Scleral Advice..

[Eddie]

Hi,

I'm new here (hola!) although I've had KC for a few years now (about 13/14 I think, I'm 32) and although I don't think my KC is that bad, I've been through almost every contact lens available to me.

Just to fill you in I've had standard hard lenses, small hard lenses, soft lenses, piggy backs, large hard lenses with holes in them and more recently, my favourites, soft perms.

If anyone isn't familiar with them, soft perm lenses are small rgp lenses with a soft lens skirt - you get the vision you need from the rgp with the comfort of a soft lens.

I guess I am difficult as I have a lot of problems keeping my eyes fluid - I soon get tired of lenses, not because they are uncomfy from the start, they just dry out on me.

Unfortunately, even though I really get on well with the soft-perm lenses, my optometrist (Sussex Eye) wants/needs/is forcing me out of them because even though they are really comfy to me, they are promoting vessels in my eye which are approaching the cornea (scarey!)

So on Friday I was fitted with the amazingly large (do they really fit on my eye!?) Scleral lenses. I'm wearing them now as I write and all I can say is they are different - especially when you try and put them in.

Basically I am posting to 1) say Hi! (Hi!) and 2) ask anyone's advice on the lenses.

I'm not 100% confident with them at the moment and my eyes. although resonably comfy, are a lot more red (especially at the edges of the lens) to normal.

Has anyone any tips on Sclerals including how to get them in every time without a single air bubble?!

Phew, I'm blubbing on. Thanks in advance for your replies..

[Andrew MacLean]

Eddie! Good to see you.

I wore a scleral in my left eye until it became too uncomfortable. Mine had a "fenestration" (based on the Latin for window, and in this context meaning opening or hole) just beside the cornea.

The fenestration meant that I had to work pretty fast to put the lens in before the saline drained away!

1 I'd fill the lens with saline. (I really do mean FILL)
2 I'd bend over so that I was looking directly downwards into the saline filled lens.
3 I'd hold my upper eyelid back and put my eye into the saline filled lens, tucking the lens under my upper eyelid.
4 I'd hold the lens against my eye while I drew the lower lid round the lower rim of the lens.

Then, if I was very quick I could squirt saline out through the fenestration by blinking.

I didn't really ever have any problems with bubbles.

It is really good that you found the site. Let us know how you get on with the Sclerals.

Yours aye

Andrew

[jayuk]

Eddie

Welcome to the forum!

An welcome to the Scleral club lol!

Getting Scleral Lenses in without bubbles is an art but once you have mastered it thats it! I think majority of people who have had them will have had the same issues as you are concerned about.
If you do a search on Scleral on this site there are many posts on this and also many suggestions from people on how to put them in, some conventional and some lets say unconventional

But the trick is, fill the lens to about 3/4 with Saline, stand up or sit down, lean forward, put your chin on your chest, look down, pull the top lid up and insert the lens then look straight ahead!

Sounds easy hey!.....but does take a while to master!

You may want to try Celluvisc as well when inserting the lenses as this will help with the comfort, lubrication and possibly hydration of the eyes; however one practice I always did was to take them out half way through the day, wait a few minutes, then saline them up and insert them back in!

They will take time to get used to.....probably about 2 weeks......

Hope that helps

[Eddie]

Hi Andrew, Jay..

Thanks for the replies - gives me the confidence to carry on with them. My soft perms are crying out shouting "wear me, wear me" and i'm very tempted!

Fenestration was the word I was thinking of I've previously had fenestrations in some large rgp lenses but thankfully not in lenses that I had to fill with saline first!!

What kind of saline do you fill the lenses with - I've been supplied with one use saline packs - a new one each day which I believe I can get on prescription. I've been advised against using standard saline because its not sterile for long, and 'spray' saline only promotes bubbles..

Thanks again for your help..

[jayuk]

Eddie

I know what you mean! I wore SoftPerms during 2000 - 2002 and I loved them. Luckily I had no issues with the vascularisation; but had to stop wearing them as they didnt make them steep enough for my KC.

As far as Saline goes, I used Amidose.....but in all honesty any unbuffered saline solution will do.

J

[Andrew MacLean]

I just bought whatever Saline was cheapest at the time. Seriously, I'd always defer to advice from Jay on these things.

[Eddie]

Hi all,

OK, third day with them this morning. Cleaned the lenses with MiraFlow cleaner (the best at zapping the baddies apparently), squirted them with Saline to get all the cleaner off, dried my hands, added Saline and put them in my eyes.

Slight discomfort after putting them in but new lenses so discounted it. However, within a few mins they had clouded up and although I could get focus, it was like looking through fog.

I took them out with the view of trying again but I still had the blurryness. It went after another few minutes and needing to get to work and worried about it happening again I put my softperms (mmmm) in.

Any eye-dear (sorry) why I would have got the cloudyness - did I not get rid of the cleaner correctly (I did give them a good clean). I did notice some cloudyness while wearing them yesterday, but it lasted a minute or so and was only in one eye.

Hmmm, confused. Any help appreciated. I have a squint op on Wednesday so will probably leave them out for a while but any suggestions/advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Ed

[Andrew MacLean]

Could it be condensation on the inner surface of the lens? I know that this can occur.

If I were you, I'd make tracks to the prescribing optometrist to ask, but if it were me, I'd get there, put the lens in and there would be no cloudiness.

A

[jayuk]

Eddie

That seems to be pretty fast in terms of the clouding!

I would get the lens in the eye looked at.....it could be a number of things......another thing...when you put the lens in do you put anything into your eye? ie saline etc before?

[Andrew MacLean]

Eddie

I'll be thinking of you on Wednesday. all the best.

Andrew