UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi

I'm posting on behalf of my sister as she's being a computer numpty

She has been diagnosed with Acute Hydrops and is currently off work feeling very sorry for herself and light is causing her an awful lot of of pain. She's coming to see me in a week and I really wanted to take her shopping to cheer her up but I obviously don't want this to cause more pain.

So is it a good/bad idea for her to wear an eye patch given the state of her eye? Would that make things worse? Only thinking because of the light sensitive issue I though it might help.

Any thoughts/opinions welcome
Thanks

helensy

Welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear of your sister's problem. Hydrops can be painful and frightening.

Your sister would probably be more comfortable on your shopping trip if she wore some high value light excluders (sunglasses to you and me).

My optician does them in (up to) 95% light excluded.

I normally wear a pair of 90% excluders when out in the bright sunshine. These exclude too much light for driving, but as I am unable to drive at the moment this is a small problem.

I find them particularly comfortable under the bright artificial lights in shops.

Andrew

Ah okay, I believe she is on pair #2 of them after a mishap with the first pair - she said they helped a lot with keeping the nasty light out.

I think she managed to open her eye yesterday morning for the first time in a while, so the lure of shopping must be doing her some good, if only mentally.

Thanks for the advice

A good pair of sunglasses can be extremely helpful for photophobia. Polarised lenses are the best bet for cutting out those nasty rays. European standards madate 4 categories of lenses. Cat 3 are the darkest glasses you can get and still use for driving. They exclude all but 8-18% of the light. Cat 4 exclude more light (it sounds like Andrew's glasses are Cat 4) but they are deemed unsuitable for driving. You can spend a lot of money on sunglasses but thanks to the category codes you do not have to. If you buy a pair of Cat 3 glasses they will perform to that standard, even if they only cost £40. When you buy a more expensive pair you are usually paying the extra for the frames or for the durability of the lens. If you need robust frames or want to buy glasses that last, this is fair enough. But to get you through a season you can get away with spending less.
I have used an eye-patch from time to time but this has been to allow a good eye to take over when I have been unable to wear lenses. I found that it played havoc with my depth perception but was useful for reading text. Latterly I have learned to just ignore the bad eye. But I think it is an option if you have light sensitivity in just one eye.
Good luck to you both.

Thanks for you reply

Yes it's just the one eye thankfully, her other sunglasses she lost were handed in luckily - they are category 4 I think. Driving isn't an issue as she doesn't drive, it's just a case of blocking out as much light as possible. She's off to boots to pick up her drops today so is going to see what her options are and maybe try a patch to give the eye a rest if required.

I'll let you know how we get on