Plugs

I don't know about you, but when I was young and learning to swim, nose plugs were really wonderful!  It was kind of like a crutch that I used to feel more comfortable in the water.  They look dorky, but diving without them wasn't my cup of tea.

So now all of these years later it looks like I'm getting some new plugs of a different kind -- eye plugs.

The eye dryness that was keeping me from wearing my contacts has a fairly simple cure that will last.  There are two drainage holes at the inside corner of each eye.  The lower one is more visible and drains off about two-thirds of the tears that bathe the eyes.  That's a lot of tears!

So with a small plug put into the lower drain (it has a name but I forget) the tears that would have been absorbed are now able to stay a little longer on the surface of the eye.  The contact lenses that had started to feel like they were at least an eighth of an inch thick float like they used to do without discomfort.

The eye doctor was able to put in some dissolvable plugs on Friday to test the concept in my case.  On Saturday morning when I popped the contacts in, it was just like the old days!  I could wear them again with comfort and it lasted a long time but not as long as I would normally wear them, which I  attributed to the fact that I'd not worn them much at all for months.

When you wear contacts, the optimum reaction should be that after a while you totally forget they are in.  They just become part of your daily routine and there is almost no thought given to them at all.  It is only when your brain starts saying, "I'm wearing contacts, did you hear me?"  And then repeat and repeat and repeat that it becomes increasingly annoying.  Some of us might be more stalwart about facing such an obstacle but for me it was wave the white flag.  I just couldn't manage with that awful feeling.

And it was probably good that I did give up.  Apparently, without enough tears contacts can cause bigger problems than just discomfort, like a corneal ulcer from rubbing the eye or a scratch or an eye infection, who knows? 

Dryness occurs with age.  It also is a side effect of long-term contact lens use.  If you don't wear contact lenses, you might not realize that you even have dry eye because the condition can be fairly asymptomatic.  I don't notice much of a problem with glasses.

The procedure is usually covered by medical insurance because dry eye is not just a visual issue, it is a medical issue. 

My eye doctor has had the plugs for 14 years.  He is probably around maybe late 50s I'm thinking and so that starts him wearing plugs in his early 40s maybe.  My son is 38 and he is having dry eye symptoms already and has abandoned his soft contacts.  He might be a good candidate for the plugs, I'm thinking.

So if you are one of those who wore contact lenses and loved them and now find that they are causing you problems, get the dry eye thing checked out.  There might be a solution for you to keep on going.

As I told the eye doctor, since I don't need corrective lenses now for close work, I don't want to have Lasik done.  This would necessitate wearing glasses for close.  With the art work that I do and love, I want to use my eyes the way that God gave them to me.  It would bother me that no matter what I did, I could never really go back.

Well, have a wonderful day.  It feels like we should all go out and buy a couple of bags of apples, doesn't it?