Hello All! In celebration of my wife and I deciding that Italy is the official destination of our 25th wedding anniversary in 2012, let me say, “Buon Natale!”
Well, it happens every year. We preach and preach for all our contact lens patients to follow the prescribed wearing schedule, use the prescribed solutions, and have accurate back-up glasses. As Santa checks his list of naughty and nice, where would you fall when it comes to following your eye doctor’s instructions regarding your contact lenses? As often happens, late afternoon on Christmas Eve, a Durham patient paged me; from the tone of her voice, I worried that a true ocular emergecny had taken place. Sure enough…..she had ripped her last contact lens!!!! The horror!!!! When I asked her about the back-up glasses that we had personally recommended to her every year for the past 7 years, she admitted that she had never purchased them. ”What can I do Dr. Clark? I need to see for Christmas!” I gently (well, sort of gently) reminded her that THESE ARE THE REASONS that she ought to have the glasses, and then I called Mike, who has worked on our team for 14 years. Mike met the patient at the office and gave her a pair of lenses to last her until she could get in to buy lenses this week.
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The day before, a bit after we closed for the Christmas holiday on December 23rd, we got a call from a similarly frantic Mother; her son was having terrible eye pain. I met this new family to our practice in our Cary office, and sure enough the ten-year-old son had a large corneal abrasion in his right eye. This was a big one! Every patient that I have ever had who has given birth and has also suffered a significant corneal abrasion has sworn that the abrasion hurt worse. This little guy was hurting, and in for a tough Christmas! Thankfully, I was able to fit him in a bandage contact lens, prescribe protective medications, and when I checked on him that evening he was already feeling much better. Christmas trees and corneas do not mix!
We cannot predict true accidents. To paraphrase a popular saying, “Abrasions happen!” However, we can predict other problems. If you do not follow instruction concerning your contact lenses, you have a much greater likelihood of having a problem later. We make our recommendations based on over 38 years of experience, and they are backed by lots of studies and research. We care for you and your eyes! All we ask is that you care as much about them as we do!
Be well (or I guess I should say, essere ben)!
Dr. Tony Clark
www.trianglevisions.com
919.544.2020 (Durham/RTP)
919.367.5555 (Cary)
