Going back to Wales! ? for Lynn again!

[Sweet]

Well have just booked a ticket on the bus to go home, or rather my sister did as i couldnt see to do it! Am leaving tues afternoon and seeing my optometrist wednesday. As they have all my records for the last three years i feel happier about that. Am so concerned though about getting a new lens as i am in so much pain right now. I havent worn a lens for almost two weeks now but my eye is so painful and red when i blink. My left one is painful as well and i havent worn a lens in that eye for 13 years! Maybe it is playing sympathy lol!!

Am very worried about the journey home though. I normally go home every month but i drive, i hate buses as i get so sick. Also have no real idea how i am going to get there as i have only been on the bus once or twice, so this is going to be an adventure i will hate as i cant see where i am going! LOL!! But hopefully i will be able to see on the way back!!! And after all my adventures in the last few weeks i am sure i can do this!

Just hoping i wont be in too much pain to try a new lens, i know rest is needed but so is my sanity! And i just dont think i can take this blurred vision and lack of make up for much langer lol. i know that only girls here will understand that, but i hate not being able to see my face to put any on!!! Gee have been outside seeing people for two weeks with no paint on, god forbid a nice man passed by LMAO!!! (Joking aside it is driving me mad, but for more reasons than seeing to put make up on!!!!)

Lynn thanks for all of your advice, i really thought i was going mad, or even worse blind. Did panic for the first week, now am in the tihnking that i CANT go blind, im only 28 and i have loads more to do yet! So am feeling more optimistic about everything so thanks for that

Thanks also to everyone who posted and sent a pm, that was really sweet and meant a lot. It was so good to hear that others have gotten through this as well, sometimes you forget that this happens to many people not just yourself! It also helped to know i wasnt going insane, or at least not alone!! Hehehe

Am thinking of spending at least a week at home so that i can wait for a fitting and get it all done properly. I phoned work today and she was lovely, even to the point of mentioning having some of my annual leave back as i was off sick!! How generous and supporting is that, and you hear such bad things about the NHS LOL! So everything is good

So ... if i dont post before tues ive gone to visit sheep land in the great country of Wales lol, or as Lynn said will be lost in the wilds LMAO Either way im sure a nice welsh birdie will point me in the right direction back to London when i can see again hehehe And to think that a ticket only cost me £7 as it was short notice, but more planning and i could have gotten it for a £1 I mean a WHOLE POUND!!! That is way cheaper than petrol and i dont have to pay almost a fiver for the bridge! So when i complained about DVLA (am still waiting to hear) maybe i should take it all back!

So ... (I am going now before you fall asleep on me as this turned out to be my life history!)

Diolch yn fawr, da boch chi!
(Thank you very much and goodbye!)

Smiling sweetie ... Claire X x X

[Lynn White]

You go girl!! ( a Trini phrase!)

Claire...
weird as it may seem, the fact your eyes are painful is music to my ears.. it confirms the swelling has gone.

When you have oedema (swelling) it presses on the nerve endings thus creating an anaesthetic effect.. when this wears off, your eyes often become more painful than before.. a bit like pins and needles..

Make sure you discuss the best material options for any new RGP's you have made up - stress the discomfort you have been having. If you are doing a refit ... go for the best you can!

Say hello to the sheep for me!!

Lynn

btw... my maiden name was Parry ... originally came from good Angelsey stock..though that was a couple of generations ago.. but always did think of myself as Welsh lol!

[Sweet]

Thanks a lot for that! I will put up with being in pain then as that is a really good thing! Why didnt they tell me that, would have saved me worrying lol! But is is ok, paracetamol and tylex are very good Nurses are never short of pain relief! Hehe

LOL On the name, you can be welsh if you want!! My name actually is sweet, and its cornish which works for me lol. I have to say though as i didnt pick the name, but was born with it, i can be excused for giving the wrong impression about me!!! LOL!!! It is just a ploy to trick people into thinking that i am really sweet!!!!!!! LMAO!!! But hey ... it works for me!!!

Thanks again for explaining in english! Goodnight!" Claire X x X

[Sweet]

Hi Lynn

(Sorry didnt want to start new topic am taking over the board!)

Sorry again, loads of questions, im sure you are tired of me asking anything now!!! Hehe, it has been noted by a couple that i post loads but i guess everything is ok until you have a problem, and then your whole life falls apart, which is what has happened to mine!!

Anyway ... was just thinking, am doing too much of that lately, maybe its because i cant see to do anything else! Just wondering if now is the time to change to a different lens?

I know i said i am happy with my optometrist in wlaes and i am, that hasnt changed. But this isnt down to the lens i wear, this is because they are open and honest with me and i get seen quickly and can ask questions. This is something i have lacked in a few places i have been to.

I have had pain and redness though for the last two to three years and this hasnt changed though my rgp has! I have had refittings about every couple of months, though obviously not last year as i have been in London. I have had a really small lens and one a lot bigger to try to get over a drying problem and for better comfort but nothing works. I have tried loads of eye drops, viscotears, artificial tears and am now back with systane with no real help. I was told before i left to go to London that i am probably at the end of wearing rgps and so on the list for sclerals, but as Wales is a little behind i didnt have any other choices, and kinda though i would hang on for sclerals, not thinking it would be a year wait!

