how easy do you find eye drops

[ruralrob]

Hi everyone ,here we go again with another question !
Well so far really pleased with how my eye is settling down after the graft on thursday ,thankfully the light sensitivity appears to have eased off alot and the swelling is going down abit .I am seeing the surgeon this morning for a check up .One thing I am having problems with is putting my own eye drops in .My wife is there to do it for me if I want ,but I am starting a new job soon so I have to get used to doing myself .Can anyone offer any tips or is just a case of keep practising and it will get easier ?

Thanks in advance


Rob

[longhoc]

Hi Rob

Yes, they are a pain to get right. The only advice I can offer is to, as you say, keep practicing. There's a couple of different techniques, hopefully the staff at hospital went through these before you were discharged (they are usually on the patient information leaflet which should accompany the medication you've been prescribed too). Let me know though if you've just been left to your own devices as I can describe them if you need.

Eventually, after much trial and error, you'll get the hang of it. Frustrating or what, though ?!

Best wishes

Chris

[ruralrob]

Hi Chris


Thanks for the reply .The doctor did show my wife the best way to put them in ,but as I said before I am starting a new job soon and as I need to put them in regulary I want to be able to do them myself .I have read on the net the easiest way seems to be to make a pouch and put a drop in there (easier said than done when you cant see lol )its also very hard keeping your eye open when you know whats coming .I'm sure I will get there with practice and its a small frustration for the difference this has made allready .


many thanks again


all the best

Rob

[Andrew MacLean]

ruralrob

It's a question of making a little reservoir for the drops: pull out the lower eye lid so that it forms a sort of pocket. Drop the meds into the little pocket and blink.

Sounds easy? it will be!

Andrew

[GrandPaClanger]

Must admit I tend to use a wall mounted mirror whenever possible. I am luck as we have one in the rest room at work. If no mirror is available then I tip my head back and hope for the best

Best technique I have come up with a mirror is
Pull the lower lid down to form a pouch
Tilt your head 45 degrees to the opposite side to the hand holding the drops

If using the single dose minims I tend to let the first drop fall into mid air \ on the floor as it will have air bubbles in and you don’t get the full dose. A quick flick of the wrist also helps dispel the air bubbles

I then bring the second drop out so it’s just hanging on to the tip. A small movemovent squeeze is enough to allow it to fall into the pouch. With the single dose minims touching the drop on the lower lid then sucks it off by a capillary action . I tended to do this knowing i was binning the rest. Not sure if you should be doing it with multi dose bottles though

WARNING: don’t touch the tip of your eye with the tip of the bottle as it spreads infection. Watch the doses of steroids as over doing it will cause other problems you don’t want (pressure problems, cataract and damage to the optic nerve). If you are Dexamathasone its powerful stuff and one drop means one drop. I have just switched to Vexol which is white so you can see it a lot easier.

i am on ten drops a day so get plenty of practise. The other thing I have to do is plan going to bed I have four lots to get in before retiring and you have to leave a gap. In the morning I shower first then put the drops in so i dont water them down.

Ian

[ruralrob]

Thanks Ian and Andrew for your reply’s, I must be very lucky at only being on 4 x 1 drop a day (at the moment) .I have been given Maxitrol which I believe is a steroid and a antiseptic combined .I have managed to get 2 drops in on my own today, although I wasted about 4 in trying to do so lol