Blurred lens

[Sweet]

Oh dear i think i may have made a mess of this! LOL!!

After having lenses for 12 years now you would think that i would know better, but obviously not!! In my panic to see as much as i could for my DVLA visual test i decided as you do to try to clean my lens with a protein cleaner so that i could see better. Big mistake.

I ran out of saline, im sorry but i refuse to pay so much money for saline when i can get it in work, so as i ran out i decided to use boiled water. Yea, you know it is going to go bad from here.

I have used it before, im really careful, i get a nice clean pot, use cooled boiled water and add the enzyme tablet. The only thing was that this time it didnt work as well as it usually does and now my lens is so blurry no matter what i do i cant see well at all.

Just wondering, and before you all shout at me for being so dam silly! Which i know! Do you know what i can use to clean it? I have another month or so before i get sclerals, and i know that my eyesight didnt get this bad overnight as i have only just had an eyetest! But help! I cant see! (My fault i know)

Thanks, Claire X x X

[John Smith]

Hi Claire, do you really want people to call you silly?

Seriously though, anything you can give us as to how the problem happened would be useful. Was the water as cold as it could have got, or still warmer than before?

I'm wondering whether the plastic itself is affected rather than gaining a new coating...

You could get hold of some Miraflow - based on Isopropyl alcohol - which is a good strong chemical cleaner which Ken recommends for use on sclerals, so I imagine that it would be fine on normal RGPs...

Alternatively, you could try some Boston cleaner (probably a different name now) - it's the gloopy milky-white stuff - it is apparently slightly abraisive, so should help to scrape off any coatings you've accumulated.

Of course, you have checked that they're in the right eyes, haven't you...?

[Sweet]

Hehe thanks for that, and yes it is in the right eye as i only wear one!!

And yea i waited until the water was really cold.

[GarethB]

Most saline is buffered, but I can not remember if it is towards acid or alkaline! It might be that the water was cooler this time and the components of the protein tablet has precipitated on to the lens, something we can not see unless we have our lenses in! So it might be a case of another treatment with protein remover and saline soak might remove it. This combined with John's suggestion I think may well help as cold or luke warm water should not be change the plastic characterisitics.

The materials RGP lenses are made from is extremely robust.

Having been nearly in a similar situation I always have an emergency lens kit which has some saline. My eyes hate it so I use it just to clean and put my lenses into storage until I get home to the good stuff!

[Lynn White]

Claire..

Hmmmm.. what you did shouldn't have damaged the lens. Cleaning with Miraflow or with any good cleaner should help as suggested..

It is difficult ot be more specific without knowing what is wrong! CAn you get someone with good eyes to have a look at the lens surface??

Lynn

[Sweet]

Yes my sister looked at it lol with her lenses in! And it is smudged and blurry. So i just went out and bought some Boston cleaner which i used to use years ago and hoping this will do the trick.

I dont think i soaked it long enough in the protein remover tablet, i only left it for two hours. To be honest i couldnt remember how long it was for, and i had already thrown the info away!! As you do!!

Just hoping this will do the trick, as am on nights tomorrow one on one with a trachy patient and dam i need to see by then!!!

Thanks again, Claire X x X

[Lynn White]

Ahhh yes...

Sounds like you only partly removed the protein which can be worse than not removing it all..!

Try the cleaner and just keep cleaning it over and over again.. though being careful not to squeeze the lens too hard, as with your luck you might snap it!

Which does lead me to the very optometrist bossy thing about having a spare lens.....????

You know... it can be difficult to keep a straight face at some of the tales we have of contact lens difficulties..

I am reminded of the guy who wandered in sheepishly and wanted an urgent pair of contact lenses because he was getting married today and had lost them. They were very high spec (not a KC - just a complicated lens) and not something I could pull out of a hat there and then...

So I pressed him to ask if he was sure he had lost them, thinking if they had gone down the sink he could recover them from the trap (you can often get them back from there!)

He blushed and said.. well... he had had rather a rowdy stag night, ended up at a mate's house sleeping on a floor, had taken out his lenses but couldn't find anything to put them in... so carefully put them in two glasses of water in the bathroom... only to find by morning the rest of the guys.. being rather thirsty in a hangoversish sort of way...had drunk the glasses of water. He did rather feel the task of recovery was a bit beyond him!!

Lynn

[Sweet]

Laughing way too funny, and yes i have recovered them from the sink!

I do have a spare one, but tried it yesterday and with everything with my lens lately it is too painful to wear so obviously this one has been a spare too long. I ordered another one yesterday from my optometrist in wales, so am waiting for it by post.

How long does it take in the protein tsblets? Obviously more than 2 hours but it isnt overnight is it??

Thanks again, Claire X x X

[GarethB]

Sweet,

My protein remover says at least 15 mins, but no more than 12 hours so depending on what I am doing at the weekend, they get between 2 and 10 hours soaking.

The long soaks are usually when I spend time gardening as I have blinked lenses out before and they are not as easy to find as my wedding ring (had to buy a metal detector after one incident!) or when I am working on my cars as it is so dificult to see what's what on a car that it is all by touch anyway.

Lynne; there is a plus side to not having a spare lens and that is that I can get extra time off if I can not see to get to work! Public transport is a no no as a return journey would take 9 hours and four times past my house, only 1.5 hours by car door to door.

[Lynn White]

Gareth has it about right...you can leave them any length of time - even overnight actually.

Sometimes though, you remove the surface of the protein and leave the residue which can cause discomfort and blurriness...in which case cleaning again will help...

Mind you I am not quite sure WHAT you are doing Claire and I wouldn't want you to dissolve the lens!!(tongue firmly in cheek hehe)

Gareth... hmmm yes well... I hadn't actually thought of that one.. that's sneaky that is!!

Lynn