KC and sauna and steam rooms

[hannah+]

hi
I am recovering from an episode of acute hydrops and reccently went for a sauna, when i emerged from the lovely heat i found that my eyes seemed to have loat some vision - my glasses now seem quite blurry and i cannot tolerate my contact lenses.

what if any is the advice - i did see on the web some research paper on hydrops and finnish saunas, but was not able to get much info egarding general advice on going into to saunas with KC and hydrops.

blundering around in glasses, is it time to hit the bottle?
thanks

[rosemary johnson]

Hi.
SOrry to hear you've had a hydrops. HOw long ago was it, and how far has it got along the road to clearing over?
As regards the sauna experience: it the effects have affected BOTH eyes, it's unlikley to be directly related to the hydrops (you'd be VERY unlucky to get a hydrops in both eyes at once, and I think you might well know if the other one had hydropsed!)
HOw long ago was the sauna? - and how long has the change in vision and contact lens probelsm lasted since then?
If it's only been a day or so, it may well be just a short-term thing that will wear off OK.
Now - I'm guessing here - I'm not a medic. Could it be pressure-realted?
One thing that saunas can do is to push your blood pressure up. YOu may have heard of this, and heard the health promotion enthusiasts saying how bad an idea it is to go nd sit in a hot sauna an dhave your blood pressure, etc, pushed up by the heat, then run out of the hot room, down the beach and jump into a icy cold lake as they do in Finland,and how this could cause a heart attack or a stroke......
I have to say, it's not something I've ever worried about - but then, I probably don't go in saunas as hot as some of the Finnish ones, because dry air that hot wouldn't be too good for my asthma.
Ok, the hypothesis:
if saunas can push up the blood pressure, they can probably push up the eye pressure (IOP, in doctor-speak). And if it does, that could cause a slight change in the shape of your eye, so the contact lens may not fit as well as it used to and the power not be quite right.
Ifyour relax and chill out (metaphorically, I mean, not diving in icy lakes!) the pressure ought to go back down again and the eyes return to normal.
Another possibility is that, if yours was a reall DRY sauna (rather than one where people keep chucking water on the coals and making clouds of steam) your eyes may have just got a bit dehydrated. That could change the vision a bit, and make the eyes more sensitive to having lenses in.
I presume that you know all about drinking plenty of water/juice to rehydrate after saunas, so it should recover. SOme lubricating eye drops, like systane or celluvisc, might help.
Hope it sorts itself out soon.
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

I've moved this string to General Discussion Forum.

I reckon that there are two practical steps you can take right away:

1 make an appointment at your eye clinic so that they can look at your eyes and make sure that things are as they ought to be.

2 use artificial tears (I rather like Clinitas Soothe; you can buy it online)

I'm sorry you have had this run of experiences, and I would be interested to know whether your ophthalmologist thinks that the sauna has contributed to your latest set-back.

All the best

Andrew