Dry Eye/Blepharitis/Contact Lens Contract

Bronnie

Some of you may have seen my posts of the last couple of weeks as I described my Bobbi Brown make-up lessons for my "tired-looking eyes" also my posts from October 2010 when I started wearing varifocal contact lenses for work (need them for reading only) . Ha!

On Wednesday my right eye started to feel sore. Halfway through work I had to take my contact lenses out. Thursday morning, my right eye was quite swollen and sore. I have a contact lens contract at Boots, so went there on spec and managed to be seen by the optician. She says I have blepharitis in both eyes. The sore eye actually has a stye type lump which has developed. There is no crustiness etc but she says it is dry eye.

Now, very fortunately, I am a very healthy person, but this makes me fairly intolerant when things go wrong! Of course, I am blaming my lenses/lens hygiene although I know dry eye age is age-related too. (I'm 53). However my eyes were examined in October, when the lens were prescribed and no such problems were noted then. The optician said to carry on wearing the lenses and recommended eyelid scrubs and hot compresses in the first instance.

I am disinclined to wear the lenses atm and tbh they are not so important that I would want to risk this becoming a chronic problem. The tired looking eyes now I realise were certainly not helped by the pinkiness of the blepharitis and very slight swelling of the rim of the lids.



Also, I am 6 months into my 12 month contact lens contract but at the moment my inclination is definitely to abandon the lenses. Obviously the optician is also the lens contract provider and I am wondering if it is possible to end the contract early if necessary, as my confidence in wearing the lenses longterm is somewhat shaken

Does anyone have any similar experiences to share please?

Thank you!

Bronnie

Just bumping this.

Anyone??

belfastgirl23

No experience, but it's well worth a try. I've always found Boots to be very helpful and I'd like to think they'd want to keep you as a customer, even if only for eye tests and glasses (and eye drops of course!!). You also could sort of imply that you've tried lenses plus drops and aren't getting on with them....

purple_butterfly28

Hi There

I have had similar problems in the past with dry eyes and then did have a flare up of blepharitis. This was when I was on monthly contact lenses and with a different opticians. I am with Boots aswell and explained this to them. They have put me on special extra moist contacts and also dailys and that seems to have helped a lot.
Are your contacts daily disposables. If not i'd see about changing to those as it helps with minimising the bacteria and meking sure each lens is sterile, which is very important with eyes.

By the way your lucky you got diagnosed quickly... i couldn't get an appointment with my then optician so went to the drs. Saw the practice nurse who decided i had a stye and told me that i'd basically waisted they're time... had had styes previously and waited 3 days my eyelid was really swollen and almost closed!
I still occassionally have flare ups but glasses for a couple of days and a review of my hygeine and makeup... ie certain mascara brushes seem to cause it for some reason.

Good luck and i'd talk to boots about your concerns but reckon you could get out of your contract easily.

Bronnie

Thanks for your input!

The varifocal lenses I wear for work are monthlies. The Boots optician said there were none suitable available as daily disposables, which I would've preferred.

I am bothered by the fact that this condition can become a longterm condition. I suppose, since it has developed fairly recently, I'm hoping I can keep it at bay by abandoning the lenses, which I'm presuming have exacerbated if not initiated matters.

I was surprised tbh, that the optician didn't suggest NOT wearing the lenses even for a few days until the "stye"/blocked gland went down, but actually said to carry on wearing them as normal. It not a big problem for me to use my reading glasses instead.

I am not wearing eye-make-up at the moment and the hot compresses feel quite refreshing afterwards, but my eyes still look and feel tired.

Will keep reading up about it and pop to Boots later in the week.

Thanks again!

sherbertlemon

Hi, hope I can help as I've had similar problems, similar age (51). I had to stop wearing my varifocal monthly contact lenses for the same reasons as you - chronic blepharitis and dry eye - a couple of years ago. I had to cancel my contract but that did not cause a problem with the opticians as it was on their advice. Wearing specs was such a nuisance that I decided to try to go back to contact lenses a year ago and I have found a good solution that suits me. I wear just one lens, in the eye that is less prone to the blepharitis - it is corrected for long distance and I use the other eye for reading (this use of contact lenses is known as monovision - if you tried this instead of varifocals you would do it the opposite way round, I suppose if you're long-sighted). I use a lens that is a moist type and daily disposable. I use a heat treatment and massage on my eyelids several times a week to keep the blepharitis at bay (either hot compress or the steam room at the gym) and find for cleansing that blephasol solution is less irritating than baby shampoo. I also have the spray on type of eye lubricant when my eyes are feeling dry. I also take flax seeds in my smoothies or porridge most days as I have come across mentions of the long-chain fatty acids they contain as being helpful. The combination of all of the above is effective. Hope some of this is useful for you. Now I am not on a contract but pay for several months-worth of lenses at a time. I have benefited from having very helpful contact lens practitioners at my local opticians (Yates and Suddell in Bury). See if there's a similarly helpful person for you locally.

suki1964

With my last lenses I had to stop wearing them after managing for around 6 months because of " dry eye". Minute I put them in I was in agony and had to remove them, Monthly torics

However Im now on Biofinity lenses. Been wearing them for two months now with no dryness at all - never have to resort to the drops as I did in all my other types I tried. Once again they are torics but I wear one for long and one for short sight

