UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

The comfatability has improved over this period as has the amount of time i can wear them. I normally can wear them for about 12 hours a day. Sometimes when I blink they can suddenly hurt a lot because i think they slide down so i manually push them up with my fingers. This only happens sometimes and usually when im concentrating watching the tv without blinking for a while. Sometimes my eyes also get blurry after blinking, other times its fine, making me blink more until they are clear.

The two main things i have a problem with though is red eyes and irritation.
After wearing the RGP's for more than about 6-7 hours my eyes tend to go red, and after the twelve hour period and taking them out they are very red and I dont know what to do about this. Is this normal? I was hoping this would go away through lens wear but it hasnt. Also when i wake up my eyes are red too and this is without rubbing them.

The other thing i'm experiencing is pain, irritation in my eyes when i've awoken from sleeping or have just gotten up. Usually I awake either from the itchiness in my eyes and soreness making me rub them. Like today I awoke to tears, red eyes and a lot of itchiness and irritation within my eyes. It was irritating them like crazy. I have no idea why this is happening and never used to occur when I didnt wear RGP's. It seems to be some kind of side effect associated with them as it seems to happen randomly each morning after sleep. Like once or twice a week. The irritation goes away after about 5 minutes of being awake but its annoying. I've noticed it seems to happen more often if I go to sleep soon after taking out my RGP's rather than giving it a few hours prior to sleeping. The best way to describe it would be its similar to when you first put in your RGP's for the first time ever.

Other than this they've generally been ok, could still be more comfatable I suppose. Usually more watery my eyes are the better comfatablity they provide but this makes my vision slightly blurry at times. My tear level was fine according to the opto.

Joe

It would appear you are over wearing your lenses.

When your eyes go red after 6 - 7 hours it is a sign your eyes have had enough for whatever reason so pushing to 12 hours is not helping.

Lenses sticking while watching TV is a sign your eyes are drying out so poor tear flow means poor oxygenation of the cornea so it goes red to try and get oxygen where it is needed.

Eyes do dry out slightly overnight because tear prodiuction is less, so if you have overdone the lens wear this may exaserbate the problems you experience in the morning. It does not take long to get the tears to flow and oxygen to the corneas which is why the problem appears to go away quite quickly.

Your last line I think really makes me feel you have dry eye problem as one of the systems is watery eyes and you say this makes things feel better.

Get cecked out for dry eyes, back off the lens wear and try some lubricating eye drops too. I find Systane by Alcon work best for me. Drinking more water can help too as it is recomended we have 2 litres water per day. 2 litres of coffee or juice or fizzy drinks are not the same as they have dieretics and help the body remove the fluids you are trying to put in.

Hope this helps.

I see. I will probably get it checked out then. So I can never wear RGP's for more than 6-7 hours without my eyes going red?

Not necessarily, there was a time I could only manage an hour before that happend!

since changing my diet in that I reduced the amount of chocolate and caffeine I have, now only 2 cups decaff per day, 2 litres or water at least per day, instead of fruit drinks I have the whole fruit instead combined with lubricating eye drops this has jumped up to 12 hours per day with no problems. I take 1 day a week off wearing lenses to give them a good clean in protein remover.

I have the eye drops for dry eyes and those alone meant removing lenses after 2 hours for a top up. I could get 12 hours lens wear provided I removed them every 2 hours for the eye drops. A changein diet meant over the next three months I could back off the drops and now use them in the morning before putting lenses in and at night after taking lenses out. Rarely get itchy eyes or any eye pain.

The fact your eyes are going red is a sign things are not right, all I can do is share my experience, but you really do need to get it checked out to make sure everything is OK.

Last thing you want is to inadvertantly cause further damage to an already damaged eye due to KC.

There are also other things that can be investigated from lens fit to type of lens used.