UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Day 1

Friday 19 Dec, 6:30pm I took out my RGP lenses and now today at 08:30 I put the soft lenses in.

We need to remember that with the shape of my coreas and the RGP lenses an element of moulding of the cornea can not be helped so it does take a week or so for the vision to stabilie properly.

This is the first 'proper' IC lens (only launched in late November) I have tried and the K3 prescription has had some major work done to it

RGP vision from my hospital appointment on Thursday 18 Dec; Left & Right was 6/4.5, uncorrected Left is 6/20 and right 6/60 but I need to be within 0.5 meter of the eye chart to see it properly!

Left eye has the IC lens and it is about 6/20 - I have had this before when doing these trials and usually vision improves.

Right eye with the K3 is about 6/9! - we must remember that we have been working on the K3 for my right eye for about 4 months since the design was finalised (earlier this year all the K3 lenses were experimental designs), but we do accept that we are pushing the K3 design for the right eye!

I can read lower on the eye chart but that is because I know what different blurs mean so numbers above are what I clearlly see. Plus typing this I am using n enlargemnt software and the PC settings are on their default and I can read the screen comfortably with no double vision.

Thanks for this, Gareth; it is going to be really interesting to follow your diary.

Andrew

Gareth

Do you still have the first KIC lens for the left eye? If so could you try that tomorrow if your vision is still blurry with this one?? I have a feeling that might give better vision.

Just to clarify here - coming out of RGP wear can make results unpredictable and these latest lenses were ordered after Gareth had been out out lenses for a short while. He went back to RGP for a short while and is now is starting again with the K3 and KIC.

Lynn

Thanks for the footnote Lynn

I only have one other IC lens which was a trial for the right eye. The thicker one for the left we binned last time I saw you and I am sure I left the other left IC lens with you in London

To be fair I only need rotate the left lens very slighty to get down to 6/9 and some of the 6/6 line. Several times today (well after 9 hours wear) the lens was momentarily sticking in that better position. So I am hopeful that as the cornea settles the rotation will come. If not it feels like a minor over refraction will suffice.

Right len was stable for the 12 hours I wore the lenses today and as with my RGP's I lost a line at the end of the day. A slight vision drop off is my cue to take lenses out to avoid eye strain and over wearing lenses. With the K3 lenses, I have found this time before vision drops off is longer so seem better suited to my dry eyes.

For a sudden switch between lenses today has been a really good start.

Below is a picture of the K3 lenses I have tried.

All are slightly differnt prescriptions, subtle changes in design, weighting, thickness, the way the lens was hydrated, machined and so on. This excludes the many times I visited Lynn and Ultravision and would get through upto 12 lenses per eye at each session to see which design modification worked best!

The process was mainly to get a lens that was stable on the eye, which diamters worked and what thickness the lens needed to be before we worked on any power on the lens.

These are the only IC lenses I have


The one from the burgendy labe is the one I wore today, the other is an experimental lens for the right eye. As mentioned above there were a couple for the left which I no longer have. I have had less involvement with developing the IC lens, there was already a fitting kit we tried to get the right lens to do the over refraction.

To date I have found the whole fitting process to be no different to RGP fitting except the lenses are so much more comfortable. At my hospital appointment I scored the lens comfort as 7/10, 10 being most comfortable. The Kerasoft is an easy 10. It would be unfair to give vision quality a score just yet as I need my corneas to settle out of the RGP's. The best fit on the right eye is for a large touch area centrally, hence the discomfort, on the left the cornea is very flat and there is a large touch area on the edges so everything still needs to bounce back.

Normal practice with going to these soft lenses would be to do on eye at a time.

Hehe Gareth!

You have a veritable museum of lenses there! I think this collection is only rivalled by another trial patient who follows these boards and who commutes between Canada and Kuwait with a stop off in London on the way. He has had bilateral CXL and needs lens stability to fly as you do to drive rally cars. We finally got 6/4 (just) with the KIC (best in RGP was 6/7.5) 2 weeks ago with the Sector Management Control KIC and he pulled this collection of past lenses out of his bag and asked if he could throw them now. I said he should keep 'em for posterity!

Thanks for the info about the left lens... that explains things. As you say, it may well settle or it may need just a final tweak.

BTW - is the car going to get an outing any time soon?

Lynn

Day 2

Still got the lenses in and have done so now for the past 10 hours. Today I have had 6/4.5 in the right eye for most the day and only now is it starting to drop to 6/6 so again another good day for the right lens.

Left still like day 1, with slight rotation I can get 6/9 and a bit of 6/6 so I am still hopeful the vision will come or at worst a slight over refractoin when we review the lenses in January.

The car might come out in January, it is on a reseve list as an extra for a film about the Queen and I have been asked by a a company making a new classic car show "Classic Gear" if my car will be available in January.

Spent most of last winter restoring the engine bay after the battery exploded and most the work done was evenings and weekends when I don't wear lenses.

Pre-battery explosion


Damage from battery explosion


After repair


But we did get the car to a Classic Car show at Euro Disney were were invited to. Ideally I need to get the back axle and prop shaft refurbished this winter before I attend and film shoots or shows.

I have a weird and wonderful collection of historic PMMA scleral lenses - maybe we should start a lens museum?
Sounds like it's going great with the lenses, Gareth - hpe it all continues on an upward curve.
Rosemary

You know I have a weird feeling when I look at a car engine you could eat your lunch out of! That is SOOOO clean! Even the exploded version!

Thanks for the update on the lenses. What is the left vision like today without having to do the rotation trick? (As in just wondering if it settling)

RE 6/4.5... excellent!

Are you allowed to say what film about the Queen?


Rosemary... sclerals are OK for a museum.. I am not sure about soft lenses though, as they dry out if the solution evaporates....!

Lynn

Day 3

Lenses in about 30 minutes and can just get 6/15 but it is blurred so better than before. This is without rotating the lens.

Right eye is 6/6, binocularly I start to get to the 6/4.5.

I think if I put the old K3 lens we sorted for the left eye in October, I would be getting 6/6 in each and an easy 6/4.5 binocular. This would give me the same quality of vision I get with the RGP's with none of the lens discomfort and I could then re-apply for my motorsport license. Might try this tomorrow or the day after

Although the lenses are larger than my RGP's I get less irritation on the onjunctiva, when I move my eyes while wearing RGP's I feel it rubbing here and this results in very itchy eyes. In only a couple of days (and I have noticed this before with the soft lenses) the feeling of dry eyes is reduced and my eye lids are far less itchy. It is hard for things to get under the lenses, so when you do get dust in your eye, the sensation is no different to that when you have no lenses in. With RGP's the dust gets trapped and it is excrusiatingly painful and usualy results in the lens having to come out for a quick rinse.

Lynn, clearly our museum would have to have special display facilities to keep the soft lenses web and in good working order, as it were.
Like the Mary Rose .... keeping her suitably humid, I mean, not that you could put her in your eye!!
Rosemary