UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

I am just curious about other people's comfort level with their RGP lenses. Does it change for you guys? For myself, somedays I hardly notice that I have the lenses in, other days I feel slight scratching sensations when I blink, and on my bad days, like today I feel like my eyeballs are being pressurized by the lenses, (best way I can describe it). I was wondering if there was a reason for comfort levels to change like that, or am I just a rarity when it comes to this. Thanks!


I love Tigger by the way. He carries his stripes proudly.
We all have our stripes.
Without his stripes, Tigger would be just an orange cat.

My comfort levels and wear time change from day to day, yesterday I took the lenses out just after 6pm because they were uncomfortable. I was tired yesterday so maybe that had something to do with it? Other days I can wear the lenses for around 14 hours with no problems at all.
The thing I am struggling with is coping once the lenses are out, my vision is pretty bad and watching tv/pc/reading all difficult without the lenses. And of course I cant drive without them either

Tigger wrote:Without his stripes, Tigger would be just an orange cat.

Wise words, indeed!

Back to topic: I used to notice the same thing. When I had a very 'bad eye' day, I'd try to give myself the next day off wearing lenses. Sadly, this was not always possible, but it was usually worth the effort!

Andrew

General well being does change lens comfort be it day to day or during the day.

My lens wear is more uncomfortable if I am tierd, using the computer too much without a break dehydrated, starting to get a cold and the most common that people experience is over wearing lenses.

Over wearing lenses may not seem to be a rpoblem, once your eye cries enough, that is it you can soemtimes have to go weeks without lenses. MAny ehre including me have been there!

As I know now pretty much what causes uncomfortable lenses I know how to avoid the problems in my case and 99% time everything is fine.

A very bouncy orange cat! He would still have his personality.

I think everyone has good days and bad days pretty much. It probably fluctuates around an average which might be 2 hours or 16. What I discovered is at the lower end of the spectrum say 2 hours, its a false kind of comfort because the 2 hours you do get are afforded by the dead cells sitting under your lens caused by an allergic reaction. Once they seep away, the buffer disappears and it hurts. So the 2 hours is not really a tolerence level and you need to think about changing something. Beyond this I would say don't be discouraged by 'bad eye days'. In my very limited experience, I would say the following things are factors if there is no problem with the lens itself:
1. Fatigue / Illness
2. Hydration
3. Allergens (including solutions)
4. Glare /Light (which stirs up the the allergies)
5. Driving / PC Work

Hope this helps

In my humble opinion i would say that Mathew is spot on with his diagnosis of factors causing lens discomfort. Dont worry you are in no way at all abnormal in your experiences, unfortunately Bad Eye Days (BED) go with the territory and over time you will find and adapt to your own management strategies, however rest assured that even after many years of wearing lenses , even the best or worst of us still over push our limits and suffer the conmsequences from time to time

stay well

Mike

The subject of Bad Eye Days often crops up here. If you're not familiar with it, please read Dr. S's wonderful article.

Thats a good article John Makes sense to me! Trouble is that the vision is so good with the lenses you get reluctant to take them out, I struggle to do most things without them so do tend to just leave them in. Unless its painful of course! Then they are removed pronto

Indeed. Of course, by then it's too late.

The idea to prevent Overwear is to remove the lenses before they start to hurt!

I always knew that there was something that I was missing!

Actually it is a fair point. I am conscious of the fact that I may have contributed to my own eventual lens intollerance by habitually wearing my lenses too long.

Andrew