Hi Friends, I am sorry for not replying sooner to this thread about Elahere. I met last week with an ophthalmologist at St. Joe's Hospital in London, ON. He told me that he has seen about a dozen women in the last month for their baseline eye exam prior to taking Elahere. The first exam was very quick, but it did require taking those drops that dilate the pupils. (If you haven't had those drops before, be sure to bring your sunglasses because the brightness of the sun and/or snow can be very hard to take.) My eyes were healthy, but a little on the dry side and he suggested non-preservative, lubricating drops for the dryness. (My opthamologist gave me a couple of free samples of the lubricating eye drops. From what he told me, any lubricating eye drop that does not contain preservatives will do the trick.) I asked if he was responsible for prescribing the steroid eye drops that are an important part of treating the eye side effects from Elahere, but he said that my oncologist is responsible for prescribing those.
The eye side effects from Elahere can sound pretty scary, but my sense from the patients reviews that I've read is that real diligence is needed when following the eye drop regime. If you follow what is advised on the Elahere website a patient will be putting eyedrops in her eyes at least 10 times a day for the first 4 days (6 steroid + 4 lubricating), as well as the day prior to treatment, and at least 8 times a day for another four days (4 steroid + 4 lubricating). That's a lot of eye drops to stay on top of, but if you do, you can expect fewer eye issues.
I was pretty apprehensive about starting Elahere because my quality of life will be severely reduced if I'm unable to see relatively clearly. Now that I know that I can probably keep a lot of the harm away by strictly following the eye drop protocol, I'm less worried. It's in my hands to lessen the harm. I still haven't been prescribed my steroid eye drops, but I will put another call in on Monday to try to get that moving along. My hope is that I will be able to start my treatment on February 27.
#elahere #Treatmentandsideeffects
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