Contact Lenses query...

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

I have worn contact lenses for well over ten years now.. started off with Specsavers monthly disposables, then a couple of years ago, when I had a small corneal ulcer, the opitician advised I either stop wearing them (!!!!! Not bloody likely! !!) or go onto daily disposables. So, at double the price, I did so.

Today I had a bi-annual full eye check and she commented on my red left eye. I hadn't noticed it felt sore and told her my eyes are often a bit red as I am always so tried (sleep deprived.) She checked it out extra throughly (with yellow dye etc) and said the blood vessels are a bit big and my eye is 'not very happy', which indicated that there is not enough oxygen getting to my eyes, especially since I wear my lenses constantly except when asleep. (6.45am until midnight or 1am approx!). So she has told me to go for a contact lense check at the first available opportunity (Wednesday!!!!) and to WEAR MY GLASSES UNTIL THEN!!

Obviously, I am doing as I am told as won't compromise my eye health depsite my serious aversion to glasses (it's not just vanity.. really!.. it's that I HATE the feel of glasses.. always have.. and the feeling now, after a decade of contact lense wearing, of not having 20/20 vision - ie not being able to see 'round the edges' actually makes me feel quite disorientated!

I asked what would be the effects, theoretically, of ignoring her advice and she said the blood vessels would grow more and grow over the cornea towards the pupil! And that this would affect my vision.

She said I can have a new kind of lense.. actually cheaper than the daily disposables, that allows oxygen to pass through much better. Although these come with solutions etc again which I hadn't had to deal with since getting rid of the monthly disposables. But I can't get these until my appointment for the lense check obviously.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem with their contact lenses?

SJ x

[stitch]

yes!
i started out wearing the contacts that were made to be left in for up to three months at a time! though i was told to take them out every night. but sometimes id just forget, or id be lieing in bed and it would be just too much trouble to getup and take them out. although i only did this the first year or so.
well, like yourself, i was wearing them all the time, except when asleep. and sometimes a nap on the sofa meant id sleep on them for a while as well. i noticed that when i took my lenses out, there would still be a circle around the cornea. and i couldnt read the car number plate at the correct distance. so i went to the optician. he told me i had the problem you describe, and that if i didnt stop wearing them immediately, for at leats a year, to allow the blood vessels to drain, id be in danger of going blind!

so i did. actually ended up being several years as i get very dry eyes when pregnant, and cant wear them, the blood vessels have drained now, but they are still there. cant be got rid off. i wear dailies now, and rarely keep them on all day. have even been known to put on a pair in the morning, wear them for a few hours, then chuck them , and wear a fresh pair in the evening if going out. expensive, yes, but i think my vision is worth it.
sorry its so long

[Hulababy]

I have to make an appointment; this has remonded me.

Like you I also had monthly disposables originally and I also got an ulcer on my eye. How painful and scary was that!?! Took ages to clear up, and the drops every hour for first 2 days - eek! As a result I also changed to daily disposables.

I get tired eyes from my lenses - wear them all day every day, bar sleeping. Opticians said I have dry eye and should use drops regularly.

Not heard to the other lenses; will be interested to hear more when you have been.

[NotQuiteCockney]

I think the lenses they're recommending for you are gas permeables. Which are much better for your eyes, but I never got on with them. (They hurt.) Some people are very happy with them, though.

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

Stitch, these lenses I am supposed to be getting are quite new.. perhaps they would suit you better than dailies? They let a max. amount of oxygen in apparently.

SJ x

[stitch]

thanks jess, let me know when you find out.

eyesight is just toooooo important to faff around over. i found out the hard way. please do whatever needs to be done, even if that is going back to glassses.

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

NQC no they are not gas permeables as these have been around a long time.. and are not disposable. I think, from what they described, that they are a new type of 'gas permeable'. Will let you know. Am actually going to call in tomorrow - early as I am in town anyway - to see if I can get a cancelled appointment.

Hulababy, they might suit you too. They are only £13.50 a month. I have been paying £20 for dailies..

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

I will stitch don't worry. I hate glasses.. but not that much.

Cripes I have made myself sound like a Specsavers ad now haven't I.. I will probably get banned...

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, well, I'd be curious to know about them, then. I wore contacts for years and years ... 10? More? And I always wore them from getting up to going to sleep. I had some blood vessel damage like you've got, and then something really weird happened - I kept getting tears in my lenses, over and over, always the same eye, always the same place in the lens. The tears hurt. And the opticians (Specsavers!) didn't seem interested in working out why this was happening, they just kept giving me a new pair of lenses!

So I gave up, and now I wear glasses. I do miss contacts, though.

[MrsFogi]

Jess, I got this problem about 4 years ago as I had been wearing contact lenses constantly during my waking hours since the age of 12 (I hate wearing glasses with a passion). I had some fairly serious blood vessels growing into my eye. The optician that first noticed it simply told me that I had to wear glasses and would only prescribe a small number of daily disposables for me to use while doing sport - so I spent a few very depressing months back with my mega-thick glasses. I then moved to France where I went to an opthalmologist (opticians only sell glasses in France you go for check-ups to a real doctor and in this case he was also an eye surgeon) who I explained my history to (love of contact lenses, depression at having to wear glasses etc). He went through his book of contact lenses and picked out the most oxygen-permeable lenses available (focus night and day monthly disposables which he prescribed on the basis that I would wear them like dailies and not sleep in them (there are lenses with an even higher permeability but as I have such a strong prescription these were the most permeable that actually run to my prescription)). So I was back to being very happy again in contact lenses and have since moved back to the UK and on each check up in the UK the optician has been happy that the blood vessels have emptied out (they don't disappear they just empty out) and that this set-up works (pity my original optician didn't have the imagination/couldn't be bothered to come up with this).

