Band aid contact

[Mawsky]

Ok guys, I had yet another corneal abrasion, had to miss a day of work and saw doctor who put in a bandaid contact, this thing is fantastic! My eye is not irritated or as dry, I do have to drop but not as often, why can't we wear these all the time? I'm going to explore this when I see the Dr again on Friday. Has anyone else had any experience with this? I know that contact use can cause problems with people's eyes, like corneal erosion, so I'm surprised that I wear this constantly day and night, I see one of the doctors on Tuesday to check for infection and I think he will remove the lens, so that will mean I've worn it continually for five days and four nights. What do you think about this? my eye feels almost normal.

[Tankie]

Why can't you wear these all the time? That's a good question! If you ask your doctor maybe he/she can let you try it out on a more regular basis.

One word of caution: It's very common for someone to try something for 1 or 2 days and think that it's a miracle cure, but then after trying the same thing for a week or two they realize it's not as good as they thought. I hope this isn't the case for you, but just bear this in mind.

[DCRdryeye]

I agree with tankie on this.

[tearless2]

My eye Dr. believes regular contacts are a great thing for me to wear to protect my eyes and actually recommnds them. The only reason I don't wear them more often is that I am prone to eye infections (with or without wearing them). I also need to remind myself to add drops since my eyes don't feel as dry with them in.

[Mawsky]

Oh I hope your not right about it not being so great in the long term Tankie, but I know what you mean, when I'm having a good spell with my eyes, I can think it will never get bad again, but then I'll have another bad spell. Tearless, I have a few questions about your Drs recommendations, I wear corrective glasses, but have never tried contacts, I thought that they would be a problem for someone with dry eyes, were they corrective lens for you, or is there a difference between corrective and the bandaid contacts? My son wore disposable contacts for years and began developing corneal ulsers, he had lasiks and fortunately no problems! But he could never wear them to sleep in, so this must not be a disposable contact, it must be different. I have a lot of questions for the ophthalmologist when I see him again.

[tearless2]

Hi,

My contacts are regular prescription ones -- the same that I had before my Dx with dry eye. I think they are air optix. I don't know if they are recommended for overnight wear but I personally would not do that. They are not disposable. I wish I could have disposable but I have toric lenses for my astigmatism and they don't come in disposable at this point.

My optometrist did mention that he had a new type of contact for me to try (not sclerals) but he wanted me to get the bacterial conjuctivits under control before I tried new ones. So, I am waiting for my 2 year old to stop bringing home colds all the time and then I will probably try what he has in mind.

[Mawsky]

Tearless, I saw the one Dr. Who checked me for infection, and removed the lens, he is not the corneal specialist who placed it, I see him on Friday, he does recommend that I get contacts, I made an appointment for a contact fitting on tues. But will see what the specialist says, I hope this is all good news, I would love to not have to put drops in constantly, sometimes depending on the situation every 8-10 minutes, the longest I usually can go is 20 minutes, it surprised me to hear Chemia say four times a day! Right now I'm just trying to stay optimistic. Only dropping four times a day sounds wonderful.

[tearless2]

I hope it works out for you. Sounds like any decrease in frequency of drops would be great.

Was the Dr. who recommended contacts an optometrist? Maybe this is just me, but it seems like optometrists are more pro contact wearing than opthamologists...maybe since they sell them and profit from them?

I still think it's not a great idea to sleep in contacts though -- unless it's a band-aid one and temporary.

Be careful when you remove the contacts. I put eye drops in my eye right before removing my contact, it seems easier to take out that way.

Keep us posted.