Contact lens horror stories

[Maria]

I have an extremely stupid friend who wears J&J daily disposables. He keeps each pair for a week, wearing them 3-4 times, and stores them in an uncovered eggcup, in solution he has made himself, consisting of unboiled tap water with salt in it. He changes the solution evey day. (Well, you have to be careful, don't you? )
Obviously, I have told him about this kind of behaviour. But he does nothing. What I want is all your most awful stories of contact lens abuse, to frighten him into throwing the damn things away.
I'm in a catch 22 about what to do, because if I give him proper solution, it condones the overwearing, but he won't buy new lenses because he is too tight, and I'm not buying them.

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Maria "no amusing quote" K

[Shwing]

But he probably spends $10 a week on lottery tickets, right?

Tha solution thing is a corneal transplant waiting to happen, period (if he doesn't like his 20/200 VA SC now, see how he'll like his 20/200 VA CC later).

I have a strong view regarding his use of the 1-day Acuvue for two weeks, but as this is a public forum, I'll refrain. Sorry.

Shwing;-}

[Diane]

Maria,

You are telling us that he is a friend...OK...Are you providing him with the lenses???? If so, and he is not complying with your instructions of proper care solutions, which for daily disposables is none and to throw away daily, AND you are aware of it, then you could appear to be condoning the abuse anyway.

Tell him all of your optiboard friends want him to COMPLY with your professional instructions and toss them or use some other lenses immediately.

Shwing is right, he is a corneal transplant or worse waiting to happen. :( :( :( Big time
Diane

[This message has been edited by Diane (edited 01-09-2001).]

[chip anderson]

I have some business cards that state that I make custom hand painted artificial eyes (I do, I do). When I have a patient that won't behave or tells me about her friend who just.... I give them one of my cards and tell them to keep it or give one to the friend, you're gonna need it sooner or later.

It works! Almost always.

Chip

P.S. I rather doubt that the over wearing (I assume you mean using 1 day lenses for more than one day) will hurt anything but J&J's bottom line. The unsterile conditions are
another matter.

[This message has been edited by chip anderson (edited 01-09-2001).]

[Maria]

I don't supply him, I want nothing to do with it! I don't supply any of my friends, as I don't work locally.
I don't understand the SC/CC thing, I don't think we use that abbreviation here. (We don't use 20/20, but I can translate that part) Shwing - email me with the opinion on Acuvue, I'm intrigued.

To give you an idea of what I'm up against, I made him read aloud a paragraph from a textbook which said lenses will grow fungus if left in saline for 24 hours, and he just patiently explained to me that he changes the 'concotion' every day.
If all else fails, I'll put un-neutralised peroxide solution in his eyes, to demonstrate how importantly chemical solutions are ;)

[Shwing]

Hello.

CC = cum correction (with correction)

SC = sans correction (without correction)

[stephanie]

Oh my God Maria!! That is one of the worst stories I have heard in a while and believe me I have heard some stories. Making your own solution in and of itself is dangerous business. Not to mention the abuse of the cls. If he has a computer I suggest all of us e-mailing him with our horror stories and downloading pictures of the grossest overwear pts we can find. Our doctor has one really nasty one (makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it)where this guy wore lenses so much that they actually grew to his eye. Oh sick!!! Oh and Chip make sure if Maria gives us his e-mail to download your card!!! LOL!!! I think he needs to be taken completely out of cls and put only into gls forever!! I know he is your friend but obviously doesn't understand the concept of the cls.
Have a great day!!
Steph"your eyes are nothing to mess with" D
Maria, post that e-mail address!!!!

[Maria]

He doesn't have a computer, but if you email the stuff to me, I will print it out and give it to him, along with a copy of your horrified comments.

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Maria "no amusing quote" K

[Optom]

Maria you have many friends like him

[Pete Hanlin]

Most of you already know what I think of soft contact lenses- I think anyone wearing them (at least on an extended basis) constitutes a horror story!

With an office on the campus of Florida State University, we often have an opportunity to attend health fairs and such. We usually take samples of solutions along to hand out to the students. Not surprisingly, when we ask most contact lens wearing students what solution they use, the reply is, "oh, well I just wear them till they feel bad and then replace them."

One of our neighbors told me she wore "Acuvue, I think." I asked her what the box looked like. She couldn't remember. I asked her when she had last replaced her lenses. She replied, "Right before Thanksgiving." This was in February of last year, so she had been wearing the same pair of disposables without removing them for over 2 1/2 months!

The fact that we don't see more corneal ulcers is a testament to the ruggedness of the human cornea. Heaven knows we abuse them enough. What's really laughable is the concern we feel for those who choose to have LASIK (you know, vain folks like myself). "Do you really want to expose your cornea to the risks? Gasp!" However, we remain pretty much ambivalent to those who wear extended-wear soft lenses year after year after year (if you use extended wear disposables over a 20 year period, you are 3 times more likely to develop a serious corneal complication than you are if you have LASIK performed).

RGP~ete

[chip anderson]

If you are sure you want to continue this line I will try to give you a horror story a day (I have been primarily a contact lens fitter since 1958, so I have a lot of them. But the greatest horror story is that most people today "fit" contact lenses by getting the refraction, sometimes actually measuring the corneal diameter and maybe the curvature. Selecting the lens from a chart and sending the patient on his way with no instruction on insertion (I once made a video on this), sterilization, care and handling.

The important part of contact lens fitting is: "What happens to the eye after it is dispensed!" This means follow-up (With me this is at 1 week after dispensing trial disposables or 2 weeks after more long lasting modalities) every six-months forever and if and when the patient has a problem. Try to think of contact lens fitting as: "What happens to the eye over decades, not, was the fee paid."

The greatest danger to the patient is the person "selling" the lenses. Not the precription. Whoever the patient pays for the lenses should be the one responsible for follow-up care. Don't know how Linda Carter gets by.

Chip

[This message has been edited by chip anderson (edited 01-12-2001).]

[chip anderson]

O.K. Horror Story #1.

I once had a patient (a physician's daughter, of course) come in wearing a hard lens (at that time lenses were PMMA or CAB and the latter warped before you could get it off the lathe) that appeared a little brown. I took the lens off an appeared to have been subjected to a good bit of heat. I asked the young lady what happened and she told me she had put it in the ash tray (this was back when it wasn't a mortal sin to smoke) and her cigarette burned it a little. She was still wearing it and blaming me because it bothered her!

[Joann Raytar]

Believe It Or Not ...

A 70 something year old man walked into my friends shop complaining that his eyes were burning and hurting terribly. After refering the fellow to the Doctor, it turns out he had been wearing the same pair of contact lenses everyday straight for 4 years because no one told him he had to take them out. Yuck.

[Maria]

In England, we are quite strict over contact lenses, if you don't keep up with your checks, you can't have the lenses. But the problem now is all these internet sites, that are totally unaffiliated with any local opticians, and couldn't care less if the patient have checkups or not, as long as they're undercutting the basic price. I think there's going to be real problems in the future whilst people can buy their contact lenses in this way. They don't seem to appreciate that they are sticking a foriegn object in the most sensitive (and vulnerable) part of their body, and it should be done under the guidance of someone who knows what the hell they are talking about! For god's sake, have they no appreciation of what they're risking? Or is the prospect of saving a few pounds today more appealling? As I told my friend who is mentioned above, those guide dogs cost a lot to feed, so there goes your profit margin.
(End of rant)

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Maria "no amusing quote" K