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From: beth@gymble.UUCP (Beth Katz)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: contact lenses and allergies
Message-ID: <92@gymble.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 14:35:59 EST
Article-I.D.: gymble.92
Posted: Thu Feb 21 14:35:59 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 06:09:27 EST
Reply-To: beth@gymble.UUCP (Beth Katz)
Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD
Lines: 27
Summary: 

I have been wearing soft contacts for seven years and extended wear lenses
for the last eight months.  I had no problems with the soft lenses other
than replacing them every 13 months or so.  My first set of extended lenses
was okay for about 5 months, but then crud starting building up on them
even though I cleaned and soaked them once a week.  My eyelids were allergic
to the crud (crud occurs when the secretions from your eyes stick to the
lenses and harden).  My eye doctor (optometrist at a store but he seemed as
competent as any ophthamologist I've ever seen and he's been wearing the
extended wear lenses for a couple of years) said that about 10% of the people
wearing these lenses have this problem.  I replaced the lenses and haven't
had any problems in the last three weeks EXCEPT I am allergic to something
in my boyfriend's apartment.   Maybe it's dust or something in the carpet,
but the first place I notice it is in my eyes.  Taking half a Dimetane every
six hours or so cleared up my problem.  At first I thought it was the contacts
again, but the Dimetane (an over-the-counter antihistimine) cleared up the
problem and I don't have a problem when I am home.

SO, from my experience, I would suggest avoiding thimersol to see if that
clears things up (it didn't for me), cleaning your lenses frequently
especially if there is a lot of dust or pollen in the air, being ready for
an allergic attack, and seeing your eye care professional if you have any
problems.  I was fortunate to have a year of followup visits included in
my contact deal.  I've invested $150 in contacts in the past eight months,
but I feel as though I have received excellent care.

					Beth Katz
					{seismo,allegra,rlgvax}!umcp-cs!beth