Opticians in Manchester

[Roy Roberts]

Hello there, I've just been searching for information on keratoconus and found this fantastic site so of course registered straight away.

I've had keratoconus in my left eye for about 10 years (I'm 35 now) and have worn (or should I say tried to wear!) hard lenses as prescribed from my optician. However, I find that I can only wear them for about 4/5 hours at the most and cant wear them on consecutive days as my left eye tends to cloud over in a kind of fog, which last for a few hours even after i've removed the lens. Is this normal with the condition? (as well as them being hyper sensetive all the time).
Wearing glasses is fine until it goes dark at which point I find it difficult to drive as lights from other cars or street lights etc are just like diamonds with lights all over the place.

Anyway, my optician is pretty useless so I'm trying to find one that could help in Manchester, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for your help

Roy

[Andrew MacLean]

Roy

I don't know about high street opticians in Manchester, but wonder whether the hospital does not have a contact lens clinic? Alternatively, you could ask your ophthalmologist to suggest a good KC savvy optometrist.

All the best and welcome to the forum.

Andrew

[GarethB]

Hi Roy,

I beleive the main Manchester Hospital has a contact lens clinic attached to the eye unit.

As for sensitivity to lenses it is not uncommon amongst many of us here who are ofetn the morre extreme cases of KC.

What may be happening is that you have an ability to build a layer of protein on the lenses very quickly or due to poor tear production 'goo' is effectivly building up or the lens is moving out of position to give the impression of fog.

The six month run up to Christmas 2005 I was battling a problem where everything whent sort of foggy/blurred and my lens tolerance was an hour or two.

This was finally resolved by using a lubricating eye drop (Systane by Alcon in my case). I had to use these drops every couple of hours and I have also increased the amount of watre I drink to the recomened 2 litres per day. Cups coffee, fizzy drinks do not count, it is the water that is important.

After three months I was able to wear a lens for 12 hours solid and only use the comfort/lubricating drops morning and night. I still have one day per week where i go without lenses at all just to give my eyes a break.

It would be good to get advice from an opthalmologist as well as your optomotrist you see now and give the above startegy a go.

I am still on the same lenses I got 2 years ago, the lens is always in the correct part of the KC cone and my vision is 6/5 in both eyes for at least 12 hours per day sometimes 15 hours.

Hope this helps.

Gareth

[brigid downing]

Hi

I live in Manchester and my optician has been excellent, but Manchester is a big city. I live on the South side (Didsbury) so that may or may not be near you. Are you from round are way?

MRI does indeed have an contact lens clinic (Thursdays), which I have now started going to because my right eye is proving very unco-operative. It took seemingly ages to get into the system, but once inside things improve rapidly. I would think it well worth you asking your GP for a referal - in the end they are the experts and they have all the facilities there.

It is just slow - that would be my only complaint, but then I am impatient!

Brigid

[Roy Roberts]

Thanks for the suggestions folks, I'll get onto it and get myself referred to MRI. Hopefully that will help.

It's nice to know that we're not alone and help is out there.

By the way Brigid I live in Sale, so not far away at all.

Thanks again

Roy

[jayuk]

Roy

There arent that many in Manchester....however getting to MRI is a good bet.....but if you can go further afield to Cheshire you can find a few with the experience......I guess if you dont get the service from MRI than you can always try elsewhere?......I am led to beleive that there is a Optician in Didsbury who does fit KC patients, on the high road......but I am not sure how experienced she is.........
HTH

Jay

[mike scott]

hi there
i have KC in both eyes and quite severely and was diagnosed 22 years ago. initially i attended mri eye clinic for a few years but they had to admit that my condition was worse at that time than they could cope with so they referreed me on to a guy called mr auerbach on john st in mcr (off deansgate). john st is like mcr's harley st. i had a great deal of success there however it is private and can be expensive, but cos the hospital reffered me i was still on the nhs which is cheaper for us.
anyway technology and KC knowledge has caught up a bit more and i have been back with mri for about 3 years now and go there about every 3 months. i have had about 6 new fits in that time and only been charged the once. the KC team there are truly fantastic and have seen me when i have had problems within hours on the sameday. i am on first name terms with a lot of the team and feel i recieve a really personal service.
however in the first instance you need to go to your gp and they will refer you, even your normal optom should be able to do this for you. your first appointment may take a while but once your in the system you should stay in it. make sure you have very regular appointments and keep them as i think if you dont go for 2 years you drop out and have to start again which wont be very good for you as this condition needs to be managed carefully.
yes the clinic is held on thursdays but i have to say that generally i have been seen on every day of the week.
small piece of advice, try and get the earliest appointment in the day as you can as parking is a nightmare after 10am.
hope this helps and good luck

onwards and upwards