need some hope...

[timtim]

Another question...Once you go to hard lenses, are you able to wear glasses some of the time? Do most of you get adequate vision? I like to wear contacts all day at work, and then often when I get home, I will take them out and put on my glasses to rest my eyes (and I don't need my vision to be quite as good for doing things at home).

[GarethB]

Tim,

I wear lenses pretty much all the time, but that is down to the level of KC I have. Some are way beyond the point glasses help.

It is good to rest your eyes from lenses.

With advances in high refractive materials for glasses I can now get glasses that allow me to drive again so I am no longer contact lens dependent.

In addition since joining this group ans sharing the every day things in life I have trouble with I have over come all so far that I can live equally well without lenses. Without them I am legally blind in my right eye and partially sighted in the left. I suppose the ony thing I can not do without vision is drive my cars!

[timtim]

wow GarethB, you can now get by without any lenses at all? How did you manage that if your KC is so bad?

Donna-I have read really good things about Rose K lenses. I am quite interested in trying those. So you really recommend them?

[Pat A]

Hi Timtim
My cousin lives in Jacksonville! Haven't seen him for a while though! I can "just about get by at home" with some thick soft lenses but they aren't good enough to enable me to drive - or read - can only do that with my piggy back RGP's!
Wish you all the best - hope you manage to find some comfy lenses. I'm still trying, even finding piggy-backs a bit problematical but will never give up hope - waiting for my sclerals to arrive next!

[Susan Mason]

Hi timtim

I too have had times when things were really bad. I went through stages after being diagnosed quite late first glasses, then not being able to tolerate RGP lenses. Next moved on to scleral lenses which were good for 12 months then I had a rather ropy patch. Issues at work lead to a graft being offered however, I chose not to take this option know as Gareth mentioned that most things I can do without vision correction - it's just really annoying not seeing clearly.
Anyway finally got back to the scleral lenses and the eye that I would have had grafted is now my better one (odd I am swapping and changing about) and my good eye well that is now not so good, Sadly can't drive anymore however, when it gets eal bad I expect I will have a graft and then see what happens. For now I manage very well with most things, a little slow maybe and a tad depressed at times as having driven for 20 year and been independant it takes some getting used to.

All I can say is see how it goes and yes if you are in lenses do rest your eyes when you can. Personally speaking I would say it is not natural to put plastic in ones eyes so do it to see when you need to and rest when you can.

best wishes & take care

Susan

[GarethB]

Tim,

Susans statment about not seeing properly being annoying is true for me too. That is why I was determined to do as much as I could regardless of vision correction.

How did I do it, I concentarted on what I found easy to do without lenses and built from there. Asked loads of people here how they tackled differnet situations and tried them. Some worked, some did not, ultimetly I took what worked best and mixed and matched to suit me.

I have a frined who does hospital radio, my wife and I did the show after him and he was totally blind and he would collect requests with his guide dog and then find all the CD's records and so on and put together the whole show. He had zero vision, I had some even if it was very blurred and I could see properly some of the time. So if he could lead a normal fulfilled life with vision far worse than mine and no hope at present of getting sight back I considerd it to be wrong of me to sit back and give in to KC.

Friends, role models and support are key to helping provide the will power to overcome what seems to be the impossible.