Andrew Wilkinson

So the saga of my eyes is continuing, and I'm currently on my fourth contact lens for my left eye, but there is a good chance I'll need another. My last lens fitted well and I could see really well. However, it was not letting enough oxygen get through to my cornea, which responded by growing a blood vessel. As the cornea is transparent having a blood vessel in it is not only unpleasant to look at but it could cause vision problems as well. To counteract this I've got a new lens which has more holes in it and is slightly flatter to let more tears underneath it.

Will the change in lens cause this blood vessel to disappear, or will I need a fifth lens? I have a check up next Monday to find out...

Today I had a contact lens fitting. It wasn't as unpleasant as I had expected, and while the lenses were uncomfortable after ten minutes or so it was ok. The biggest problem was that my eyes were watering bucket loads of tears which made it very hard to tell if the lenses were having an effect. I do think they will improve my vision considerably as they push the cornea of my left eye back into a more normal shape.

I need a hard lens of my left eye, and a soft one for my right which means that each requires a different technique for getting the lenses in and out of my eyes, but that's something to worry about when I have my training session on their use in a week or so I guess.

I picked up my first ever set of glasses on Saturday. Having never really worn sunglasses before, let alone proper glasses it's taking some getting used to. It's taken me a couple of days, but my eyes to finally be adjusting to the lenses and are not having to strain too much. The fact that everything has subtly changed size and shape means that my depth perception has been thrown off, which is somewhat disconcerting. I wonder how long before I will be able to press the button at a Pelican crossing on the first attempt?

I really left it too long to get glasses - I wish I could blame it on Spec Savers taking two weeks longer than they said to make them, but really I should have got them months ago. While the glasses do help, they don't fix my eyes completely - only contact lenses can do that. Annoyingly I will almost certainly have to go through all the diagnostic tests again here in Surrey, even though York did that, and I assume they will also diagnose me with Keratoconus. Once they've decided I really do have what I have I assume I'll be able to begin contact lens fittings.

In other news, I brought Lego Star Wars 2 for the Gamecube, and it's great fun.