Keratoconus vs fluid goggles

[dimitris33]

Ok I have an eye disease called "keratoconus" and I'm wearing special keratoconic contact lenses which are soft in the circumference touching the white part of the eye and hard in the middle touching my brown part of the eye. Each of this contact lense costs about 250 euros and i have to update them every year... Cornea transplant surgery is an option for me but my doctor says better not to do it because my condition is not so serious than others patients, so better to stay with the contact lenses (the desease may appear on the transplant too!).

While i'm using my mask during diving the squeeze makes me feel uncomfortable even when equalizing my mask i feel pressure in the eyes area and between the eyes.

I'm wondering if I will be able to use fluid goggles with saline water without the risk of loosing my precious contact lenses popping out the eye and getting away to the open sea...!

Hope to hear the specialist's opinion too among others,

dimi

 

[efattah]

Hi Dimi,

As one of the inventors of fluid goggles, I can say that people with corneal disfigurements often see better with fluid goggles than with regular glasses (!) This is because the cornea vanishes underwater, it has no power, so its defects are gone as well. The lens in the fluid goggle acts exactly as an artificial cornea. In your case I would recommend using the fluid goggles WITHOUT any contact lenses on. It is true that I use my goggles with my regular soft contact lenses on, and they stay on, but I can't say that for sure with your special lenses. Normal soft contact lenses vanish underwater and have no power, so it makes no difference to acuity. I'm not 100% sure of the refractive index of your lenses, so again I can say for sure if wearing or not wearing the lenses will have an effect, but certainly not wearing them should be fine.

Do be aware that there are two types of fluid goggles, one which allows you to see both above and below the water, and another lower profile version which allows you to see underwater but not above water.

 

[BennyB]

I would not wear contacts with fluid goggles. I've been wearing contacts for years with my normal (non-fluid) masks with no issues at all. I recently wore some fluid goggles and one lense popped out fairly quickly, luckily though I found it sitting on the edge of the goggle and managed to swim to shore and pop it back in, not a fun process though and they were only fortnightly ones, not too expensive.

Constantly worrying about your expensive lenses popping out will take away from the enjoyment/concentration on your dive, trust me I know!

I've had 3 types of soft contacts over the years - the first type had a higher water content and I found that they would really glue to my eye - which made them great for swimming underwater with my eyes open (but as Eric says contacts are useless underwater) because they wouldn't come off, but trying to peel them off afterwards was not a fun process. Second type were silicon hydrogel which had less water content. Much more comfy during the day but would not stick to the eye and therefore would come loose from the eye very easily underwater. Same with the third type, they're another sort of hydrogel.

You should not be experiencing discomfort with your eyes by diving underwater, this would suggest that there might be some air trapped between your eye and the lense. When you put them on put your finger on the lense and give it a wiggle around, this will help get the air out. If you're getting pain between the eyes then this could very well be a sinus issue.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[dimitris33]

Eric, Benny, thanks for the responses.

When i readed your post eric it make me jumb off my chair!! I never thought or imagined that cornea vanishes underwater!!!!!! This may change my freediving life!!!

When I'm not wearing my contact lenses I see very very very very blury... I cannot drive, see tv, read book, even read who's calling me on mobile (I have to stick the phone on my eye in order to see!)...

In the sense of cornea vanishes underwater, normally I should be seeing as everybody does underwater or above water while wearing the fluid goggles (type of fluid goggles which allows to see both above and below water). Eric please advice what are the differences between these two versions. I mean, why there is a version which can only see underwater and not above? Does this version works better underwater comparable with the other?

Imagine that I'm using the goggles without my contact lenses. So I'm wearing the version which can only see underwater and I cannot see above..This terrifies me and makes me feel uncomfortable... I'd like to be able to see both above and below water the same. Please have in mind that i dont have a boat at this time (but its planned) so my dives refers to swimming from beach to the desired depth. This takes time and my entire sessions takes about 2 hours from the time entering water till getting out.

So, getting out my contact lenses at the beach and wearing fluid goggles filled with saline water, then swim to the desired position, then make my training/dives/play around/then get back to the beach and put back my contact lenses gonna work?? I can have a bottle of saline water with me on my inflatable buoy but I can imagine it should be hard to update/refill goggles in order to refresh the fluid in them with choppy water, etc..

Despite my corneal disease I think I have a little myopia too but i"m not sure. Does myopia vanish underwater and if not, is it corrected with the fluid goggles too?

Meantime, I will ask my doctor about the exact refractive index of my contact lenses and let you know.

Would like to hear more on this.

By the way, I'm surprised to see that there are no other divers in here having keratoconus. I've made a search putting the word "keratoconus" and there are no results to display, so maybe I'm the only one..

dimi

 

[apneaboy]

I made the same search on google and references to Atomic Kitten came up?

Go figure!?!

Der der derlader der der (tapping my bum)
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Waterenthusiast]

As i'm thinking of buying fluid goggles i wanted to ask the following:
@Eric, you mentioned that there are two types of fluid goggles, one low profile wich only gives corrected vision underwater and one wich achieves this feat also above the water. Which models are you talking about?

Greetings,
Christophe