Next stage

I wore the semi-scleral lenses for 6 weeks; in terms of comfort, until very recently, they were comfortable. Now whether as a result of aggravation or longer wearing, I get a shooting pain in my eyes that is quite distracting. Also, unfortunately, the lenses aren’t working as well as I had hoped.

The vision is comparable to the previous lenses; that is so say, my distance Vision is greatly reduced at te expense of less ghosting.

I went back to East Grinstead again and met with the optician. A slight tweak to the prescription and all of a sudden the writing was a little clearer, if still ghosty. “go and look at the clock,” with the opticians glasses on I was told, and so I went to the door and looked at the clock about ten metres away. “you should see a big difference.” he said.
I looked. No difference. The clock was blurry and illegible (I do know how to tell the time, in case you were wondering!). I told him as such.
“It should be better,” he said.
“it’s not,” I said. At which point the optician scratched his head and said it should be better.

I was led to another machine which I looked in, which measured some kind of distance focussing. The optician took the readings and then we went back to his office.
“You shouldn’t be having these problems at your age,” he said.
“Tell me about it,” I replied.

Apparently I was having trouble with the middle-distance, and the slight adjustments to the lenses probably wouldn’t made a great deal of difference. The optician seemed hesitant that any other change- be it a different sized scleral or another type- would work.

So then I had my appointment with the consultant again. A different man, but as in the character of the eye clinic, friendly, as always. I told him of my increasing troubles with day-to-day activities because of my eyes, how the quality of life was getting worse, and what the optician had said.

He then put me back on the list for INTACS and I am to return in six more weeks to discuss again with the senior consultant. So, another wait, for another discussion, and back to the bottom of the same waiting list I was at the top of in February, four months earlier.

At this point I think i might be my lowest, mostly because I feel exhausted by waiting, tired by the disorientation feeling of my bad eyesight and sad the lenses did not work again.