Alternative therapies

[garnet]

Hello all,

I was just wondering if anyone on the forum had tried acupuncture or any other homeopathic treatments for coping with the side effects of KC?

I had my first hydrops in January (still unable to wear a lens and light sensitive so wear a patch but my eye doesn't appear to have central scarring) and I have been having regular acupuncture to cope with pain in my eye (which has lasted a lot longer than expected) and headaches, tension etc...

I was just wondering if anyone else had tried any alternative therapies and what their experience was?

Garnet

[rosemary johnson]

Hi garnet!
Interestingly ..... there was someone - a GP from north London, IIRR - who was carrying out a trial into the use of acupuncture for KC 0 or related problems.
Initial reports sounded positive - dealt with things like reducing sticky eyes, less aggro from hay fever when wearing lenses.
He was going on to a Phase II. Has anyone heard from him recently?
I remember volunteering to be a guinea pig and hearing nothing more.
If he is getting good results - as the accupuncture needle points are the same as the shiatsu pressure points, it should be possible to work out instructions for KCers as to where to press/massage the points as a piece of self-help. Though likely to mean different points for different problems (eg. hay fevery streaming eyes v. aircon dry eyes etc)
Don't know about hoeopathy myself - isn't there a homeopath inthe group?
Variousdietary/nuttition changes have been recommended - some people find cutting down on dairy prodcue helps, and plenty seem to benefit from drinking plenty of water and keeping well hydrated.
Me, I swear by my chiropractor - he's has twice put back "in" my neck after the eye hospital put it out (and again after a naughty horse pulled it out of kilter). It's amaing how much pain in the facial nerves one can get from a neck being even slightly "out". And one of them is the trigeminal nerve, which has branches going to the eye, ear and upper jaw. SO if you ever get sore eye, ear ache and toothache all at once, it could be the trigeminal nerve getting trapped.
In fact, I once spent several months complaining of how the left eye seemed to be getting sore all the time and couldn't tolerate a lens for any length of time... and eventually turned out I had a top-left tooth slowly going bad inside. Once the dentist had sorted that out, magically the eye was much better. Weird or what?
And there's nothing like a good massage to help ease away the stress of having to cope with the aggro of KC< contact lenses and dealing withthe NHS - but then, I would say that, wouldn't I?!
Rosemary