Anyone ever get neovascularization from contact use?

Gibson824

I was just told I have this .  Basically my corneas are not getting enough oxygen so my vision is blurred due to growth of new blood vessels to try and get my eyes to breathe.

Can anyone tell me their recovery time?  I have some steroid drops but am just feeling realloy discouraged.

lindseyann410

Wow I haven't heard of this.  Do you have hard or soft lenses?  Do you wear them all day? Take them out at night?  Now I would like to know how to avoid the situation even though I've had contacts for 15 years.

marinabreeze

That's scary :-(.  I never heard of this, but now I know it can happen (especially since I wear contacts pretty regularly).

Gibson824

I do wear contacts, but never for very long periods of time and some days not at all.  The scary thing is, it develops over a long period of time, so you may not know you have it until the opthamalogist is prying open your eye...

coralee715

Yup!  And then corneal ulcers & perforated cornea due to the ulcers.  Contacts are not my friend.  I had to give up wearing them for 4 months to heal, and then I tried 6 different kinds of contacts and none were "right".  I gave up for about a year, tried new ones last week.  Accuvue oasys - after 5 days an ulcer was developing.  I wore my contacts from about 730am - 6pm at night, used hand sanitizer before touching contacts and used clean care contact lens solution.  Makes me frustrated cuz I hate wearing glasses but I will wear them becuase it is not worth ruining my eyes.

jess9802

I was in the early stages of it due to long-term use of gas permeable lenses. My doctor switched me to daily disposable soft lenses, and that's made all the difference. In the three or four years since then, he has not noticed any new blood vessel growth, and my eyes look a lot less red and bloodshot than they used to.

Gibson824

I was using the Acuvue Oasys with Hydraclear for about 8 months which is why I was so surprised when this happened.  My opthalmalogist says that aside from this, my eyes are very healthy, so that was good news.

Jess, how long did yours last would you say?  I am on a steroid drop right now and then using moisturizing drops every chance I get.  I am going to get fitted for gas permeables or maybe switch to once dailies as soon as I get the go ahead.  I have to go back on Thursday and am trying to stay positive about this whole mess.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

jess9802

I'm not sure how long the blood vessel growth had been going on. I wore Boston gas permeable lenses from the time I was 14 until I was about 26 or 27, if I recall correctly, and my eyes always looked vaguely bloodshot unless I went more than one or two days wearing just my glasses. When my eye doctor noticed the blood vessel growth, he told me that soft daily disposable lenses would be better for me and I made the switch immediately. I didn't have to use any eyedrops; the redness began to subside almost immediately and at my next exam he said there was no new vessel growth though the "ghost" vessels remained.

The soft lenses have been so much better thanks to my allergies and the protein deposits I was prone to with the RGP lenses. I've been pretty happy since the switch and my eyes do look so much healthier. I wear Focus Dailies now and despite the higher cost really like them.

Gibson824

Thanks!  Fingers crossed!

dragonwagon

I wear mine to sleep and rarely take them out. I'm a bad, bad contact wearer. I hope this doesn't happen to me. I really should take better care.

lyndausvi

Umm... just in the last few months I've been having blurry vision in my right eye after wearing contacts for 25 years.  This sound a like what is happening to me.  I have an appointment soon to find out.  In the mean time glasses seem to help, although I hate wearing my glasses.

Gibson824

FI wears his so much and says that this happening to me is going to put him in check, but that has not happened ha.  As a preventative measure, I would just wear your contacts less and use a moisturizing drop whenever your contacts are out.  I am a little nuts with the drops right now, trying to force the oxygen into my eyes