As far as I know the Biofinity are for monthly continuous wear - ie - 30 days without removing them. I however remove them daily

Bronnie

sherbertlemon wrote: »

Hi, hope I can help as I've had similar problems, similar age (51). I had to stop wearing my varifocal monthly contact lenses for the same reasons as you - chronic blepharitis and dry eye - a couple of years ago. I had to cancel my contract but that did not cause a problem with the opticians as it was on their advice. Wearing specs was such a nuisance that I decided to try to go back to contact lenses a year ago and I have found a good solution that suits me. I wear just one lens, in the eye that is less prone to the blepharitis - it is corrected for long distance and I use the other eye for reading (this use of contact lenses is known as monovision - if you tried this instead of varifocals you would do it the opposite way round, I suppose if you're long-sighted). I use a lens that is a moist type and daily disposable. I use a heat treatment and massage on my eyelids several times a week to keep the blepharitis at bay (either hot compress or the steam room at the gym) and find for cleansing that blephasol solution is less irritating than baby shampoo. I also have the spray on type of eye lubricant when my eyes are feeling dry. I also take flax seeds in my smoothies or porridge most days as I have come across mentions of the long-chain fatty acids they contain as being helpful. The combination of all of the above is effective. Hope some of this is useful for you. Now I am not on a contract but pay for several months-worth of lenses at a time. I have benefited from having very helpful contact lens practitioners at my local opticians (Yates and Suddell in Bury). See if there's a similarly helpful person for you locally.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post. Really helpful to read of your experiences.

My optician tested me with the monovision idea before the varifocals were prescribed, but monovision solution wa deemed not suitable. At the moment, I am not too bothered with finding a lens solution....in fact I feel like flinging the damn things as far as possible as I am blaming them (rightly or wrongly) for causing a problem that didn't exist 6 months ago.

Thanks for your tips re keeping the bleph at bay. Will have a look at the Blephasol, don't really like to use baby shampoo....don't use any soaps on my face anyway, disinclined to use it on sore eyes. Have been using a little bicarb in water on a cotton bud for swiping along the lash line. Interested to hear of your steam room suggestion, was actually thinking of that at the gym today and whether it would be helpful. Also going on holiday in July and expecting temps to be 40 degrees, so was wondering if that will help too!

May I pick your brains further, please?
Is this something you are aware of all the time now or does it come and go?
Were you aware of the dry eyes before the bleph was noted or did they come together?
Did the appearance of your eyes change? Mine started to look very tired and not as big and bright as they did. There is a browny pink tinge all round the upper and lower rim, which I mistook for tiredness/late nights etc. Did you have this, if so did the appearance improve?

Sorry for so many questions, it it is hard to find info about people's specific experiences. Many thanks again.

Bronnie

suki1964 wrote: »

With my last lenses I had to stop wearing them after managing for around 6 months because of " dry eye". Minute I put them in I was in agony and had to remove them, Monthly torics

However Im now on Biofinity lenses. Been wearing them for two months now with no dryness at all - never have to resort to the drops as I did in all my other types I tried. Once again they are torics but I wear one for long and one for short sight

As far as I know the Biofinity are for monthly continuous wear - ie - 30 days without removing them. I however remove them daily

Thanks Suki.

Encouraging to hear that your dry eye resolved itself.
Am a bit upset at the prospect that this will be a "forever" problem now.

sherbertlemon

Hello again - further thoughts in reply to your queries as follows. I wasn't aware of the dry eye problem before the blepharitis was diagnosed - the two conditions seem to go together - I think the link is meibomian gland dysfunction; have you come across that term? If not, there's something else to investigate. I think I came across information on that on a website with a really depressing title, such as "the ageing eye" but it had good suggestions for how to do the eyelid massage that you need to do with the heat treatment - that seems to be a vital stage and needs to become routine in whatever way is most convenient for you.

I think it does come and go , but has settled a lot over the past year and now one eye looks completely normal to the naked eye and the other looks just a bit pinker on the lower lid and very slightly swollen on the upper but I don't think anyone else would notice now unless they were particularly looking - I no longer get unsolicited comments about my eye looking sore for example. The optician is able to see the blepharitis in both eyes though, using the bright light and magnifier so there are obviously still signs there. I think it will persist to some extent and I have accepted that I must live with it - there are worse things to have. Do try the steam room idea - it is also a good way to do the massage as your skin will feel moist and so it is easy to do the massage and a good reminder to do it, otherwise like other annoying things it can easily be put off and forgotten about. Sorry the monovision is no good for you - perhaps it would help just to have a break from the lenses for a bit until things are under control - don't worry if it seems a slow process - it is, but you can make a difference so it's worth persevering. Best of luck in the meantime.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

My eyes can get quite irritated with swollen lids, but I tend to put this down to allergies.

I have recently had an eye test for both new contact lenses & glasses & the optician has said that my contact lenses are sitting low on the eye & rubbing on the upper lid. She has told me I need a different daily lens altogether, which she is having to order in due to the high power I need.

Don't give up on the contacts altogether. Discuss options with your optician first, there will probably be lenses on the market suitable for you. Try & push for dailies if you can. This way you completely avoid contact lens solutions. I just use saline solution before I put the lenses.

Good luck.