Toric Lenses

It have been while since I've had any update on my contact lenses/eyes. For the past several years I've been doing fine with wearing the Ciba Vision Dailies but after my yearly exam, it turns out that I have astigmatism. It's not as bad as most individuals and I could definitely stick to the Dailies but I decided to give Toric lenses a try to see if I could benefit any. My optometrist fitted me in Dailies Toric and the 1-Day Acuvue Moist with Lacreon.

Dailies

The material in these lenses are 31% nelfilcon A, 69% water, same as my previous Dailies AquaComfort Plus. Comfort-wise they are the same. I do notice the contacts floating around in my eyes here and there but definitely doesn't bother me. If a fan is blowing or wind is blowing in my face, it does dry out my eyes with these contacts. Toric lenses are 'weighted' so it is not uncommon for them to move around; you have to blink to get them back into focus. However, your optometrist should have the ability to fit you in the correct toric lense. After 8 or 9 hours the comfort started to diminish for me and one one occasion, a noticed a red ring around my eye after taking these contacts out. However, I did happen to just hop out of the shower (you shouldn't shower with contacts, I'm sure you all know this). All in all, still not a bad lense.


Acuvue Moist

The Acuvue Moist with Lacreon for Astigmatism did surprisingly well seeing as how I'm not a huge Acuvue fan. Since all of issues that people have had with the Acuvue Oasys lenses over the past few years I decided to stray from this brand but figured it was time to give the Moist lenses a try. The material here is etafilcon A, 58% water. Both etafilcon A & nelfilcon A are 'hydrogel lenses' as opposed to 'silicone hydrogel lenses'. This was important to me when making my transition to Torics. Both have pro's and con's and you can read more about them through google. Back to my Acuvue Moist review, I must say these are FLIMSY lenses. When you take them out of the package, it is not uncommon for the lense to fold onto itself. They are very soft. However, they have a certain comfort that the Dailies could not produce for me. My eyes seemed to stay moist and comfortable all day. According to Acuvue's website, the Lacreon technology makes it so there is less friction in your eyes and the wetness doesn't go away. This time around I had to choose Acuvue Moist over the Dailies since the difference was so noticeable. *As a side note, as long as you are gentle with these lenses they will not rip as you are inserting them into your eyes. Be cautious.

Travel Abroad

During the summertime, I had a chance to travel abroad and my eye condition was still present but the condition progressed. I would never sleep with my contacts in my eyes but would wear them for 8+ hours a day, and would rarely wear glasses. One day I woke up with a great amount of pressure in my right eye so I went to wash it out and it hurt immensely. There was obvious discharge and it finally woke me up to start taking better care of my eyes. I googled this condition and came across a blog that helped with this ordeal:

http://blog.gordaen.com/2007/10/12/acuvue-oasys-lenses-cause-red-eyes/

I have to say, I read about every single comment on that blog and is the reason I switched over to Acuvue 2's. I also took some time to visit an optometrist abroad and they stated my left eye was infected even though my right eye was the eye that felt the pressure. I was prescribed TobraDEX (5ML) (Tobramycin+dexa), that of which I used 4 times a day for about a week. However, The optometrist could not state why there was discharge coming from my eyes. I was also told to stop wearing contacts and I did so for about 1 month so that my eyes could breathe.

Central Valley

This blog is long overdue but I am finally finding the time to write about my eye condition.

About a year and a half ago, there was a clear stringy discharge that developed from my eyes. It was quite persistent and would be in my eyes every morning. It would not hurt, and my eyes were not dry, frankly it was just irritating. I never thought much about them because I was too focused on school and I had no time to think about such a 'minute' problem. During this time, I was attending college in the central valley and my 'weapon of choice' were the Acuvue Oasys w/Hydraclear Plus. Before I moved, I lived in the bay area and wore frequency 55 contacts. So let's see what I used in the past:

2004-2007

Contacts: Frequency 55 by CooperVision

Lens Type: 1 year / soft contacts

Solution: ReNu by Bausch & Lomb (There was a recall/lawsuit in 2006)

Location: Bay Area

2007-2009

Contacts: Acuvue Oasys by Johnson & Johnson

Lens Type: 2 week / soft contacts

Solution: Opti-Free RepleniSH

Location: Central Valley

Recently

Contacts: Acuvue 2

Lens Type: 2 week / soft contacts

Solution: Opti-Free RepleniSH

Location: Bay Area

(I am in no way saying certain contacts or solutions are better than another. Depending on the contacts, they are made from certain materials that affect your eye differently.)

Many optometrists prescribe Acuvue Oasys simply because of their breathable material. It is stated that oxygen can pass in and out of the lenses quite easier than the older generation of contacts such as the Acuvue 2's.

As I was saying before, this stringy discharge started when I was living in the central valley where the air pollution is abundant; wikipedia states "The San Joaquin Valley now has the worst air quality in California, along with the highest asthma rates." Am I making a correlation with where I live and how the discharge developed? I'm just trying to state all the variables. I also spent a vast majority of my time on my laptop and many individuals should remember to blink in order to allow the tears to move around the cornea. I digress.

I finally had some time to visit an optometrist about my eye condition and they did not know what the clear discharge was. I was given a bottle of Alcon Naphcon A since the optometrist believed the discharge was due to allergies. I used up the bottle and it did not help reduce the amount of discharge present in my eyes.