Problems with eye after lens fitting - HELP NEEDED!

[joydivision]

Hi all. I had my third lens fitting just before xmas Three weeks ago. To cut a long story short, hereis what happened.

The Opth' put anesthetic eye drops in before the lenses went in, as she did in the past. Was a diffrent lady to the one I had seen previously. As soon as the last the lens in my bad eye, I felt intense burning and asked he to remove the lens. My eye went as if the room was smoky and continued stinging. The other lens went in fine and she tried the bad eye again with no luck. It felt like there was something in my eye as well as it going very red. The lady rinsed the eye with saline and checked to see if anything was in it which she confirmed there was not.

She told me that if the issue persisted to come back. My eye continued stinging and got more red and still felt gritty. I went back 3 hours later. Another eye specialist confirmed the eye was clear but said there were some bumps on it and said it was dry, SPK or something. I was prescribed Anti-biotic wetting eye drops. I went home that night with bright light badly affecting me and unbelievable stinging, so bad that I had to go to bed as soon as I got home. I woke up with my eye stuck together with a crusty substance and still all teh other symptoms and poor blurry vision.

A week later I went to A and E as I wanted to get it checked before Xmas. The eye doctor said there were bumps under my lid and the eye had abrasions and lesions on it. I was prescribed Pred Forte and Exocin.

After a week on these I was asked to go back for a check up. The next doctor dilated my pupil and looked at the front of my eye. He said the back of the eye looked fine but there was a gap in the film on my eye which is why light was getting in and why it was blurry. I was told to stay on the drops for one more week but gone down to two from four drops a day on the pred forte this week to wean off.

Has anyone else suffered anything like this. i am surprised as my first two visits were fine but the third one has really scared me for my next fitting. My eye still seems very blurry in the affected eye, not as bad but still not right and to be honest this is all getting me down. Has anyone got any advice. The last doctor said the film on my eye should take two weeks to heal now and that will be next Monday but I feel so deflated and pessimistic.

I hope someone can help.

Sorry for the long post!

[Anne Klepacz]

I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience - not what you needed over Christmas! The front of the eye is very sensitive, and any abrasions on the cornea can be very painful. But they do usually heal over quite quickly and shouldn't leave any lasting damage. (I've had a few abrasions in my time which meant leaving the lens out until they healed, and once a corneal ulcer which also disappeared a week or so after treatment). Presumably you've got another follow up appointment after Monday to check that it's then OK to wear the lens again? It does sound as though things are on the mend if your drops have now been reduced though it must be very frustrating. Especially as the lenses were giving you much better vision. It's good that you went to A&E - always the right thing to do if symptoms like yours don't go away quickly. Do let us know how you get on next week and all the best.
Anne