Trapped In The System

[house]

Trapped In The System

Am still posting!!

I must share this with people
optoms please don't read!! look away.........


All started last year..........

Been going ok for about 22 years with contact lens and had my cornea grafts
ages ago,.....did have problems now again, as all contact lens wearers do.

Any way I started to have major contact lens problems and I would say the lens
was rubbing on my cornea or possibly tied with contacts.

Any way am under the contact lens clinic at Hospital and they said need a new lens
so that was a pay out of about £50.00 ish
took them home and still the same problem, just could not wear these!
Back to the contact clinic and they said need another lens allowing
me not to pay another £50.00+

however one of the problems of the clinic is that when ever I go
the staff change and I never get to see the same person.
(some times I do) but this time someone different every time)

any way got the 2nd new lens home and I still couldn't wear a lens for very long.

I felt not at all good and desperate and went back again to the clinic
and no body seemed to help me and ending up leaving clinic with
no result.

Getting desperate now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I decide to find a private optom and do my research
and find the best in the county where I live!

so booked the appointment and turned up any way.......
soon got questioned when the optom came out
about 'my history' and soon as they found out I was
a patient of the Hospital they wouldn't touch me.

any way (now desperate here, contacts mean sight for me!!)

So then turn up at the 2nd optician and manage to make it
in to the consulting room !!

who comes in,but is one of the optoms from the hospital
and soon sends me packing!!

( now am wanting to walk the streets to find someone to help me)

I am thinking at this point am paying you privately
to help me?? and in each case there was no examination
and I get turned away.......

So I thought go back to the contact lens clinic at the hospital
and they said you need glasses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

glasses!? never worn glasses since I had my grafts done
My cornea's still slightly out of shape never see a thing!!!!!!!

REALLY REALLY DESPERATE NOW

so book a online appoint with a leading optician
and turn up! tries to fix me up with glasses?!
and says no way ...... you can not have glasses its contact
lens for you!!!!!!!!

Despair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So thought take things into my own hands
and stop wearing contact lens for a month.....

and decided to go right back to beginning and book
a private consultation at private hospital and
get my eye checked out.

Any way got to see the consultant and says you
need a new cornea graft done........

(also I see the consultant at the hospital
with the NHS) with being a cornea gratf patient.

Any way goes back to the hospital (NHS)
and my consultant who I been seeing for a while..........
goes against the private doctor and referrers
me back to hospital contact lens clinic. NO!!

BACK TO THE VERY BEGINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

any way I decide for myself to take my contacts completely
out for another 4 weeks.

the result was a little better and returned back to
the private hospital consultation.( the story does not end here )

I am not going any further with this story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i dont think I can.........but am sure you can work out the result.

[pauline collins]

Hi House, I REALLY feel your anger & despair...I have not had the best servcie from professionals either, i too am now back to the beginning.......i wont bore you with my story it has been posted (its the one entitled Lens/ Optician Costs)..just wanted to say you are not alone!!! let us all know how you get on - a problem shared is a probelm halved......at least thats what i am trying to convince myself.....being an optomist!!

Tke care
Po

[Andrew MacLean]

House

Fitting contact lenses to eyes with keratoconus presents a unique set of challenges, and fitting lenses to post graft eyes is no less difficult.

With cones, the lens has to be comfortable, to fit over the cone, to allow movement and the free movement of tears and to give good vision.

With a graft the lens has to accommodate the characteristics of the host eye, the grafted tissue and the interface between the two. I am sorry that your own case has not proven easy to fit.

As you rightly say, under the National Health Service a lens of any sort costs around £52 (ish). If we need the lens replaced within a year, because the fit has changed or because our optical requirement has changed, then the second, third, fourth lens is dispensed without further cost. That is really impressive since some of the lenses commonly dispensed to people with keratoconus actually cost more than £1000 each.

I don't know why you said "Optoms look away", they are more aware than anyone else of the difficulties in fitting keratoconus eyes; maybe you ought to have said "any optoms able to suggest a possible way out?" You never know; they might.

Andrew

[Graeme Stevenson]

House
Yes indeed you have had a tough time.

I do think your case just goes to prove what most on here already know.

1.Continuity of care is paramount

2.The HES does have the flexibility required to treat a condition like KC in every case.

3.There very few resources where eyecare professionals can seek help or advice.We rely on personal experiences and anecdotal evidence for our education.

4.Every cone is different and must be treated as such.

5.Many eyecare professionals are frightened of KC-mainly due to a lock of knowledge and experience.

As you aluded to in another post there is generally only one person who suffers and that is the KC sufferer.

Good luck and keep posting your experiences which can hopefully help us all.

Graeme

[house]

Am use to it!!
the story got even more complex and even more
silly.
Am trapped in the system!!!!!!!