Eyelid surgery?
 

Have any of you had eyelid surgery for your ptosis? My ophthalmologist said that I will probably have to have surgery at some point. I asked him if he could just get it over with, but he said that he doesn't want to do it until he sees how bad this whole thing is going to get.

What are they going to do for your eyelid during surgery?

kathie

If he does it, which is still in question, he will do something to tighten the muscle up.

Even when they are not terribly weak, they are a bit saggy. So when they are at their weakest, it is getting harder to see out. I think that he has mixed feelings about it. He said that doing surgery on a MG patient is like trying to hit a moving target. The deal is that for me to continue to function, I have to be able to see. So I guess that he is considering taking a tuck in my eyelids to tighten the muscles up.

My eyes are quite saggy also. Both uppers and one lower. I think I am getting to the point of needing the surgery too. My eye doctor mentioned it at my last annual check-up.

My mother had the surgery on both her lids, one at a time at an out-patient surgerical center and it went quite well but she did not have MG.

What type of anesthesia would they use?

kathie

I never thought i'd do that as I used to not have "hooded" eyes (there was a lot of space between my eyelashes area and my eyebrow.. ) however since day one when this hit me.. the pressure that I feel of my eyes, the tilting my head backwards to see, and weirdness I see when I look in the mirror, I have thought about eyelid surgery.. however I have always wondered this:
IF they cut out part of your eyelid/make it tighter, will they close?? I already have issues with good eye closure.. also on a good day when your eyes weren't saggy, would there be enough eyelid then? I'd love to look like my old self again!!! keep us updated!

I think that the risk of creating a closure problem is the worry.

In the meantime, you can give this a try: http://www.eyemagic.net/

Have you used these?

I wonder if this would work for the corners of my mouth. I have a permanent frown.:(

I think that my eye doctor would do surgery if he thought I was taping my lids up. This may be a GREAT idea.

Well, it would for sure give you a chance to see what it would be like and you could try different "tensions."

Years ago I was going to have a family photo taken, as I was having a "good phase." I have MuSK MG, so I mostly have above the neck issues. I was fine until we got to the studio, when my face more or less "melted." I used a tiny strip of adhesive tape to pull up my right eyebrow, covered that with my bangs, and did the photo before my eyes started crossing. What a day...but it worked.

Good luck!

I told my eye doctor that I was considering duct tape. He seemed to think that was extreme. :)

I met a woman in the infusion center with mg who had an eyelift before she knew she had mg. Her lids were sagging badly and she just thought it was cosmetic. When she was finally diagnosed and started treatments, her eyelids tried to settle in the proper place but couldn't. She always had a very surprised look on her face and her eyebrows were in the middle of her forehead. Not an attractive look! However, I don't think the surgeon would have done so much if he had known it was mg, not just an age issue!

That kind of story does worry me. I think that is the type of thing my doctor is trying to avoid. His partner actually was the first person to say that I had MG.

I know of 3 different approaches, there may be more.

1. Blepharoplasty - removing excess skin and fat from the eyelid so it is not as heavy for the muscles to lift.

2. Levator resection - they shorten and tighten the levator muscle that lifts the eyelid. I think this is what might cause the failure to close completely. There is also something called an internal levator aponeurosis but I don't know how that compares.

3. Frontalis sling - they attach a sling from the inside of the eyelid up to the forehead. This surgery would be reversible if there's a problem. I have considered asking about this, but I'm afraid my forehead would tire and limit the success of this approach.

Here's an article if you're interested

http://www.aao.org/publications/eyen...derForPrint=1&