My story, My love of SynergEyes KC lens
May 5, 2016
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I was 30. It was the early part of 1990. I just had my second daughter. I noticed while giving her the nightly feedings, while wearing my glasses (I would wear soft contact lenses during the day), that the lights across the street had a weird shape to them. The glare was just not right. The moon looked weird, too. I never noticed it before. I would take off my glasses and look at the lights, then put them back on to compare. At my next eye exam, I explained this to my doctor – he did some tests and said it appeared I had the beginning stages of Keratoconus especially in my right eye. After a couple years, he switched me over me to a Soft Toric lens. Things were okay for a while. I was able to see fairly well. When the Toric lenses stopped working, I found an Ophthalmologist located in our small town that accepted our vision insurance, to see if he could help. He told me there wasn’t anything more he could do. His suggestion was to quit wasting my money on a lens for my right eye. My left eye was still in very good shape. I took his suggestion and did not wear a lens in my right eye. I didn’t have prescription put into my right lens of my glasses. I lived like this for about 4 years. It wasn’t easy but I made the best of it. I really didn’t know what it was like to see well out of that eye anyways.
At one point, my Family Doctor suggested I see a Cornea specialist friend of his about 1-1/2 hours away from our town. I went to the University Of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center and seen Doctor Sugar. He referred me to a Low Vision doctor/fitter, Dr. Wicker. She tried a couple hybrid contact lenses. First one was the SynergEyes KC lens. This one was horribly uncomfortable. The second one was the Softperm. That was the one! It was comfortable and I was getting near 20 20 vision. It was like I was reborn again. I could actually see out of both eyes! I could see the design of the exam room chairs fabric. I could see the lines in the ceiling tiles. I could SEE! I wore them for a few years. I actually got good life out of them. I took real good care of them. I had to, my insurance didn’t cover Kellogg services, nor do they cover much on the lenses. I was lucky to get $100 reimbursed back from my insurance after spending nearly $600 at that time, per exam and new lenses.
It had been a couple years – since I had last seen her and had received new lenses. I made the appointment to get my new contacts. Mine were wearing out. Bad news!!!! The Softperm lenses were discontinued. I was mortified. She didn’t know that until she tried to order the replacements for me. So she called me back in to be fitted with the newest best Hybrid they were fitting, at that time, for their low vision patients. The SynergEyes ClearKone lens. She fitted me – I immediately didn’t like how it felt. I struggled with that lens for 6 months. I couldn’t wear the lens from more than a few minutes before it would fog completely over. I couldn’t see to work, to drive, to live! I had headaches. It was awful. I went back several times for re-fit and checks. I think I had the worst time with adjusting to one eye this time, then I did back before I found the Softperm lenses. I was totally stressed out.
She finally realized that lens was not working for me. It was like my eye was rejecting it. She tried piggyback. (I had never worn hard lenses before, only soft lenses.) I couldn’t insert or take out. I couldn’t’ tolerate them all. I was so frustrated. I was ready to go back to not wearing corrective lenses, again, in that eye. I had done some research and decided to ask her about the other lenses that SynergEyes company make. She mentioned to me that she had tried the KC lens when I first seen her, years ago and I couldn’t tolerate them. I asked her to please try them on my eye again. I couldn’t believe it. It felt exactly as comfortable as the Softperm did and I could SEE again! YAY! I am still wearing the KC lens today (2016) – I hope and pray they never discontinue that lens.
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