Contact lenses - dry eyes?

[Ellemeg82]

I've been wearing contacts for about 8 years now. I have the Johnson & Johnson daily disposable - 1 day acuvue moist for astigmatism.
They've been fine for a while but in the last year or so I've been increasingly suffering with dry eyes. I do use drops but they only offer temporary relief.
I'm already paying £45 per month for these lenses and the only ones the opticians mentioned to help with dry eyes are £57 per month which is just too expensive.

Any recommendations for contact lenses you've found help dry eyes? Or drops that really help? I've been using Boots and Optrex.
I do need toric lenses for astigmatism.

I've started my own thread about raising as well.
www.mumsnet.com/talk/general_health/4854717-contact-lenses-fogging-issue?reply=127825117

Should also say that both lenses are daily disposable.

I also had ICL surgery last year due to my dry eyes/contact lense intolerance, I was -9 with an astigmatism

I've just checked the eye drops I was recommended- they are intensive relief eye drops with 3% of the active ingredient. Much cheaper from Amazon than Boots !

@Lauren83 @minipie would you mind sharing any more info about the operation, specifically the longer term issues and benefits please? Or where there might be some unbiased information?

Not wearing glasses is a useful aspect to my job as they can be a hindrance or even cause issues doing it effectively. I also am finding that contacts aren't getting the strength I need now and sometimes being able to see something across a room quickly is very important for the role.

I've also had issues with glare at night. Glasses are ok but narrow the field of vision as they have to be so thick.

I may have an increased risk of cataracts with meds im going to go on and my father has glaucoma. So im thinking sooner rather than later for this to maintain better sight!

I know I'll need glasses as I age even with the op.

Mine was done last Sept by Say Aun Quah at the Eye Correction centre in Wilmslow near Manchester, I had initially seen him for the dry eye issue on recommendation of a colleague who had worked with him, I had worn lenses since I was 11 (i'm 39 now) and had for a few years been having increasing issues with discomfort despite trying lots of lenses, solution and drops, and at -9 you can imagine how thick my lenses were!

He initially put punctum plugs in and prescribed steroid drops as I wanted to see if I could tolerate my lenses for an upcoming holiday, I think it allowed me 3-4 hours wear rather than the 1 hour I could manage previously but I knew I needed a longer term fix, he said my contact lenses wearing days were probably over likely due to extended wear and wearing them from such a young age

A few months later I was assessed for surgery and had the lenses made, they were ready in 2 weeks but he said it could take up to 8, a final price wasn't given until the lense manufacturer confirmed, I think it was around £4,250 per eye (I will check)

I had the surgery done a few days apart, was so nervous getting the first one done but when I went back the second was fine, I was there about 3 hours and in theatre about 30 min, no pain just uncomfortable from the clamp and sensations of cold gel and changes to light/dark whilst he did it, a shield overnight and then steroid and antibiotic drops, I could see great as soon as I woke, the second one didn't heal quite as well and I had an ulcerated area from the incision for a a couple of weeks that was uncomfortable but it's fine now

Negatives - halos when driving at night, I don't drive often at night luckily but if you do you may want to seriously consider this, people say it gets better over time but I don't think mine has

Vision now - great, I had an eye test after at my normal opticians and one eye was +1 so I got some glasses purely for the novelty of selecting any frames I wanted and not having to pay to make them thinner but I didn't use them!

He did say the surgery could leave me at risk of earlier cataracts but they see me yearly and any signs and I can have them removed, he did actually flag a tiny dot starting in each eye but he said some are born with it, had a cell count done this month as part of a pair surgery follow up and all fine

Age related decline in vision and I could have laser eye to tweak them, that was never an option previously due to my prescription

Lastly sorry for the essay and sorry for any typos as on my phone!

Gosh no, don't apologise, warts all detail is needed!

Thank you for this, as you say I do need to consider all the ins and outs.

Avoiding Cataracts was sold to me a a key thing so I will ask more about that.

WarriorN one thing to consider is your age. I had it done at 41. As I recall, my surgeon said he wouldn’t necessarily advise it if I was say 7-10 years older - but I can’t remember if this was due to fact of needing reading glasses anyway at that age, or the fact that at that age cataracts might be starting and then it’s worth doing lens replacement rather than implantation. Possibly the latter I think.

Certainly though, he wasn’t much worried about cataracts being accelerated by the implants and thought the new design of implanted lenses had fixed this. I saw Bruce Allan at Moorfields so very experienced.