Very, Very, Very Happy that I have the Scleral Lens!

[Lloyd-S]

Thanks to all of you members who have posted about a Scleral lens option for dry eye. Jill Marie you are correct and thoughtful to help those of us who are considering a Scleral lens. A Special THANK YOU to Sara Lynn for all of her detailed info and guidance. The links to your web blogs of your personal experience are an incredibly valuable reference for people like me. Well done!!

A bit about my experience. In 1990, I had 5cm AN tumor surgically removed at age 24. All along, I have used B&L Duolube eye ointment 24/7. I tolerated the extreme blurred vision in my left eye for sake of getting on with my life with the least hassle. I'm fairly athletic. I wore a contac lens in my "good" right eye. But in my early 40's started to develop significant dryness in my "good" right eye, severely limiting my use of contact lens. Was diagnosed with incomplete eyelid closure of my "good" R eye and meibomian gland dysfunction. Having been using Restasis drops in R. eye for ~ 6 months. At night, now use ointment in both eyes. Also loss of my eye's natural ability to change focus in near field for reading/computer has complicated matters. Have tried progressive and bi-focal glasses but with single eye vision these have not worked well for me. Yesterday, I placed an order for the Quartz silicon eye goggles, for sleep use, recommended by Sara.

I have my first Scleral lens fitting/trial appointment, in a few days, on Jan 7, 2014.  I'm hopeful...

[Jill Marie]

Hi Lloyd

Welcome to the forum!  You have every reason to be hopeful at least for your left eye, not sure what the lens will do for you right eye.  Will of course help with the dryness but I don't know about the focus issues. 

I don't know what all you have read about the Scleral lens or about my eye & lens issues so I will recap a bit.  I had my surgery in 1992 at the age of 36, so have been at this a long time as well.  I was to the point where I wasn't sure if I could keep my job much longer because of the pain in my eye from the dryness, the bright computer screens and sunlight were getting really hard to cope with, not to mention the constant use of the eye ointment. 

I don't actually have a Scleral lens, my lens is a gas permeable lens which is like the Scleral but smaller.  My lens cost me $250 and I was fitted for it the first day I saw the eye doctor.  She tried a couple of other lens sizes on me just to see what worked best but I always ended up with the first one she tried on me.  I had a corneal ulcer a few months after I got the lens and couldn't use the lens for about a month while it healed.  I wanted the lens back so badly, it really made me appreciate the lens even more.  A couple of months after that my lens broke in half and I got another one, took a couple of days to get use to it but all is good.  I still use eye ointment during the day but very little compared to before I had the lens and even less then when I first started using the lens.  Perhaps one day I will do as Sara Lynn does and not use ointment during the day at all.  We are all different and have to find what works best for us. 

I could write paragraphs on how much this lens has changed my life, from saving me thousands of dollars a year to improving my attitude and out look for the future, it was really getting hard to be happy! 

Please feel free to ask questions and post about your progress with getting the lens.  It makes me sad to think there are so many people out there that could be helped by this lens and they like I was a year ago had no idea it existed.  We will keep posting things now and then about the lens so that new posters like you will hopefully run across the info. so they too can get a lens.   Also my eye doctor asked me to go back to my old eye doctor to let him see how great my eye is doing so he will help spread the word to his patients and other eye doctors. 

Good luck tomorrow, look forward to hearing about your appointment  Jill Marie

[Karen]

I don't have feeling in my left eye and also have prizims inmy glasses because of double vision.  Has anybody with thoses problems tried a new contact like that?

[Lloyd-S]

Jill Marie,
Thank you for your helpful overview of your situation. Trial of scleral lens for me has been delayed until May 2014, due to special circumstances with the Ottawa hospital clinic staff, where I am being seen. I will be fitted with Maxim scleral lens, made by Accu Lens, in both eyes. This is the only brand that my hospital carries. Cost will be $700 per lens ($1400 total). If after 6 months I'm not satisfied I can receive a $1000 refund. I'm looking forward to trying them and I will report back then.
- Lloyd

[Cheryl C]

Karen,
I was just going to post as I am into my second week with the scleral lens and love it!  A BIG thank you to Saralynn for all her information that led me to the right doctor.  I have very limited feeling in my eye and that was a concern of mine.  The upside is I haven't felt the ill effects of a dry eye, but the downside is I can't feel the effects of a dry eye .  I've been able to do away with the drops except the times where I choose to not wear the lens.  As a precaution, I do still cover my eye at night (with Glad Cling Wrap).

The biggest challenge I've had with the scleral lens is positioning it for insertion and centering it in my eye.  Sometimes it goes in the first time, other times it takes many tries.  I'm getting more comfortable about doing it, though.  Even though I don't have feeling in the eye, it is an immediate relief when I have the lens in.  I can't really explain it.  My eye has been clearer than it ever has been, and my vision has been helped from 20/80 to 20/30 in that eye.  I do have haziness at times, but the vision is still sharper than it was, if that makes sense - sharper, not blurry, even through a haze.

