UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

hi,
firstly thank you for everyone in the past who has helped me on here, your advice has been so helpful. after my last visit to the eye hospital im going to try some different contacts. as much as i can get by with my specs, i cant really play sports in them (at least thats what i tell myself- i may just be terrible at sports!)

one thing the specialist did want me to try though was changing my prescription on my specs, mainly the left lens. i have a few pairs of specs so have changed the lenses on one of them but the new pair feel awful, i find it so hard to focus in them, to the point that it makes me feel queasey when im reading or watching tv in them, i end up going back to my old specs. is it normal to have such problems? im not sure whether to try and stick them out or just stick with my old frames. they cost £80 to get the new lenses put into my old frames and i really like the frames. im not sure how long to try sticking it out with them or just to take them back to specsavers and ask for my old prescription to be put back in!

any help would be much appreciated,
neil

It may be that your condition has advanced to the point where specs are not going to give you sufficient correction. That said, I'd go back to the optician or my contact lens specialist and ask for advice.

All the best

Andrew

Hi Neil

The answer to this one is yes and no.

The yes part
Anyone getting new spectacles can feel the same way, whether they have KC or not. If the left lens only is changed. then it may well be that previously the left eye was not contributing to your binocular vision very well. If the change suddenly made the vision in the left eye clearer, then your brain has to integrate this image more carefully with the vision from the right eye. This can make you feel queasy, dizzy, unsteady etc.

Now, experience shows that persevering will often bring a reduction of symptoms and eventually you get used to it.

The no part
Where this will not work is if the prescription was actually made up wrong, the optical centration is not correct for you, your eye muscles simply cannot hold the two images together or the change is too great for you to get used to.

What you need to do first is to go back to where you got them made and get them to double check everything was made up properly and to check if there is anything else causing your symptoms. If all is OK, then persevere a bit more. If you still can't cope then you need to get back in touch with the specialist and explain your problem.

Lynn