Trying to get used to RGPs

[Val G]

Vic

I have been wearing RPGs for over 20 years and still remember how difficult it was at first to get them in and out!
What works for me is holding the lids as Andrew suggests, but like Anne, using a mirror. A head height mirror is best, like over the bathroom sink (plug in!). Hold lids firmly, don't look at the lens, STARE at your eye as you bring the lens in. Good Luck!

Hoping to get a lens for my PK eye soon, does anyone know the average time from graft to lens fitting?

[GarethB]

Val,

The question you ask is like how long is a piece of string?

The time between my graft and lens fitting wast 16 years. Glasses were ok after 12 months and after another 2 - 4 years no correction was necessary and then 3 - 5 years further on I had glasses again until 2004 when I went to lenses again.

Each time the correction gave a full 6/6 vision.

[Michael P]

Vic, I can't add much more to what has already been said.

However, from my own experience, particularly when it comes to getting the lens out, the more frustrated (euphemism for panic!) I get, the harder it becomes.

I do hope that things improve for you.

[GarethB]

Unfortunatly much of the time when we want to remove a lens it is because the wear time is up or the lens is uncomfortable making ignoring it a whole load harder.

If you find you are in need of a plunger they are less than a pound from most high street opticians.

A word of warning, you need to make sure you are gentle in your use and that it goes completly onto the lens so a steady hand is necessary.

[Pat A]

Vic
I've been watching this thread with interest as I know how you feel! I've only had mine a couple of weeks too.
I'm lucky I guess as don't have any problems putting mine in, but I am used to putting in soft lenses - so the RGP is a doddle in comparison. Although it did take me several weeks to be really at ease with inserting soft ones. I follow Val's suggested method.
Getting it out is however a case of
trial, error, frustration and bad language sometimes! I found it easier the first few times than I am now! The blink method seems to work sometimes but not if my eyes are watery - which they usually are 'cos the little blighter hurts! I also try the "pinch" eyelids method but with this I often find it wanders across to another part of my eye when I'm trying to get it out and then I panic, 'cos I can't usually see where it is! I actually managed to do this whilst I was having my teach-in session at MEH the other week and she did show me how to massage the lens gently back into position - she told me whatever I did, don't try and drag it back as that will scratch the eye.

Keep us posted how you are getting on. Hope it does improve for you.

[Anne Klepacz]

Sweet - I hate to contradict a nurse, but isn't the use of anaesthetic drops with contact lenses a no-no? It's far too easy to inadvertently scratch the cornea without realising it if you can't feel anything. Pain is there for a purpose - it alerts us to the fact that something is wrong. No pain and we'd press on regardless and possibly do damage. Perhaps one of our friendly optoms would comment on this.
Anne

[Sweet]

Anne,

I wouldn't be saying for everyone to try it no but Vic is a medical student so she already knows what it is all about! Yes of course you can do some damage to the eye when it is numb which is why you have to be really careful.

Some practices do advocate trying nervous patients with lenses for the first time with some eye drops to numb the sensation. This is so that they can check the fit and indeed the vision which is very hard to do if the patient won't let you go near them!

I know two people who are very skilled with lenses now who first tried with anaesthetic drops in the eye clinic. I wouldn't be saying for everyone to try this at home, but then most people can't get hold of it at home either!

Vic has tried for a long time to get on with these lenses and is now more nervous about the whole thing, so it would have been nice if they could have practised under supervision with eye drops before when she first had lenses. This would have made the whole situation easier and stopped the frustration and anxiety about putting something in your eye in the first place.

Vic sorry to be talking about you here, and hoping that you do get something sorted out soon.

To everyone else, i am NOT advocating using anaesthetic eye drops at home, but i'm also aware that most can't get hold of any either without seeing a practitioner. I just think that for very nervous people who hate having things near their eyes the thought of putting a lens in is totally bad and it could be handled better. I know that some optoms do say that it isn't fair because some patients will want to use it all the time, but then it is totally unfair to have a crying patient who can't bear to go near a contact lens again Also it is not advocated with soft lenses, i'm just talking about RGPs.

Thanks

[GarethB]

Lenses sticking when the eyes are watery is due to surface tension of the tears sucking the lens down. By same token a dry lens is equally hard to remove as it is dried on.

It is a case where possible take a breather and let everything settle.

For those without access to a pharmacy (Sorry Sweet and Vic ) eye drops can be very soothing just to make things bearable while you relax ready for another go.

It may have been mentioned that using an Optrex eye bath has resulted in lenses floating out, but I culd be imagining this

A cold flannel across the eyes can give pain releif too.

[John Smith]

Actually, if the lens went "walkabout" in my eye when it was watering, I'd breathe a sigh of relief and leave it there until the eye stopped hurting. Only then would I massage it back into place and attempt removal.