I am hoping though that things have changed back home in a year and that maybe i can try something else?!! Hehe, and yes sheep do fly!!! I know it is not a lens problem but a problem with my eye lol! And also the time i need to wear a lens for. I work 12 hour shifts about three to four a week, and only wear t to work, but nights are the killer, as i work seven 12 hour nights in a row and then have a week off. This means that i am usually tired and seven nights are a nightmare, especially with the AC .

Its just now i have come to a crossroads, as i would be lens free for two weeks tomorrow so maybe i can try a different lens? I know i am going back to wales, but only because they have it on record how many lenses i have tried and fittings, and i guess it is easier than me going somewhere new and telling them that which would be hearsay! We have patients all the time who say they have tried everything, when maybe they have only had two tablets when there are five, and im sure that as an optometrist things are the same! Me saying ive tried all rgp lenses is a little far fetched but i think i have. Im just wondering what do i think is going to change now?? Also as this is hopefully going to be a spare one until i get sclerals maybe the time is right to try something different?

I was reading that you need time free from lenses to try soft ones, but does depend as well on how advanced KC is as well? Maybe i have passed it, just never tried anything else, but almost 13 years of rgps

Also last thing lol! If i had oedema and the cornea changed as i wasnt wearing a lens, would this have changed as well if i didnt have any swelling but just left my lens out? (Though why i would do that vouluntarily i dont know!) But just wondering, as does this mean you have to wear a rgp pretty regularly to see?! Hmm ... just wondered!

[Lynn White]

Hehe.. Claire...

Right - yes, if you had just left your lens out it would have changed anyway and yes you do need to keep wearing your lens to see.

You have correctly identified your problem as dry eye and the length of time you have to wear your lens when you are doing seven nights at a stretch. Whatever lens you wear, with dry eye - this is a problem.

With RGP's - the problem is made worse because the tear film basically supports the lens. With smaller lenses, the lids are lifted away from the cornea so the gap between the edge of the lens and the edge of your cornea tends to dry out anyway.

Soft lenses can be a problem with dry eyes because they actually need a certain amount of fluid to remain hydrated. One of the reasons the Kerasoft is good is the material - it resists drying out because it holds its own water. However, you can get other soft lenses made in this material as well.. so they could be used in a piggy back system.

There are also lots of other RGP's available and some in now very advanced materials which behave in some ways more like softs.

So yes, you do have more options which you could do well to capitalise on now that you have been lens free for two weeks. You have nothing to lose by experimenting. If an optom had told you to leave the lens out by choice, so your eye could be re-assessed - you would have laughed in their face. But now you have for other reasons, just take advantage of it!

Some people do have wearing time issues with sclerals - as can be seen from these boards - so it would be good to have a backup - you could wear it when travelling to and from work for example.

Talk to your Welsh optometrist as a start and see what they think and say.

I am always here to answer questions lol...

Lynn

[Sweet]

Lynn

Thanks for that! Makes me think i am doing something right! Even though two weeks has almost killed me!!!! LOL!

Yes i would have laughed if i had been asked to leave my lens out for two weeks!!!! God forbid!!!! Maybe that is why they have never asked!! LMAO!! I guess i can be very assertive when i want to be, and maybe they were afraid of what i would say!!! Hehehe, not sweet anymore!

But ... now that i have had to leave it out, now is a good time to try something else, kinda like a spring clean! LMAO!!

I will ask about kerasoft lenses and see what they say, im sure that even Wales has moved on in a year!!

Thanks for answering all my questions, i guess the way i see it now is that if i ask questions i will get answers and then i can make more informed decisions! And it is my eyesight after all!! As nurses we try to get patients to be more proactive in their care and treatment, i guess i need to take this to heart as well! Just glad i can come here and torment you with ten thousand questions!! LOL!!

And on that note ... just a quick one! hehe But now im a litttle confused, as sclerals dont touch the cornea of your eye do they? So how does that enable us to see as i thought that was why we wore lenses in the first place? to make the cornea flatter? And also if it doesnt do this, does it mean that the cornea will change all the time? I mean does it help that rgps flatten it so maybe stopping it from changing as qyuckly if that is what they do? Or am i totally wrong snd your cornea will change anyway regardless of what lenses you wear?

..........

(Ok maybe it wasnt so quick after all! LOL!! Just over thinking, maybe i need to get back to work and have something to do!!!

Thanks again ... Claire X x X

[Lynn White]

Oh Lord Claire!!

OKay...

Scerals have a properly curved front surface so refract light properly. When they are on your eye, the gap between the cornea and the back surface of the lens fills up with tears - so this tear layer acts like a lens itself, neutralising the irregular shape of the cornea. Hey presto - you can see! Now, at the risk of confusing you... you can have some residual astigmatism showing through from the lens inside your eye which is why some people who wear sclerals need to wear glasses over the top.

Yes, in the past it was thought A Good Thing that RGP's flattened the cornea (pushing the cone back and stopping progression) but now that theory is sort of out because too much pushing back can cause scarring and doesn;t really halt progression because if you take out the lens, the cornea will go back to where it would have been anyway... if you follow me. As I think I said somewhere else.. when in Trinidad..I saw a lot of advanced KC that had never sniffed a contact lens and there was very much less scarring.

Thing is as you know from nursing.. a lot of things are not discovered until years later...

Softlenses come in between - they do reshape the cone but much more gently than an RGP. It is not known if this will have any scarring effect later on in years... but they have been used for quite a few years now and so far so good.

hmmm ... I think the break has actually been quite good for those leetle grey cells as Hercule Poirot would say! You would otherwise have been too busy to think of all this!!

Lynn