Confidences and Worries

[Bannerx]

After browsing some posts here, I have confidence in my lens and graft, howeve some worries are raised simultanously.

1.After wearing contact lens for a long time, will my eye/cornea get more and more dependent on the lens, once I take them out it 'll can not resume normal? Put differently, when I decide not to use lens anymore, will my vision deteriorate dramatically? Or will my cornea get worse astigmatism?

2.With lens in my eye, swiming is not allowed, how about taking a shower？ Is it allowed?

Thanks
Banner

[GarethB]

Hi Bannerx

1) As KC develops which can and in most cases does very slowly and often reaches a pretty much stable point. Mine has been stable with no prescription change for 2 years now. If you have good lens wear time, keep the lens clean and your eyes healthy you will put lenses in first thing in the morning and take them out last thing at night. Most people wear lenses for 8 - 12 hours per day.

My view is that dependence on lenses is down to the patient. I am dependent on lenses to drive and to work in a laboratory. Everything else I have adapted so that I can function perfectly normal regardless of my level of vision. In the UK we have schemes that help visially impared. China may have a similar thing.

If you decide to stop wearing lenses, your vision is unlikly to change dramatically. What you may experience is worse visiona s your brain has got used to seeing with lenses. However most of us wake up and the brain copes. Put lenses in for the day and then take them out it seems our vision is far worse than the morning. This is just because of what our brains have become used to during the day.

2) Swimming is allowed, but many are concerned about infections from the watre and chlorine getting trapped behid the lens causing irritation. Good water tight goggles prevent this happening so you can swim quite hapilly.

Never taken a shower with contact lenses in, I know where the soap holder is and where the tap is so does not matter to me if I can see or not. I know many who wear glasses and can not see the top line of an eye chart without them and they to the best of my knowledge never shower with glasses on.

Hope this helps.

[Andrew MacLean]

Bannerex

Never try to swim with your lenses in unless you are wearing watertight goggles. These have to stay in place, since if they move and water gets into your eye, you do not only risk an infection, but also the loss of your lens. They can just float off in the water.

Like Gareth I'd say that showering with your lens in would be a mistake.

I became increasingly dependent on my contact lenses as time progressed. It was probably my fault that I developed lens intolerance as I had taken to wearing my lenses for far longer each day than was advised.

Andrew

[rosemary johnson]

Hi Banner!
I reguarly shower with my lenses in. HOwever, I have a "shower" that is really a rubber tube attatched to the bath taps, and it only reaches as high as my shoulders, so I shower from the neck down, and wash my face and hair separately.
When I'm visiting my mum I have a shower without my lenses and wash my hair under the shower. I don't put my lenses in to shower then, because I don't want to risk getting shampoo under the lenses - it can sting rather badly!
I take my lenses out when I'm going to wash my hair over the wash basin too - for the same reason!
Hope this helps.
Rosemary

[Carole Rutherford]

Two things

1. My son was told never to shower or bath with his lenses in because of the risk of bacteria which can be found in tap water. He then asked what about rain is there bacteria in that then - still waiting for an answer to that one

2. How long is too long when wearing lenses. No one had told my son that he can wear his lenses for too long?

Carole

[GarethB]

Carole,

The answer to rain watre is No it is not sterile and can be full of bacteria.

Small insects can be whisked up into the atmosphere from dust storms and get trapped in minute water droplets too.

So by evaporation it may have started as being sterile but it soon gets dirty again.

Generally our blink reaction and the residual neanderthal brow ridge offers some protection to the eyes from rain.

[John Smith]

Rather than the threat of bacteria, I think that the tap-water threat is Acanthamoeba. From our glossary:

A free living amoeba, which can be found in tap water, making contact-lens wearers particularly susceptible to infection. It has been known to cause keratitis and sometimes, in extreme cases, blindness. Curing the infection can be difficult. Prevention is better than cure.

[Carole Rutherford]

Thanks this is helpful and informative. I know that David was given an in-depth reason as to why he must take out his lenses before bathing/showering. It probably was the threat is Acanthamoeba. But when he fed it back to me he said bacteria probably because he knows that I am thick

I did wonder about the rain water but the probability is that by the time the tap water had been explained to David's satisfaction the poor Optom gave up on the rain water!!!!

Carole

[Bannerx]

Thanks all for your informative posts. I have had my RGP lens for 2 days. It DOES help me improve vision than spectacle glasses do. But I don't see very clear the close things such as book,computer. Is it normal ? My oculist said it's normal for the first few days, but I'm afraid the lens does not fit me well.

Also the oculist told me that my Boston RGP lens can wash with tap water,whereas the soft lens can't. Is it true?

Regards
Banner

[GarethB]

Hi Bennerx

The fact your lens may not feel like it is fitting too well at this stage is more likely to be due to you still getting used to the lenses. This is why we start wearing them for a few houirs and then build up an hour per day up to a max of 8 hours. The after that is build the lens wear by an hour per week. Most specialists recomend a max wear time of 12 hours per day.

Secondly fitting a lens is much an art as it is a science and the only real way to determine the lens fit is to try it for a while. So keep perservering with the lens, the comfort may well come and then the near vision too.

When you next see your lens fitter describe all the good and bad points such as how ell you see, comfort etc and this will help in determine if the fit can be improved.

As far as rinsing/cleaning lenses with tap water in the UK we are recomended against it. Although watre is cleaned it is not sterile. Wearing a lens can provide nice places for bacteria and fungal infections to start which can be very bad to an already damaged eye due to KC.

Good hygeine is best and using the appropriate lens cleaning solutions. Mine have never seen tap water, they are always rinsed using saline.

Regards

Gareth