Dear Dr. Kading,
I wanted to says thanks for all that you have done for our family over the last 10 years. I cannot believe what we did not know in 2020 when we started seeing you. Back then, little Sam was 5 years old, and Jenny was 9. I won’t say how old Cindy and I were.
Both of us are nearsighted, and I was starting to hate my contact lenses. You didn’t just switch me into a new contact lens like the prior physician did; instead, you taught me that if my lenses are dry, it is probably my eyes. Sure enough, you discovered that my eyelid [meibomian] glands were not flowing, and you did that treatment. After that, I was wearing my lenses for more hours comfortably. I have upgraded every couple of years and am now wearing a daily disposable manyfocal [multifocal] lens when I work and distance daily disposable lenses on the weekends when I am hanging with the kids. It’s a great balance.
Cindy has always struggled with her stigma [astigmatism]. She was starting to have nearstrain and was thinking that she was going to have to start wearing her glasses when she went into bifocals. You shared how there were new stigma manyfocal-type contact lenses. You fit her, and she has been doing well. While she needs more correction (yeah, she is getting old), you patiently worked with her to find a great balance. She really appreciates all of your hard work and helping her to wear contact lenses when she wants to.
The Children
While Cindy and I have really bad eyes (more than 6 diometers [diopters]), our kids have pretty small prescriptions comparably. When you first met Jenny, she had just started wearing glasses. You suggested that we try going into the sleeping lenses [orthokeratology]. She tried that for five years but just didn’t like it all that much. You put her into those manyfocal lenses for kids, and she wore them for a couple of years till we did that six- and then 12-month experiment to see whether she was still progressing. She wasn’t, so now she wears those daily disposable super gel [silicone hydrogel] lenses when not wearing her really cool glasses.
We thought that you were crazy when you met Sam. You convinced us that he needed an eye exam even though he sat on our lap before you came in and could see perfect. (Yes, we admit it, we did an eye exam on him before you came in the room). But, we finally brought him in and you put those defocus [dilating] drops in and found out that he had a perfect prescription at 5 years old. We thought that was great, but it really worried you. You said that he should be farsighted at 5 years old, and you started him on those night drops [atropine]. The next year, his prescription progressed, and you put him in the night lenses. I am not sure if he got genes that are different from the rest of us, but now at 15 years old (last you checked), his prescription without his sleep lenses is only 1 diometer. We tried getting him to wear glasses, but he wants to keep wearing the sleep lenses.
Thanks a Bunch
We wanted to say thanks for all that you have done, how you educated us, and how grateful we are that you attend all those conferences and are always up on the latest and greatest contact lenses.
READ MORE: https://www.clspectrum.com/issues/2020/august-2020/contact-lens-practice-pearls
