UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

As a person who relies on my RGP a lot, I was wondering whether it was appropriate to go abroad this year on holiday because of the beaches etc and the sand getting into my eyes! Im am sure people on this forum have encountered these kind of problems and overcome them with practical solutions?! Any advice on going on holiday and personal accounts of other people's holidays would be appreciated!

Tom

Tom...

As a person who merely has high myand has been wearing contact lenses since I was 13...(ie no KC but pretty much blind without my lenses) you learn to cope with the ups and downs of holidays.

You start by thinking you can't risk losing the things in the sea... so you go out to swim without them...

This is fine until you try and get back to where your towel is on the beach (and as any fan of Hitchhikers Guide knows,.. it is VERY important to know where your towel is!)

Then you discover that one part of the beach looks identical to every other when viewed from the sea. This is especially true if there is a strong current... you think you have swam out at 90 degrees to the beach.. but it is just as likely to be 45 derees and oh BOY are you panicked when you can't find your other half/friend/relative...

Then after you get back to the towel and kiss the ground it lies on... (thus getting a mouthful of sand which is impossible to get rid of..) you decide to put the lenses back in...

ahhh noo... this is the WORST experience anyone can ever have. Have you ever noticed how you can never, ever get rid of the last grain of sand? You can use the entire supply of bottled water that you took to the beach to rinse and clean your hands and yet you get half a ton of the stuff in your eye when you put the lens back in!

Then the wind nicely whips it off your finger just as it is about to land in your eye! And trying to find a lens in a pile of sand?? Yes well I have done it three times...!! That is when I was wearing RGP's..

Now I am in softs.. I risk going in the water with them in. I avoid high rollers...(waves that is) and swim with my head way out of the water... at least I can find my way back.. I use plenty of comfort drops, applying liberally and sunbathe with a hat over my face.. so my eyes don't dry out so much.

My worst experience was in Gran Canaria when the first day there I went to admire the dunes.. got a faceful of sand and next morning my eyes were stuck together because of conjunctivitis... the rest of the holiday was spent squinting through a pair of untinted glasses through my fingers..

Did any of these experiences stop me going on holiday??

Not on your life!!

There is more to holidays than beaches - its the company you keep!

Go for it!

Lynn

Tom,

I regularly visit my brother on the south east coast and take my daughter on the beach. To overcome sand and on hot days sweat getting in my eyes and under the my lenses, I have dark safety glasses which are only £7 designed for outdoor use. O now have no problem with wind or dust in my eyes and they provide UV protection too.

At a few outdoor events I have recently attended I have had people ask where I got them and even sorted them out with a pair!

I also have what I call my emergency eye kit which has a small bottle of all the esential solutions and a mirror so if I have any problems I just take the offending lens out and find a suitable place to clean it such as a friendly cafe and clean it at the table. So far not dropped a lens in my coffee

As for swimming, my wife is six feet tall and my duaghter at five is very load, so I can usually locate them after a swim. If with my brother, he keeps an eye on me just in case I loose my bearings in the blur that is not wearing lenses. I have found cafes the ideal for taking lenses out prior to a swim and then for putting them in again. No wind or sand but a plentyful supply of water to clean your hands with.

This helps me, perhaps some will be of use to you too.

why not go somewhere without sand?

i find being abroad on holiday no different than this country, live in sunglasses as very light, dust, wind sensitive, as i think most of us are.

i carry a spare pair of lenses just in case i lose a lens, which happens quite regular, extra large handbag full of solutions, different grades of sunglasses.

my worst nightmare on holiday was actually in this country, we went new forest camping and at 6 in the morning our dog decides she needs to go toilet, so off i set with no lenses in walking round the campsite. after 15 minutes i look round the blur of tents to realise to me they all look the same and i'm totally lost, it took me 45 minutes to actually find our pitch and was quite stressed out by then. my solution, carry my mobile so next time i can ring hubby up to come find us, so if you want to go abroad you go for it and enjoy yourself, don't let KC rule