Can't Wear Contacts

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Simon Hare
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Can't Wear Contacts

Postby Simon Hare » Sat 02 Dec 2006 3:14 pm

I have tryed on three different times over the last 6 years to wear the hard contacts that will help me loads, but my eyes reject them straight off, my eyes water and try to get the lens out immediately, if i struggle on, my eyes are sooo watery that i cant see, so the fix needs a fix lol

i am very reluctant to try again, but glasses no longer help me, i find that i look over/under them to read lol, so i dont know what to do, nightmare.

has anyone else had similar discomfort? or am i just a winger that needs to grin and bear it??

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GarethB
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Postby GarethB » Sat 02 Dec 2006 3:57 pm

I did have a reacton to contact lenses 18 months ago and after six months of trying differnet things found a simple thing like a healthier diet, cutting out any dieretic drinks such as caffeine or fruit juices and drinking at least 2 litres of water made a big difference to how long I could wear lenses. It doubled my wear time from 1 hour 2 two!

Then I tried with the help of the hospital many different eye drops and we found Systane by Alcon worked for me. innitially it was using driops every two hours but as the effect built up I managed to wear lenses for 12 hours which I have been doing for 12 months down. 6 hours would have done me which although alternating which eye that I could see from, I would be able to drive and do my job again.

There are also soft lenses for KC, mine is well adavanced and not in the normal position, yet I have just been fitted with Kerasoft lenses (My Kerasoft Lens Fitting) which take me from not being able to see the wall the eye chart is on to 6/6 (normal) vision which will allow me to start my mtor sport again.

The other options open too you depending on corneal thickness, scarring of the cornea (if there is any) are C3R and intacs.

Intacs

Corneal Collegen Crosslinking with Rhiboflavin (C3-R)

Intacs and C3R will still probably need some sort of sight correction either with glasser or lenses, but the surface may be more amenable to having a lens on it so be more tolerable. I know people have found this to be the case.

So as you can see (no pun intended) there are still some avenues for you to still explore to get acceptable vision.

Regards

Gareth
Gareth

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Christine Wright
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Postby Christine Wright » Sat 02 Dec 2006 4:32 pm

Dear BugZ
Please see my reply to you under your entry in the "How KC affects my life" thread!
Best wishes

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Simon Hare
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Postby Simon Hare » Sun 03 Dec 2006 1:24 pm

Thank you both for cluing me up to my options, as I have mentioned before, my optomistrist has 'given-up' because i wasnt willing to try hard contacts again, with the advice i have recieved from you, i can go back to her and see what options they can offer me there.

Thanks Again

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Postby Christine Wright » Sun 03 Dec 2006 5:00 pm

That's good news - hope you have some success this time. By the way, there's one other option I forgot to mention - "piggy back" lenses, where the rigid GP lens is worn on top of a disposable soft lens for comfort. This has become much more practical in recent years, due to the high oxygen transmission of the latest soft and GP materials.

Good luck!

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GarethB
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Postby GarethB » Sun 03 Dec 2006 6:00 pm

BugZ,

Is it a Hospiat or a high street optom that is fitting you with lenses?

My high street optom does not have the facilities to deal with the more advanced cases of KC so anything needing more than a bog standard RGP lens is out which is why I was reffered to the hospital who have a wider variety of lens fitting kits and equipment to get the best fit which is often a comromise between quality of vision and lens comfort.

Most of the optoms I know have a problem when a patient demands 6/6 vision when the lens comfort is 10 times worse and the lens wear is only a couple of hours. Where as if they settled with the line above at 6/9 they have perfectly comfortable lenses thay can wear for 8 hours per day.

As is often said here, lens fitting is as much an art as a science and heavily relient on patient feedback. If the lens is uncomfortable where?

eye lid upper or lower, cornea and where on these parts of the eye. What is the discomfort sensation such as gritty, stabbing pain.

You get the idea.

Good luck.
Gareth

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Simon Hare
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Postby Simon Hare » Mon 04 Dec 2006 2:30 am

i got refered to east surrey hospital, which was miles from home, but now as i have moved is my local hospital (10 miles)

when i tryed lenses it wasnt so much that they hurt, i've always had sensetive eyes, hay fever, smoke, wind all make my eyes water, but i guess there was a gritty feeling and also i think is psychological too, i had trouble getting one out after the second or third time i put them in - ever, and i think that may have 'freaked me' a little, i paniced, my ex-wife was as helpful as an ice fire poke. lol

i like the idea of piggy-backing, i have used soft disposables before, with little discomfort, so i think i'll talk to my optom soon, guess i'll have to go to my new gp first, explain it all, again, and get reffered again.

the joys of relocating

thanks gareth, you've given me a lot of help, and alot more to think about

Si

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GarethB
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Postby GarethB » Mon 04 Dec 2006 8:33 am

Hi Bugz,

Glad to be of help.

I have found lenses hard to take out in the past and because of the work I do there is a risk of not nice stuff getting into my eyes.

For this reason I have what resembles a mini sink plunger that sucks the lens out. I always use eye drops first, close my eye and gently massage the corner of my eye and this ensures that the lens has not dried on to my eye.

It is common for us to have sensitive eyes and the eye drops I mentioned before also help me in that department too.
Gareth

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Alison Fisher
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Postby Alison Fisher » Mon 04 Dec 2006 4:22 pm

I can sympathise because I had a terrible time with my rpg's, but go on Simon, give it a go. :D What have you got to lose? But more importantly focus (no pun intended) on what you could gain. :D Hopefully you'll find a fitter who'll work with you to find something that works for you, and give you the confidence to keeping trying until they do.
grafts in 1992 and 1996

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Simon Hare
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Re: Can't Wear Contacts

Postby Simon Hare » Sat 25 Aug 2007 6:18 pm

Been gone for a while and a half, thought i'd clue you up on developements.

Firstly, I did go for another fitting of my GP lenses, and i did grin and bear it more than i ever did, i took various aspects of the advice given to me here, changed my diet, bought caffeine free coffee (or should that be coffee free coffee) and things went a lot better, until yesterday.

I now work 12 hour shifts at a taxi office, and my lenses are very uncomfortable after 8 or so hours, so i take my specs to work too. Yesterday I sat on them, d'uh! Broken beyond repair, so now i'm using an old scrip pair.

So I went to my high street opticians, and booked a eye test for today. The lovely gent that tested my eyes wore a grave face and said that he is writing a letter to my GP (Doctor) - this letter recommends a graft for my right eye, now i am a little worried.

The good news is that my left eye hasn't deterorated for over a year, and is still relatively 'normal' (when friends look through my specs they always say the left is OK, but the right is insane!)


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