Contact Lens wearing time

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Anna Mason
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Contact Lens wearing time

Postby Anna Mason » Sat 15 Jun 2019 5:55 pm

It was suggested in March that I reduce my wearing time to 8 hours and I have done as I was told.
I was told my eyes are looking really good yesterday so my question is this:

If I wear my lens for a number of hours and then have a break for say an hour do you think it is reasonable to extend this time. I can hear you say why not ask your expert? Because my expert is away and the allocated expert does not listen.

So I was wearing one lens at a time with an overlap so I can drive.
Here is the really annoying and distressing bit...my good eye has a cataract and will require surgery.
My weak eye has decided to play up and my contact lens feels like I have an eyelash in my eye.
This stupid eye is supposed to do all the work when I have cataract surgery (I have no date yet) and it’s being naughty. I am going to rest it but in order to do this I need to extend my wearing time on my good eye.
I went to see the Optometrist yesterday it’s a long drive and my day went thus.
“We can’t find your notes we will just have a quick look”. “Ok everything looks absolutely fine.” I might add this was following 4 phone calls two of which left me on hold for 35 minutes I was first in the Q so I assume it was an empty room with a ghost phone another one to a different number where a message was left and not passed on and as a result of one yesterday no notes and...we thought you were an emergency you are not.

So why does my lens feel like I have an eyelash in my eye all the time I can only stand it for 2 hours at most? “No idea leave it out for a few days”.

So to reiterate if I leave the comfy one out for an hour how long would you think I can extend the time?
Why would a well fitting lens that isn’t damaged always feel like it has something wrong just think “I know I’ll stick a cornflake in my eye.”

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Lia Williams
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Re: Contact Lens wearing time

Postby Lia Williams » Tue 18 Jun 2019 7:39 pm

Anna Mason wrote:If I wear my lens for a number of hours and then have a break for say an hour do you think it is reasonable to extend this time. ”

This is a difficult one. Eight hours isn't very long and I guess that there would be days when you would like to extend the time. I think in your case I might be tempted to have two five hours spells with a few hours in between and see how it goes, but I think that "without permission" it is probably best not to do it to often. It is after all the long term health of your good eye that you need to preserve.

Anna Mason wrote:So why does my lens feel like I have an eyelash in my eye all the time I can only stand it for 2 hours at most? “No idea leave it out for a few days”.

If it has been comfortable in the past leaving out for a few days may help - but I have found that this only works if I leave it out for a few days without putting in for an hour each day when I really want to see with both eyes.

If it is a new lens you could have a similar problem to that which I had a few years ago. The lens was initially comfortable but after three weeks became totally intolerable (like getting soap in one's eyes) after an hour's wear. The eye would recover over the next couple of weeks while I left it out, or wore an old lens of a different design, and then the cycle would start again. And I could never time its misbehaviour with a visit to the hospital contact lens department. Why the lens caused such agony I don't know but eventually the problem was solved by piggybacking with a soft lens underneath.

Lia

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Anna Mason
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Re: Contact Lens wearing time

Postby Anna Mason » Tue 18 Jun 2019 8:30 pm

Thanks it’s not new and I have just realised I had a little bit of discomfort when I first had it 2 years ago.
I left it out for 3 days and it was horrid after 2 hours. I will struggle on.
It’s really tricky. I cooked tea with no lenses in last night and that was challenging.


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