I have a question myself to throw out:  You who have had a weight removed after having a scleral lens, how long does it take your eye to heal from the removal and where you are able to wear the lens again?  Hopefully, removal of the weight will be my next step.

Karen, hope this helped.

Cheryl

[saralynn143]

Karen, I don't know about your exact condition, but scleral lenses help return vision to many people who can't get clear vision with other types of correction. I think it's worth a consult.

Cheryl C, about insertion. If you haven't already seen this video, please watch it: xhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0xO9bZsTnU - It does take practice, but the easiest way I have found to insert a scleral lens is to use an inserter (the hollow kind) and a hand mirror (placed on the bathroom countertop). I thoroughly rinse the lens, center it on the inserter and completely fill it with sterile saline. Here's where it gets a bit tricky: your face has to be parallel to the mirror. Once you think it is parallel, go ahead and tuck your chin in just a bit further. Hold your eyelids as wide apart as you can using hand on the same side. I use my thumb to hold the lower lid down and the index finger to hold the upper lid up. Pick up the lens inserter in your other hand. Rotate your elbow away from your body so that it is easier to see the inserter reflected in the mirror. Close the other eye and position the lens inserter until you can see the mirror through the hole in the center. Carefully bring the inserter toward your eye until the lens is in place. I find that when that happens, what is reflected in the mirror comes into extremely sharp focus. Blink hard a couple of times to center the lens and you're done!

I don't know about recovery time for removing an implant. I don't feel ready to do that yet, and hadn't even considered that there would be a period where I couldn't wear the lens.

[Cheryl C]

Saralynn,
Thank you for those tips.  I had seen the video; also use the inserter and mirror, but the centering and method of doing it makes perfect sense.  I'm going to try that right now! (I mistakenly said earlier that I use Cling Wrap ... in case anyone wants to try it, it's the Glad Press N' Seal that I use.  It works wonderfully as a moisture chamber).
Blessed Easter to all.
Cheryl 

[ginsue]

Cheryl,   I wear a scleral lens and I have no intension of ever removing my gold weight from my eye.  If you did, how would your eye close at night?  It helps retain the moisture when you are lying down.  My eyes closes almost completely at night.   Sue

[saralynn143]

Sue, I feel the same way. Unless my eyelid starts to sag during the day I'm keeping the weight.

[Cheryl C]

Ginsue,
I have had increasing nerve regeneration.  Eighteen months ago my eye surgeon said he could remove the weight but would prefer I left it in, but that it was up to me - he would want to watch me very closely.  I had a good blink and closure, but not full closure at all times.  I chose to leave it in.  My eye has slowly continued to improve and with my excitement over the success of the scleral lens, I now thought I could consider getting the weight removed. Of course I would defer to my surgeon's opinion. I also look forward to the day of having normal periphal vision in that eye, especially when driving. 
- Cheryl

[saralynn143]

What is wrong with your peripheral vision, Cheryl? I have never had a problem with mine. Strange how different our experiences can be.

[Cheryl C]

I guess I really didn't say, did I?  Sorry, it's from the partial tarsorrhaphy.  Even though my eye isn't stitched that much, it sure makes a difference visually.

[ginsue]

Cheryl,  I do not have a tarsorrhaphy any more.  It was undone when I had my weight put in.  I have 100% of facial paralysis on the right side and without the weight my eye would be wide open and appear much larger than the left eye.  Symmetry is what I am after, I just want to look as normal as I can. Before I had the lens I also had no peripheral vision.  My AN was so large that it changed the vision in my eye to +4.5 and my left eye remained  +1 so you can just imagine what glassed looked like, one thin lens and one coke bottle lens, so I opted not to have a corrective lens in my glasses since I couldn't see out of it anyway due to the ointment.  With my lens I can not even describe what I have been missing all these years, it has +4.5 correction in it and no sting of the dryness.  It's a win win for me.  I too would have never known about this until I visited this site.  Life is good.

[Cheryl C]

Sue, what greatness that your vision is so much better!  It just goes to show that we can always be hopeful for positive changes in our situations.  I think Saralynn had said she noticed she had more energy from not straining with the poor vision, and I'm about to think the same thing.  Don't think I realized how much concentration it was taking with the poor vision.  I seem to have more energy, too.  Life is good, indeed.

I had originally asked the doctor if he could just do away with the tarsorrhaphy and leave the weight, (for peripheral vision and - I now admit - for the facial symmetry, but he didn't think it would help unless the weight was removed, too.  I go later this month to see him, so I'm really curious to see what his take on things are now, especially with the moisture provided with the lens.

[saralynn143]

Cheryl, it doesn't seem like it would do any harm to try reversing the tarsorrhaphy but leave the weight. I mean, the weight could always come out later or the stitches put back in place if need be.