Quicktopic posts: Feb 2004

[ANDY]

Is it true that sclerals can give you better sight and longer wear time than GP.my tolerance of GP'S has cut right down to 5 hours a day unless i have an hour or two out and then another 5 hours or so.???????

[umbilica@umbilical.demon.]

Hi Anna,
"Do you have a feel for how vision with sclerals compares to
other lenses ? I was told I wouldn't get the same vision as
with softperm but in the consulting room when doing tests I
thought it was better?"

I'm the wrong person to ask this, as I've always worn sclerals! No, not from my mother's womb, but when I was first fitted with
lenses they were sclerals. Maybe some of the others here will
chip in?

I think the "conventional wisdom" is that vision is better with
the smaller corneal lenses, but comfort is (or can be) better
with sclerals. I suspect they're linked - if the're
comfortable, you aren't distracted and your brain can learn to
live with that style of vision, and if you can see well, you
aren't tempted to screw up your eyes to see better and thus make them more uncomfortable.


Quote of the week.
I had lunch with a work colleague and discussed my visit to the eye hospital.
Unfortunately I mentioned the howmany fingers am I holding up
test when I had no lenses in.
When I told her I could only guess and then only if they
waggled their hand around she said
'OH MY GOD WHY AREN'T YOU REGISTERED BLIND!'

That's a very good question! - and one that has come up before. Without our lenses, several (many?) of us have the level of
vision that could count for registration as blind or
partially-sighted. But if we can wear lenses for "enough" hours a day, the "professional" won't sign the forms to get registered. It's an area that "the rules" have not thought about, or thought about enough - and a subject that has come up here before as
something that needs attention. I think something similar
applies to many types of disability whose effect varies over
time. We're the "part-time blind", and for some of us the
*unpredictably* part-time blind (if lens tolerance varies) and
that just has precious little official recognition.


Luckily I was on a high as I have been told I don't need surgery so I didn't do my impression of Miss Piggy and plant her one.

Tee hee! Can you lend me some of that "high", by any chance? I tried to ride again today, cos I thought my ankle was on the
mend after its close encounter with a fence post last week, and
it felt fine till I tried to put it in a stirrup, and do a
rising trot. So my sadistic riding instructor got me to do a
lot of trotting without any stirrups! To both of our surprise,
I found I felt more secure rising, even without stirrups, than
doing a sitting trot - except it was more comfortable on the
"wrong" diagonal. Barney's comments on this not recorded but he gobbled up a lot of Polos!

Rosemary

--
Rosemary F. Johnson

[Craig]

With regards to being part-time blind, I agree! Although with me it's only my right eye as the keracotonus in the left eye isn't that bad. But if anything ever happens to my left eye I'm in trouble!

In the mornings I drive to work without my lenses in, as I never start wearing them until dinner. If "normal" people saw things like I did when driving they'd probably freak! But I've adapted and my left eye does all the work. And even after six years I've not even had a near miss!

[Sarah]

Hi Rosemary,

Thanks for getting back to me. I live in Bristol and go to the Bristol eye clinic (I've also been a casualty of waiting list targets and have had lots of appointments cancelled until I told them I lectured in medical ethics at the university!!!!) Anyway, I'm going back again at the end of March and will certainly raise the scleral option then. I can't seem to find the article on intacs you mentioned but would like to know more. Could you email it to me at sarah.edwards@bristol.ac.uk? Many thanks, sarah

[Anna MASON]

Interesting that you say vision is better with small corneal lenses because my vision with Softperm in my left eye is far better than with Rosek.

[Guest]

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[Anna MASON]

Hi Craig we are obviously opposites as its my right eye that is my working eye and if I ever have a problem with that I will be stuffed!

[Anna MASON]

Hi Sara,
I have been going to Bristol Eye Hospital regularly for the last 14 months. They have referred me to Oxford Scleral Clinic. My second visit is due in March.
As a point of interest have you had the frustration of being seen by someone different on every visit ??
I actually strongly requested some continuity as I was fed up with people missing the point of why Ihad been referred there.

[KateF]

good clear descriptions of insertion of scerals, very reassuring.
The only difference I would note is that we dont need the towel/sink under the eye - that sounds like a gallon of saline!! we needed 2 or 3 tissues in the early days but on a good day now we only spill 2 drops of saline so dont need real mopping.
People who are considering sclerals should be reassured that they can be put in and out without needing a bathroom or a lot of bother. But it IS a skill, because the fluid has to be bubble free. Improves with practice.
Removal can be tricky but can be less than a second and very easy - our best run was taking my sons lenses out within one minute on a packed bench in an airport waiting for suitcases to come round...at worst, maybe once or twice a week, we re-wet the eye with saline, use a sucker, pull the lens and release the suction at the edge with a clean finger tip too.
kate n Dale

[Pete]

I've only just checked out this website in the last couple of days, and i've found it re-assuring as I now know that a lot of other people are in the same boat as me. My left eye is by far the worst, I have only mild keratoconus in my right eye. I've been wearing contact lenses for several years now but recently i have stopped the use of these in my left eye. This might seem wierd as it is the worse of the two, but it seems to make no difference at all to my vision. As i am sure other people have experienced my vision seems to come and go hour to hour and some days are far better than others. Like Craig said, I think other people would be put off driving for life if they saw the roads the way I do, but in some starnge way I feel very confident (I also have never come close to an accident in 5 years) and when it comes down to it i can focus in on most things. The biggest problem i have had with my soft contact lenses is the stability of them in my eye. They always seem to be shifting about and distorting my vision further. I have read about the possible cures, and as i am planning to start a career in aircraft engineering in the summer, i know that something more must be done for me to carry on. All of the feedback i have got from the various professionals i have seen has not been very reassuring. I have been told that a corneal graft is too extreme for my condition and that the best that can be done is the lenses I am wearing. In this day and age i find this increasingly hard to believe!