tammy truman
I should have owned stock in eye drops
Tammy Truman of Alberta, Calgary, was a lifelong contact lens
wearer. One day when she put her contacts in they just didn’t
feel right.
What began was a four year ordeal for Tammy, who suffers
from severe dry eye. She believes that her dry eye may
be a complication of Crohn’s disease, which causes eye
problems in approximately 10% of those who have the
disease, although that has not been confirmed by her
doctors. Tammy went to her eye doctor for treatment; little
did she know that this would be the first of many such visits
to come.
Tammy was told that she could no longer wear contact
lenses, a situation that greatly affected her ability to enjoy
outdoor activities that she loved such as water or snow
skiing. “It is really hard to water ski with glasses on,” said
Tammy. In addition to her reduced ability to enjoy life, Tammy’s suffered
from severe light sensitivity. She had to limit the time she spent getting ready to leave
the house each day as the light in her bathroom bothered her greatly.
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i don’t have that pain,
that stinging
sensation, that annoying ‘you want to rip your eyes
out’ feeling. It was gone.”
464 Hillside Avenue | Needham, MA 02494 | 781-726-7337 | www.bostonsight.org
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Tammy Truman continued
Over the next four years Tammy tried
many different dry eye treatments –
“every drop in the world – I should own
stock”, gels, antibiotics, punctual plugs,
humidifiers – to no avail. Her doctors told
her that there was nothing else that they
could do.
Enter Dr. Jamie Bharma. Dr Bharma was
new to Calgary and was aware that the
Doheny Eye Center at the University
of Southern California in Los Angeles was
home to a PROSE clinic. He referred
Tammy to Dr. Gloria Chiu at Doheny.
Tammy traveled to Los Angeles
in October 2010, where, thirty minutes
after the first trial set of prosthetic
devices were inserted into her eyes,
Tammy felt tremendous relief. “It was
unbelievable, hard to describe,” said
Tammy. “The feeling of ‘oh my god’
I don’t feel my eyes. I don’t have that
pain, that stinging sensation, that
annoying ‘you want to rip your eyes out’
feeling. It was gone.”
Today, Tammy is once again active and
fully able to enjoy her life. She wears her
prosthetic devices for up to 14 hours
each day and wishes she never had
to take them out; but even during the few
hours a day she does not wear them, her
dry eye symptoms have lessened
considerably because her eyes have been
allowed to heal. Best of all, Tammy now
has 20/15 vision in both eyes when
wearing her devices, which is better than
had ever been achieved through glasses
or contacts!
Tammy is very grateful for the help she
received from Dr. Bharma and Dr. Chiu,
and from Canadian Health Care, who she
said were helpful and easy to work with.
She only wishes that there was a PROSE
clinic partner in Canada.
464 Hillside Avenue | Needham, MA 02494 | 781-726-7337 | www.bostonsight.org
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