[merryberry]

me too. have been wearing contacts for 21 years. have had couple of warnings about the oxygen blocking and cured it by going back to glasses. depressing yes, but worth it. have been wearing highly gas permeable since they came out and no recurrence since then. but i would say from my experience, have a rest from them entirely first.

[stitch]

i wear focus toric dailies. cost 32 pounds a month for twenty pairs!

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

AH.. so you (very helpful, knowledgable) people would not recommend, then, that I go to Specsavers first thing tomorrow, as I planned to, and see if I can get a cancellation in the contact lense dept? (Or order to get my check up AND my new lenses immediately?)

Thinking about it, it was the contact lens person on the phone who I DID explain the situation fully to, who said I could try coming in the morning. The optician herself said go without for a few days until your appointment - knowing the first one I would be able to get would be Wednesday.

Neither seemed to think a lengthy period of 'back to glasses' was necessary.. or at least didn't mentioned it. I don't want to take chances with my eyes. But I feel as MrsFogi - find glasses totally depressing.. feel ugly in them (don't much like the way I look anyway but contacts give me some confidence) and have trouble looking people in the face wearing glasses! Stupid I know.. it's a self psychological thing obviously..

How come I never knew about this blood vessel thing before then?! And I thought everyone had blood vessels in their eyes anyway??!!! Wh do they 'grow' through lack of oxygen??!

SJ x

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

And I don't have any noticeable symptoms of anything..(optician said this was good).. did any of you, with the blood vessel problems? My eyes are often red on and off.. I can't even really see the 'redness' she was referring to...

[NotQuiteCockney]

I expect different Specsavers branches are different. I hope. The couple of branches I dealt with all sucked.

I have had better experience with an independent optician. They were more pricey, but better.

In Canada, it's like in France. Well, you can deal just with opticians, but if you need more serious care, e.g. if you are at risk of retinal detachment etc, you see an opthalmologist. To be fair, though, opticians here are much more thoroughly trained than opticians in Canada. They do the tests that only opthalmologists do in Canada (retinal dilation, that kind of thing).

Oh, and I had the blood vessel problem despite using contacts that were meant for weekly or monthly wear, and never leaving them in overnight - just using them as MrsFogi does, as super thin daily wear contacts. I expect soft contacts have improved since I went through all this, though.

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

Afraid it has to be Specsavers - or the like (think there are alternatives now) - for me due to financial situation. Am just mulling over whether to try to get seen in the morning.. or wait until my proper appointment on Wednesday thus giving my eyes a 4 day rest..

[PoofieWuddle]

Jess I cannot wear daily disposables either because my eyes are too dry and they don't let enough oxygen through but I wear the high water/oxygen ones and find them very comfortable.

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

Thanks Poofie.

As it turned out, I didn't get there (to Specsavers)this morning anyway (to see if they could fit me in with a cancellation) as my dad had a fall and I had to rush round to his.. so it's glasses until Wednesday at least!! (Think the fates pushed my poor disabled dad off his chair in order to give my eyes a few days rest with no lenses, lol!)

SJ x

PS God I HATE glasses! They are same presription as my contact lenses but I SWEAR I can't see as well with the buggers!! And my hair won't sit right with them! (I have a fringe that is kind of cut to one side.. trendy.. but now totally ruined by my frumpy old specs! )

[jinglybits]

yes, my mum had enlarged blood vessels and had to wear gas permeable ones. now she wears some that you put in at night and take out in the morning (novel i know!) and loves them. so all day long she can see without wearing anything or getting that dry feeling at the end of the day. talk to hunkermunker she uses the same so could explain better than me, theres a thread about it somewhere in history!

[jinglybits]

\link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=138&threadid=66789} here

[jinglybits]

oh pants !

[loubag]

Jess - you are making me feel quite guilty!I am meant to try not to wear mine one day a week or at least, one evening, but I know what you mean about the hair-thing!And my lenses appointment is overdue

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

Loubag, GET IT SORTED! (No as in 'I'm suffering (in my glasses!) so others must too!) lol.. but because your eye health really IS important! Better to be able to compromise with lenses AND glasses (alternately or whatever) than be MADE to wear glasses forever! And much as I hate my glasses (believe me I do!) I would wear them forever and never touch another contact lens if I actually got told my eyesight was at risk.

SJ x

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

Thanks for the link Jingly.. have read with interest

[JESSnutsRoastinOnAnOpenFire]

But Jingly.. what is the purpose of wearing a certain kind of lens to SLEEP in??! Are they some kind ot treatment then?

[jinglybits]

well as i understand it it reshapes your eye and so you can see correctly when you take them out but the results are only temporary and so you have to wear them every night, although apparently when you have been doing it for a while it's o.k to miss the odd night. doesn't work perfectly for all people, some still have small sight inperfection and need glasses for driving for example