Scleralrs and Piggybacking

[jayuk]

Hi

Has anyone here heard of piggybacking with Sclerals?

I am assuming soft lens underneath and then scleral over the top?...

Anyone heard or tried this? results?

[GarethB]

Hi J

How you doing?

Are you thinking of this? The only way I can think piggy backing with sclerals if the scleral is in contact or very close to the cone and the soft lens would provide a shock absorber or padding.

It would be interesting to know the benefits of this.

Gareth

[Sue Ingram]

Hi Jay, I have tried piggy-backing with sclerals. The reason for this was that I was not getting very good visual acuity with the sclerals, so I had a set made that were alot closer to my cornea. These gave me great vision and were extremely comfortable all the time I was wearing them, however, when I took them out, my eyes were EXTREMELY painful - the only reason we can think of is that they were OK all the time the pressure was on but when I removed the sclerals, the pain kicked in.

So, it was suggested that I try piggy-backing with disposable corneal lenses under the sclerals to help with the comfort. This did seem to work and was not a problem putting the two lenses in each eye. For some reason, this did not seem to work long-term and I started to get the pain again. I think it has been successful for others, though - you know how individual KC is! I now wear the ordinary sclerals with specs over the top which is fine.

Why were you thinking of piggy-backing with sclerals? Hope everything is still going well. SUE

[jayuk]

Hi

Well i am currently trying Kerasoft and GP over the top with excelletn comfort but I am finding within the last few days that vision is all depending on how well I get the RGP centered...this can be very annoying!

I heard Piggybacking with Sclerals but didnt know anyone that did it.......I have tried the glasses over the Sclerals but that didnt work for me.....

Hmmm..just need to buy about 6 months more time hopefully till the grafted eye is use-able - if all goes to plan...........and this past 3 months have been very difficult...as left eye is progressing!

Going to see my opt tomorrow to try a steeper GP over the top as that may be the cause of the not so good vision and centering issue.....also will try reading glasses over the top to see if that helps.

Have you tried piggybacking with usual Soft/RGP?

[Sue Ingram]

Hi Jay, Yep, I have also done piggy-backing under rgp corneals - this only worked on my left eye as the right is too conical and the soft lens kept lifting off at the bottom so I could not put the rgp on top. The comfort and vision was excellent. The only reason I had to give up wearing the rgp corneals on their own is because my eyes won't tolerate them any more (after 25 yrs of wear).

So, I was wearing a soft disposable/rgp corneal in my left eye and a soft disposable/scleral in my right eye (the amidose/scleral lens kept the disposable in place). However, once we went down the track of scerals with specs which I found worked, I gave up with the others as this was alot less hassle (and I did not have to wear three different types of lenses all in one go!).

Hope your grafted eye keeps improving - its great to hear your account of the whole process. Good luck with the new rgp - hopefully it will buy you a bit more time. SUE

[jayuk]

Sue

SNAP - Mine did the same with a normal daily soft lens and the base lifted due to the cone

I have then tried the Kerasoft and it stays put with no issues. I am SOOO hoping the glasses / RGP work!..hell if I get 6/6 ill dance a jig!!

Now got an Appt Thursday instead to evaluate

Can I ask what your vision is WITH scleral/Glasses?

[Sue Ingram]

Hi Jay, Sorry for the delay in replying - I had to find out what my VA is! With specs and sclerals its 6/12 right eye and 6/9 left eye, which apparently meets the driving standard which I am very pleased about! Take care and hope things are still progressing well for you. SUE

[rosemary johnson]

Yes! I'm piggy-backing with sclerals.
Well, with one scleral, in my right eye.

Why? I wasn't getting much good vision in my right eye with what "theory" says is a good fit. To try and see better, I was screwing my eye up so much that it was making the lens feel horribly uncomfortable - despite a fit that as fine in theory - and indeed very comfy so long as I could stare into space and not have to read anything.
If anyone knows any jobs I could get where I only have to stare into space and not read anything, do let us know.

So ... nxt approach was to try a "closer" fit so I didn't have to screw my eyes up so much to read. It worked, in the sense I could read the computer and reasonable-sized print with concentration - there's a fair bit of double images still, but better than anything else for some time in that eye.
It also had the great advantage of a lenses for the right eye that was useful for a time, meaning if I was going out for a ride (on a horse, i mean) I could have the eye next to the traffic working, which is really necessary for safety reasons.
Trouble was, it had a maximum tolerance of 6 hours on a good day with no hay fever.
So we decided to try piggy packing, to put a softer "cushion" between the scleral and the eye surface.

I have daily disposables, of the lowest power correction and "drape-iest" available.
My eyes are too steep to put a soft lens in and have it go in properly and settle, so I put the soft lens inside the scleral, add a drop of celluvisc and then put them both in together.
Or try to, as this is a piece of manual dexterity that challenges my natural clumsiness (!). SOmetimes it takes two or three goes, much bad language and leaping about the kitchen in frustration and (if the thing goes badly skew-wiff, pain.
Once they are in together and straight (!), and apart from hay fever, illness or the like, the combination is normaly prtty comfortable.
The vision is not so good as the other eye, and takes concentration because there are still ghost images, and it tends to deteriorate before the comfort is calling best for the day. I can normally read a white-letters-on-black background text-only computer screen for most of the day, but reading a newspaper requires a good light, and reading the racing results in the evenings it's better to take the lenses out and peer from real close.

The main problem I had with this system, apart from total lack of success getting the soft lenses to go in and stay in when I went for insertion lessons - we decided this was too steep corneasnot my fault! - was organisational. I first paid for a set of daily disposables at the start of November last year, and having paid for them, it took Moorfields about 8 months to get them for me!!! - and innumerable phone calls. By the time I've added up all the time and te phone bills, it will probably turn out it would have been cheaper to go out nd buy the things in Specsavers...... if I'd thought to insist on getting the prescription so I knew excactly *what* to go out and buy.
To add insult to injury, went I then went to Moorfields, I was told they weren't sure I actually needed to pay for them anyway! - and piggy backing may mean the soft lenses count as "accessories" to the sclerals.
Grrrrrrrrrr!
(Wich reminds me: the person who was supposed to be finding out about this and getting back to me hasn't.....)
If you're going this route, watch out for this.

Rosemary