Ouch!

[Michael P]

I had great fun last night. From time to time my left lens does not want to come out and of course more often than not that happens when something flies in.
I was about to go upstairs to take my lens out for the night when a spec of dust or something caused me sudden pain. You know the feeling.
I must have spent 25 minutes yanking at my eye to get the damn lens out and of course the harder you try the less likely it is to come out. The more tears the harder it becomes. I ended up on the bed and quite frankly I didn't care if the lens flew into outer space, I just wanted it out. It showed no signs of budging and then just as I began to have thoughts about a trip to Moorfields out it flew.
My eye is now puffy and very sore and as I am not wearing my lenses at the moment instead of leaning forward as usual, my nose is now right up against the screen. Still heaven compared to last night though.
Is there a way to handle these situations better?
I guess I could get a plunger but from past experience I doubt I would be able to get it close enough to my cornea to make contact with the lens.

[John Smith]

When I wore RGPs, my take on this would be to massage the eye through closed lids, and purposefully decentre the lens through the eyelid.

I'd then leave it sitting on the white of the eye until the pain subsided. I could then massage it back to the cornea and take it out normally.

[Michael P]

Hi John

Thanks for your reply. I have found that both with this left lens and my spare one, decentreing is very painful, far more so than with my right eye. Even when I have decentred and then returned the lens to the cornea, I have still had difficulty in removing the lens. I tried to decentre yesterday but it was too painful.
Stupidly I forgot to tell the optometrist about this problem when I went to Moorfields a couple of weeks ago!

[Andrew MacLean]

Michael

Another way: do as John suggests, massage the lens off centre. Next, when things have settled down a bit, press through your lower eye lid onto the lowest part of the lens rim and draw your upper eye lid down under the top part of the lens rim.

I never managed to catch the lens as it came our, but always had a large cloth in front of me so it popped onto something that enabled me to find it.

another option would be to go to the optician and buy one of those little plunbers that the others find so helpful.

Andrew

[Sweet]

The little plungers are really useful so i would go with getting one just in case. I know how it feels to get a lens that dries out and gets stuck to your eye! OUCH that dam well does hurt! I'm really lucky now as with a soft lens underneath i don't get any problems with my RGP drying out. If it starts to feel a little dry i just put in some lubricating eye drops which get absorbed by the soft lens and it's all fixed!

I'm not sure how you take your lens out? Do you pick it off your eye or pull the corner so that your eyelids close and push it out? Maybe when you are having a good eye day you need to practise another way just in case so that you can take it out a different way when the one you use doesn't work.

Practice i think! Let your eye rest with loads of lubricating drops and good luck from here on. Sweet X x X

[GarethB]

Since I found I needed to regularly use lubricar=ting eye drops, the problem of the lens drying on has not occured.

Found dust in the eye a lot more barable as tears are now able to flow better under the lens to wash these annoying specs out again.

Might be worth exploring lubricating eye drops and just popping lenses out mid day to give another dose of drops just to help prevent the lens and eye drying.

5 minutes of incovenience is far better than 30 minutes pain in my book.

[Michael P]

Thanks Sweet and Gareth for your advice.

I always draw my eyelids together to take the lenses out. I am not sure I could pick them off my cornea.

I will do what Gareth suggests and if that fails I'll try and get the plunger working. Yuk!

By the way, great to have you back Sweet

Michael

[Sweet]

Hhmm if you pull the corner of your eye down and look down your lens will fall out, but just be careful to catch it or have a towel underneath! I find it very easy to do this.

I only asked if you picked them off your eye as that is what my twin sister does though i find it dam painful and something i only do with soft lenses!

Take care and thanks for the kind words, Sweet X x X

[Michael P]

Oh I see Sweet.

By the way thanks Andrew for your hepful advice as well. Apologies for not having thanked you earlier.

Michael

[Knight]

I'd like to just offer a small concern about the general use of lens plungers. I know I've said this before and as great as they are, especially for sclera lens removal but for smaller RGP lenses the normal non-vented plungers, there is a risk of catching the surface tissue of the eye with the plunger and pulling that instead of the lens. If you're going to use plungers use the vented kind, those are the one's with the small holes on the side or the top, which you cover with your finger. Then if attached to the eye, not the lens, just release your fingers from the holes and the plunger lets go. Obviously any use of a plunger should be with extra care, and ensured its centered on the lens, not the eye whatsoever, which can be difficult if the lens is up under your eyelid.
A slightly less risky way of removing a dry-attached contact is with one of those Optrex eye-baths filled with saline. Hold that to the eye socket in the normal way and just move your eye from left to right, the lens will usually float off and dip your head forward quickly and it'll sink into the bath.