Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
Kathy, I wore hard contact lenses for approximately 15 years, then went to gas permeable contact lenses. So wore them for about 28 years in all. That was the first thing to go when I started developing symptoms of BEB. I originally thought that was what my problem was and it might have been a trigger for it. When I stopped wearing them, I never even got back to a point that I could put them back in. I'd be at work and putting drops in my eyes and couldn't wait for the work day to be over so I could go home and take out my contacts and take a nap. It didn't really make my eyes feel much better, though, after I got them out. I hate glasses. But right now, I am glad to have them to hide behind. Especially with the FL-41 tints.
I don't know if it caused the problem but certainly could have been a trigger for the symptoms.Shirley in AR.
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
I'll be the other side of the coin. I tried to wear contacts back when there were only hard ones - I was in college. My eyes were too dry way back then and I gave up on them within a year of first trying and never tried again. I only wear glasses for distance vision and decided the discomfort wasn't worth it.Virginia in AL
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
I wore soft contact lenses for many years.
I had to stop because my eyes became very dry.
I stopped wearing them quite a few years before BEB.
I also used to think maybe that was the cause.
I also thought chemicals,toxins,meds.& stress, could
have been the cause.
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
I have never worn contacts but I did have very bad alergies. My eyes would get swollen. The itching was terrible.
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
I wore soft contact lens for about 15 years or so before being diagnosed with BEB. In my opinion contacts had nothing to do with it. I think it is more of a nerve/stress/subconscious thing and that is why it is so hard to treat effectively and why different things work/don't work for different people. Just my opinion.
Cynthia in IL where it is cold and windy today - but summer IS coming!
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
Hi Cynthia;
I was wondering the same thing today. I wore hard lenses for about
ten or twelve years and then switched to soft lenses for about the
last ten years. However, I always had irritation and needed drops.
It seems to be connected.
Jan(MI)
Contacts/Cause & Effect
Hello Jan,Nice to meet you! Many of us have had a history of wearing contacts (myself included for many years). However, much of the population also wears them with no problem. The problem with Blepharospasm originates in the Basal Ganglia of the brain. The 7th. cranial nerves are affected which in turn cause the muscles that this nerve comes into contact with to spasm. http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/cnerves/cn7/cn7_1.html Judy
blkmn36@earthlink.net
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
I wore them for years on three different occasions. When BEB started I had worn the soft disposable that I slept in for 15 years. I stopped wearing them as soon as symptoms started.
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
I wore contacts (hard ones)for twenty years before having radial keratotamy. Now I wear glasses for astigmatism.
Shelley
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
I am pretty sure that in my case the cause of my spasms was many years of taking psychiatric drugs, but long before the spasms themselves became noticeable, I think my loss of tolerance for my contact lenses was one of the first signs that something was happening. I wore hard lenses comfortably for about 4 years. Then for a few years after that I still wore them but I had to take them out and clean them every few hours. I thought I was allergic to the local pollen. The last 6 months or so before I gave them up, the left lens always felt like it was sitting exactly where it was supposed to be, but the right lens felt like it was sitting too high, and I would keep trying to blink it back into place, and it would fall out. After I gave up on the contact lenses, I had 4 years with no eye-related discomfort at all, followed by 3 years of intermittent and migratory facial pain, and then the eye muscle spasms. For 16 years it was really just a moderately irritating blinking tic, but the last 8 months have been very uncomfortable.
Re: Welcome to the bb,
Hi Lunakitty,
Welcome to the Blepharospasm bulletin board. I'm sorry that your eyes have gotten worse. Have you been diagnosed with Blepharospasm? Do you get botox or have to take any medications for the spasms? Sounds like you've really been dealing with your eye problems for a long time.Tell us a little about yourself if you like. We've all been trying to do a little of that under the heading of "Bio's" that our moderator Judy Blackman posted. It is on this page. Do you have any questions for us? Shirley in AR.
Re: Welcome to the bb,
Thanks for the welcome, Shirley. I will look for that heading of bios.
If anybody responds to my messages in the next week and I don't answer, it's not rudeness; it's just that I am going out of town after tomorrow.
Re: Welcome to the bb,
Check back in when you get back in town. We're always here and you are always welcome. If you are gone for very long, you may have to go back quite a few pages to find your original post again. Occasionally we don't "talk" much but usually things move along at a fairly quick pace. My son says this is the weirdest bulletin board that he has ever seen. He says that most bulletin boards are something that people check every couple of days or once a week but we act like this is a chat room.See you later, Shirley in AR.
Re: Welcome to the bb,
I think your son is correct in saying that we use this bulletin board as a chat room. Some of us (myself included) find chat rooms terribly confusing if there are more than three at the most persons talking. And there are others (I believe June is one) who can't stand the jiggling and flashing of the screen. So our method works very well as far as I'm concerned. I usually "stroll through" here two or three times a day during the week and at least once a day during week-ends.Sally in North Idaho
Re: bulletin board and how we use it.
Same here Sally, I check it several times a day (when I can) and I like it the way that it is. I don't actually care for the "chat" rooms myself. Also find them a bit much. I need a little more time to put something together.Shirley in AR.
Re: bulletin board and how we use it.
i sometimes also need time to think about what i'm going to say and by your description of it i don't think my eyes could handle it now.actually thanks for the warning that is something that can set my spasms off for quite awhile.
--modified by kathy at Thu, Jun 07, 2001, 10:04:45
Re:Chat Rooms
Kathy, some people like them and the spontaneity and immediate feedback. The chat room has never made my spasm worse or caused any additional difficulties with my eyes. I just don't care for that forum as much. I worry about typos and who is saying what. There might be a whole other conversation going on while I am responding to a different comment. My kids say that I shouldn't worry about the typos or punctuation or capitol letters. They say that chat rooms don't have any rules like that and you just go in short little bursts. I've seen some of their chat room discussions and that is definitely the case for them. I just can't think that fast or type that fast. I can't believe their typing speed and accuracy.(when they really need to be accurate) they turn it on and off so easily. Mistakes/no mistakes. No mistakes slows them down a little but not much. Their favorite key is the backspace button. They would rather not have to think about any mistakes so they prefer the chat rooms. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that they can be very flexible and can turn it on or off where I can't. I have enjoyed the few "chats" that I have been in on with this bb but do prefer the bb.Shirley in AR. who awoke with eyes more swollen than normal. (still surgery side-effects.)
Re: Re:Chat Rooms
I kind of enjoy the chat room. The hub bub and immediate feedback
is kind of exciting to me even though I mess it up at times. Joanne M. San Diego, CA
Re: Re:Chat Rooms
maybe i'll still try one some time, then. Sounds like you Are doing better , i can hear/feel it in your typing! oh so that's why Phil types like that!! i'll have to ask him how proficient he is at chatting! it's just easier for me to do it his way because i am so slow.
Re: CHAT ROOM
I definitely can't use the chat room - tried it just once and it was like fireworks going off in my eyes! I had lots of pain from it - won't try it again, thank you!June in Toronto, where its a beautiful 22 degC day
Re: how many have worn contact lenses before getting BEB?
well then, maybe the majority of you have never worn them/ I think it can in some cases be a trigger too, after wearing them longterm.
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