Stacy is a new patient of mine. She is 39 years old and has recently changed jobs to work at one of the top tech companies in the Seattle area. Stacy has been noticing some dryness and eye strain recently and came in asking whether her prescription might have changed. A refraction yielded about the same prescription that Stacy has had in her glasses; but, as would be expected, her amplitude of accommodation is decreased. I also noted that Stacy has decreased oil secretions from her meibomian glands.
After a thermal pulsation treatment and dispensing of a pair of computer-specific eyeglasses, Stacy reported back two months later for her dry eye follow up. At that appointment, she noted how much better her eyes felt. However, she was complaining that when she wears her glasses, her eyes feel fantastic and she does not get the eye strain nearly at the level that she did before, but when she wears her contact lenses to work, her eyes really bother her. “Stacy,” I said. “You told me that you didn’t wear contact lenses.”
She proceeded to tell me that she had been fit with daily disposable lenses years ago in an effort to curb her discomfort, but it didn’t work. Now, because her eyes were feeling better, she had started wearing her old lenses one or two days a week to the office, and she is getting eyestrain. Stacy asked whether there are any contact lenses designed for computer use.
Stacy is not uncommon. Too often, I forget to dig into the history of why my patients stopped wearing contact lenses and neglect to talk with them about whether they want to wear lenses again. Stacy does, and she is a golden patient for the practice. She is someone who wants to wear glasses and wants to wear contact lenses.
She and I worked through a daily disposable multifocal lens that helped her with her near strain, and she continued to wear her old distance-only lenses for activities such as skiing and volleyball. When you fix one problem for a patient, don’t forget that you may have fixed another one at the same time.
READ MORE: https://www.clspectrum.com/newsletters/contact-lenses-today/august-16,-2020
