Astigmatism - or just weird?

[rosemary johnson]

I have found the following, from looking closely at eg. newspapers with boxes in the text marked out by horizontal and vertical lines.
And circular puzzles such as the Metro Clockword, if anyone knows that.
If I hold the paper ever so slightly off vertical, so the vertical lines are more like 12:30 to 6:30, then:
if I hold it 5 and a half inches from my graft eye, the vertical lines are in focus and the horizontal lines really blurry.
if I hold it 4 and a half inches away, it's the other way round.
Is this a normal phenomenon with astigmatism, or am I just weird?
Well, OK, I know I'm just weird anyway......
Not sure it quite explains why looking up the road after dark, all the street lights and car headlamps look like "illuminated pine cones".
Nor quite the number of double images on my computer screen.
WOuld explain why it seems to be getting more difficult again to read the paper.
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

Rosemary

it seems to me that you have described pretty perfectly the visual distortion caused by an astigmatism; and that the feeling you have looking at illuminated streetlights is also part of the experience of the post-graft keratoconic.

Andrew

[alvin18]

Yes, I experience something similar too. As I understand it is normal post graft? Or should I be worried and talk about this in next appointment?

[Andrew MacLean]

alvin

I never worried about it, but you could always ask about it when you next have an appointment. It would give the optometrist or the ophthalmologist an opportunity to talk about the position in which your cornea is being held.

Andrew

[rosemary johnson]

Does this mean that if - or when, if Ken's enthusiasm gets given its go-ahead - I get a new contact lens, it will be one I have to put in the right way round, to correct rather than exacerbate the astigmatism?
Forgive me if I'm being stupid here, but can't see how it could work any other way.
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

I'm not sure what you mean, but if you mean that the individual lens has to be correctly aligned right to left and top to bottom in your eye, I don't think I can see any reason why, except that is, if it is a scleral. The scleral has to be properly aligned to ensure that the optical bit is over the cornea.

The problem is that I am not expert on these things and so I am probably missing something obvious.

Andrew

[rosemary johnson]

Hi Andrew! - and sorry for the confusion.
It is a scleral - well, if Ken's enthusiasm gets to fit one, it will be, I should say. I've always had sclerals, ever since I first started off with KC age 14, and in the circumstances can't see myself trying anything else over this THING!!!!!
BUt yeah, I know the scleral has to fit; but I didn't mean that.
WHat I mean is..... if one is powing a lens (or specs, for that matter) to correct an eye that is astigmatic to the extent of being -9 along north-north east to south-south-west axis, and -14 along east-south-east to west-north-west axis, then surely, the powered bit has to be alighed so that north is at the top.
And if it is a contact lens, then the wearer has to put it in with north at the top of the eye (if this makes sense).
Because if the lens went in with north in the east, say, then the correction would be correcting -14 along the axis that needs -9, and vice versa.
Errrrm..... wouldn't it?
I don't really understand this...... never, SFAIK, had to deal with this before.
I do remember the early days of wearing sclerals, when the right lens had a red dot at the bottom, and the left lens had two red dots at the bottom, so I could tell which way round to put them in.
Oh,happy days, when I could tell which way was "up"!
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

um ... still not sure that I understand, but I know a woman who will ... Lynne!

Is your present position any different to the situation that people have who wear RGP corneals for ordinary KC?

Andrew

[Andrew MacLean]

Oh! I think I understand now. sorry to be so slow!

I think that the situations with lenses and glasses are not the same. When you wear glasses over an astigmatism, there are optical properties in the lens that correct for the astigmatism. You can see this if you hold your glasses a couple of inches from your eye and rotate them; everything looks like you are at a fairground looking in different mirrors in the eponymous hall of mirrors.

With lenses things are different; the physical lens itself corrects the distortion in your cornea because it forms a new leading surface for your eye. If you turn a contact lens a couple of inches from your eye, you will see no change in the view.

Andrew