Scleral lenses?

[Sweet]

Gareth thank goodness for that! Someone who can finally put other people in the whole scleral thing APART from Ken Pullum!!!!!

Sweet X x X

[GarethB]

I beleive it is possible to ask a GP for a refferal to a differnt health authority where the waiting list is shorter. However doing this, I think it is harder to get help with transport to the hospital you end up getting referd to.

One of the optoms here will be better qualified to clarify this.

[Andrew MacLean]

Sweet

Finally? Sclerals have been fitted in glasgow for years and years and years ...

Also, as Scotland is a single health area, it is possible to ask for a referral within the Scottish NHS from one part of the country to another without any penalty to the hospital or district from which you come.

An advantage of a relatively small population!

Andrew

[Sweet]

Andrew you misread me! I meant finally as in someone here posting about it!!! I am sure that there are MANY more places other than Moorfields!

Sweet X x X

[rosemary johnson]

I've been wearing sclerals ever since I was first diagnosed with KC, age about 14 (4th for of grammar school).
I am horrified to realise that was over 30 years ago!
Like everyone else who's ever tried them, I had a pink fit when I first saw one.
At the time, I thought all people with KC had to wear sclerals.
I don't know why I was sterred into them straight away - as I said above, I thought all of us had them.
They were first fitted by Keith Nelson in Birkenhead, when I lived on Merseyside.
Moorfields waiting lists, and the appointment system of loadsa people sitting in dark gllomy waitingrooms for hours, is ..... well, if it were on a radio comedy programme it would be a joke, but alas it is all too real.
Somepeople can get fitted with sclerals fairly readily; others need a lot more messing abbout, coming and going, etc.
I generally find them OK to wear - less so now because of the hay fever season, snuffle - and less so than in my youth. 30-something years take their toll.
The vision with them has been brilliant at times. It's less good now, alas, and sometimes it is easier to take the lenses out and peer at books, papers, etc from end-of-nose distance away. But I don't suppose it would be any better with other lenses - in fact, i do know that soft lenses don't stay in on their own (without a scleral piggybaacking on top.
SOmeone at MEH once tried a corneal lens - it hurt like hell and watered like niagara and I couldn't see a thing out of it. Why she saw fit to try that, i can't imagine - she certainly didn't ask me before she slapped it in, and there's no way I'd have paid for one!
As for putting them in and taking them out - when I first got the sclerals, I couldn't! - keith Nelson had to teach my mum how to do it for me before I could go home with them. THen came the day when my mum was in the bath and Dr Who starting in 10 minutes.
After these years, I've got used to it.
Good luck with them - and iwth the Moorfields "system".
Rosemary

[samba_elite]

I must say i'm finding the thought of enduring the MEH system 10 or 100 times more daunting than sticking a dustbin lid in my eye,not good news really on the moorfields front is it,ho hum.

[David Bennett]

Samba,

Having worked with Ken at MEH and in his Practice in Herts. I can vouch for his legendary skill at assessing corneas. Some of us - ok we are few and far between - do fit sclerals though!!


Best

David

Brooks and Wardman Optometrists
Nottingham

[Amarpal]

Can I just ask, are the eyes as sensitive to the light with sclerals as they are with RGPs and other corneal lenses?

[rosemary johnson]

Can I just ask, are the eyes as sensitive to the light with sclerals as they are with RGPs and other corneal lenses?

Hi.
These days, most sclerals *are* RGPs.
I've never worn any other sort of lenses, so can't compare.
However, I can say that:
1. my eyes are more sensitive to bright lights with the lenses in than without them. I've always presumed that this is because the sunlight is mroe focused and so more gets through and doesn't get lost, and the "beams" from the bright parts in my field of view are better focussed so the brihgt light spread around less on my retina, and the pain comes from the most-lit parts.
I'm told this is unusual, and that it is more common for people with KC to find putting lenses in helps reduce light-sensitivity pain because the scattering is less.
[ANy professional comment on this much welcomed.....]
2. light sensitivity gets worse if the lenses are playing up. That is, if my eyes get sore from problems of lens intolerance (caused by overuse, hay fever, colds, etc or whatever) than they are more light sensitive too.
Hope this helps.
Rosemary

[Amarpal]

Thanks Rosemary- just wanted to know if scleral lens wearers had the same problems with light sensitivity.