating effects she experienced post-surgery. We all felt just so grateful to have her alive, as the dr. said her tumor had grown so much during the 3 weeks between diagnosis and surgery, and that it was so very dangerously close to her brain stem. Within about a year, she had a 2 separate surgeries to try to both regenerate the nerve and bring up the drooping on the affected sid of her face and mouth. One of those surgeries was done at New York Eye and Ear, the other by a plastic surgeon at U. of MD. Unfortunately, the surgeries were unsuccessful.
Mom had subsequent surgeries on her lower lid -- it was raised up with the insertion of cartilage taken from her ear. Also later she had a surgery to partially close the eyelids at the inside and outside corners to reduce exposure. These were done by Dr. John Schietroma of York, PA.
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Now finally, my main reason for writing: The most persistent problem is her SEVERE dry eye, with a great deal of pain in the eye most days. She uses Puralube (generic Lacrilube) most often, especially at night, along with daytime alternate use of the Puralube with some artificial tears. She is also trying Restatis, so far with no positive result after about 2 months.
She has been treated most recently by a corneal specialist in Hershey, PA, formerly on staff at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Dr. George Rosenwasser. Her treatment by Dr. R came about by referral after she developed a severe corneal ulceration from a staph infection in the eye. (This happened within a few days out of the hospital after having had major surgery for a benign colon tumor last July.) Dr. R.'s main concern was to heal the ulcer, which finally did heal after several weeks of excruciating pain, pure hell, and specialized antibiotic treatment. Rosenwasser also felt that the continued severe dry eye that Mom deals with was due to exposure and could possibly be remedied by a gold eyelid weight so that she could more fully close her eye.ÂÂ
Rosenwasser sent us over to a Dr. Hudak at Hershey Medical, who examined her and was ready to offer her surgery, but admitted that even the smallest gold weight would likely be too heavy, causing possible closure of the eye, and he did not even seem convinced that her pain and dryness is totally due to an exposure problem in the first place. Her eye does not fully close, but she does have a partial blink, better upon opening than closing her lids. He said that the corneal area does not seem as though it would be exposed at niight. Actually, Mom's best times are sometimes in the AM, and worst times in the evening. She had tried to tent her eye with saran wrap when it was painful, but that does not help at all. So, she has opted not to have that surgery. We return for checkups to Dr. Rosenwasser, but his advice so far is to just keep on lubricating the eye, and do it as frequently as possible. She has more bad days than good, and she tries so hard to just keep to her regular routine. (
Mom still drives and is an active volunteer at 2 nursing homes.)
Does anyone out there have any suggestions, advice, referrals, or ANYTHING that might help make my mom's life easier and reduce her eye pain???  We are just so hoping to find a treatment or doctor who would really be able to help her somehow! We have never had her to Wilmer Eye at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, but that hospital would be within about 1.5 hours of here. She just said tonight that she would even consider removal of her eye to get a prosthetic eye, but I don't even know if that is an option for someone with facial paralysis and no natural tear production at all.ÂÂ
I would truly appreciate hearing from any of you. Thank you for taking the time to read my "book".
~ Judy