I always removed my RGPs using the blink technique: pull the outer corner of your eye towards your ear, open your eye as wide as you can, look at the tip of your nose, get ready to catch it ( ) and blink hard.

After a while, it was out first time almost every time.

If you do go for the rubber sucker, I'd recommend the safety ones with a hole all the way through the length. That way there is no suction until your finger covers the hole... otherwise you risk sticking it to your eye rather than the lens.

This, of course, is not a problem with sclerals

[Vic]

Thanks everyone for all the help, suggestions and encouragement, it’s really very much appreciated and has made me feel a bit better about the whole thing.

Unfortunately taking a week off to get used to the lens is not an option, much as this would be useful. As regards putting them in in the morning - right now I am commuting quite long distance to a hospital placement, although thankfully that changes at the end of this week. It leaves very little room for having time in the morning to relax and get them in without any pressure. The lens is also still feeling completely like a brick atm for the whole time it’s in (although part of this may be due to pain getting it in then irritating the eye) and I’m too scared to leave the house with it in because much as on one hand the vision with the lens is brilliant compared to normal, it’s not vision that I can ‘function’ with right now if that makes any sense, spend the whole time blinking and watering etc, so I just don’t have the confidence to go out with it in yet. And trying to build lens wear up at work would be very hard, it’s not the kind of situation where I can suddenly go and get the lens out if it hurts / wear time is up. I have Friday off tho, which could be useful in terms of giving me 3 days at home to do some practising. I haven’t managed to keep it in for more than 2 hours yet, and that was only once. Steven - MEH said that they were happy with the fit of the lens that they let me take away, and once it’s eventually in it does stay put, it’s just problems with the initially getting it in that can make it land up in the corner of the eye I think. I will keep trying with the different things that have been suggested and see what seems to work more effectively.

Sweet, I haven’t had a topography done in that eye for about 18 months now, so I’m not sure, and I can’t remember what the last one showed. No I didn’t get any local drops at all, and they were aware of my anxiety with it. I think at this rate I may have to have a go with trying some LA (and yes you are right, I would do it because I know what I’m doing). It just gets into a vicious circle with the trying and not being able to manage it and ending up in floods of tears and wanting to throw things, and having to go away and come back to it, and go away again, and come back… And after a while it begins to feel like a futile exercise. Last night the wretched thing even fell off my eyelashes onto the mirror and got stuck to the mirror several times and wouldn’t come off, cue trying to get off with sucker thing. It’s hard not to make it feel like a race sometimes, because any day now I am due to get the date for the beginning of my fitness to practice investigation because I had to declare at the beginning of January that at that point (with glasses) my vision was not up to their minimum standard. With the combination of the two lenses, I can just about get it, which was going to be my defence. Unfortunately as they’ve had to refit the PK eye lens , that has set that one back, but that’s one of those things. My plan had always been to try and perfect lens technique in the non-graft eye first, so that there was less messing around with trying to get it in and out of grafted eye as I am even more phobic of ‘messing around’ with that eye. I had hoped to get the lens wear time up to 5 or 6 hours by now and to have got a bit better at the technique but I think it has become a bit of a vicious circle inasmuch as the more I struggle over it each day, the more I anticipate the same struggle the next day, which obviously doesn’t bode well for then getting it in easily. I am feeling the pressure right now of the imminent FTP interview and knowing that RGPs is something that I HAVE to master, and as soon as possible, in order to get the powers that be off my case. And as soon as they’re more fully in the picture there is going to be the added pressure of keeping them updated with progress and how quickly I’m getting used to it, which feels very pressurised. Trying to remember that at the end of the day this is something where slow but steady will be overall faster and more productive than trying to do it as rapidly as possible but easier said than done at the end of the day when I know that time is not plentiful.

The lens technician did give me a plunger, albeit reluctantly and not without reminding me on several occasions that they are only used by 70/80 year olds which did make me feel a bit useless. Like you Pat, I succeeded in getting the lens in the corner of the eye every time I tried to get it out whilst I was at Moorfields, and I ended up having to use the plunger every time. In the end the technician let me go after about 3 unsuccessful attempts at getting it in and out and just told me to keep practising and not to use the plunger too much. Although I am a bit confused. Manipulating the lens back onto the cornea is very painful, yet the corner of the eye is where it ends up more often than not when I am trying to get it out. Do I just get the plunger on it then, or do I try to get it back onto the cornea again and try again to get it out the ‘proper’ way?

Although you do have to see the funny side of these things sometimes. On more than one occasion I’ve got almost to the point of getting lens on finger ready to stick it in before remembering that taking my glasses off first before trying to insert the lens is usually quite helpful...