You are the perfect example of the faithful RGP wearer I hope that you always have the good fortune of a doctor who is good at fitting them (not all are). For the sake of sanity, and in the event that you do have to change doctors at some point, ALWAYS request and keep a copy of your RGP Rx so that future eye exams will go more smoothly for you. This will be very important in the event that you relocate or for some reason can no longer see the same eye doctor. You’ll save yourself and your new doctor a lot of time.
And I can tell you, almost all our RGP patients share your sentiments on soft/soft toric contacts. And, I like the word “floopy”. And I hated beyond words every toric lens ever made by the Acuvue people. No stability w/Acuvue toric, and creepy red splotches on my scleras with the Acuvue Advance toric :eek:
It’s true that you can’t give yourself a retinal detachment with contact lenses. I DO teach the symptoms during the Insertion and Removal training, but that’s only because it’s the only opportunity I really have to educate. If you are extremely nearsighted (anything over, say, -6.00), you do have a higher likelihood of possibly at some point getting a retinal detachment, simply because of how the eye is shaped. You’re more likely though, to get a detachment following a blow to the head. Of course, there is the whole genetic thing. In any case, err on the side of caution and just have your eyes dilated at every exam. And, if weird shit starts showing up in your vision, call the doctor’s office. Anyone employed by an eye dr. should know the symptoms well.
You own your contact lens prescription. This was not always true. In the US, it is against the law for your eye doctor to refuse to give you a copy of your VALID contact lens Rx. Valid means that you’ve shown up for all your necessary follow-up appointments and have been “cleared for takeoff”. It’s called the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act or something like that. Go ahead and buy your contacts from a reputable online dealer or Walmart. Save the money, as those of us in smaller practices simply can not compete with those who buy in bulk. Just know that anyone who sells you lenses other than what is written on the Rx or past the exp. date, is committing a crime, unless in an unregulated state (although that will change too, as a valid RX will soon be necessary for ALL contact lens purchases).
Your doctor will put an expiration date on your contact lens prescription. It is rare that any doctor will give you more than a year on the Rx. Covering their own asses, and yours. Sucks that most vision insurance only covers every 2 years.
25,000 Americans permanently lose the ability to wear contact lenses every year, due to being stupid (um, my eye’s been red like this for about 4 weeks now, but it’s my last pair of contacts and I didn’t want to take them out :smack: ). It’s not the extended wear patients who do it right that make us crazy… it’s the ones who refuse to listen.
WishIHadACoolName, maybe you can help me out. I have -1.25 vision in both eyes, no astigmatism, no nothing. I started wearing contacts about a couple of years ago, and was never really comfortable with them. I’d put them on in the evening if I was heading out, and within a couple of hours, I’d look like a mentally unstable, homicidal maniac - on account of my eyes being red and dry as hell, causing me to be blinking like a lunatic with a nervous tic in his eyes.
Oh, and I’m using J&J’s Acuvue 30-day disposables. I tried using the 2-week disposables, same problem. My contact lens solution is Bausch & Lomb’s ReNu with MoistureLoc Multi-Purpose Solution.
A couple of opthalmologists I went to tried putting me on to Bausch & Lomb lenses, which were even worse. Apparently I have dry eyes, whatever the hell that means. Ive even tried carrying a little spritzer (Refresh Tears) around with me, which gives me relief for all of 5 minutes.
When I read your post, I went “Huh. I have to rub them clean every time I use them? Well, damn. I just pop them back in the case and change the solution every 3 or four times.”
Is that why i’m so uncomfortable when I’m wearing lenses? Or is it something else? Any advice you can give me, compadre, will be muchos appreciated.
WishIHadACoolName, I have astigmatism and many years ago (about 15) I tried semi-gas permiable lenses and it was a nightmare. They felt like barbed wire on my eyeballs and my eyes were so bloodshot that I looked like I was stoned. I could only wear them for a couple of hours at a time (literally) before I was in so much pain I could barely see. Also, the lenses kept flipping or turning, or settling into my cornea (or whatever it was doing) and my vision would get blurry and I couldn’t see unless I squinted and blinked. I looked like I had Tourettes. Needless to say, I went back to glasses.
Is there anything out there that I might be able to wear in the line of contact lenses? I’d be willing to try something again if the chances were good that I could actually wear them painfree.
Count me in as another Night&Day user. I used to wear weekly contacts up until 3 months ago, and sadly, I didn’t always remember to take them out at the end of the week. I’d frequently leave them in for two, and boy did I notice them toward the end. The Night&Days have been a godsend.
The only things about the Night&Days that I noticed, coming from the weeklys, is that they’re firmer than the weeklys. They’re still soft disposables, but they are firmer, and I believe that’s the reason my eyes are a lot more intolerant of dust or lashes than they were before. Some solution and maybe some time under running water helps that easily enough, though.
I’d probably be considered a bad patient, because I leave them in constantly (never noticed a real problem), rub my eyes frequently (though I try to be circumspect about it so I don’t dislodge the lens) and as mentioned above, I sometimes wear the contacts past the point they need to be taken out. I’ve been wearing them for over 10 years now, though, and I haven’t had any issues.
The one thing I’m always careful about is having clean hands when putting them in or removing them, and always being sure to wet them before taking them out. My father once attempted to pop out a contact while it was dry, and he ended up tearing his eye. Since then, I’ve been extremely careful while taking them out.
LOL I have every prescription glasses or contact ever given me =) The schlerals, original hard lenses and RGPs were all done by the same guy, who also did my first 20 years of glasses. I was devastated when he retired
Being diabetic, I am particular about my eyes. Just wish there was a way to remove the 3 largeish floaties that we are watching.
My prescription is something like -12.50/-11.75. Over the last 16 years or so I have gone from Hard (plain ol’ plastic) to GP (funky oxygenating plastic) to Soft (rubbery siliconey ones) to Acuvue Daily Disposables (pure funky goodness).
I have throughout that period always found contacts to offer massively superior vision correction and convenience compared to glasses. Not only can I see better, but I get full peripheral vision, no gunk on glasses, no issues with broken specs, it’s all good.
Daily disposables are, IMHO, the most superior product, and well worth the small extra cost. Just carry a handful of lenses with you and all your problems can be solved. Eyes dry and tired? Fresh lens. Been swimming and got some salt/chlorine in your lenses? Fresh lens. Unexpectedly need to sleep over somewhere? Fresh lens. Too drunk to pay attention to taking your lenses out? Toss them in the corner of your bedroom, fresh lens in the morning. You get the picture.
In terms of eye damage, your eyes are indeed pretty robust. They are however very sensitive to infection and to vascularisation - both significant issues with extended wear of lenses, and two of the main reasons why I steer clear of them. I don’t care what the manufacturers say, the idea of having a soft squishy absorbent piece of plastic soaking in proteinated saline solution while exposed to the air for a month in my eye does not exactly fill me with confidence. Hygenie+Oxygen=Healthy Eyes.
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When I read your post, I went “Huh. I have to rub them clean every time I use them? Well, damn. I just pop them back in the case and change the solution every 3 or four times.”
Is that why i’m so uncomfortable when I’m wearing lenses? Or is it something else? Any advice you can give me, compadre, will be muchos appreciated.
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Yes, cleaning the lenses properly after every wear would help enormously, especially if you find a brand new pair to be OK, but they get progressively worse as you wear them. Of course, dry eyes + contacts = sucks I speak from experience there There are a few new lenses out there (I like the Ciba O2Optix; and the Acuvue Advance and the newer Acuvue Oasys are supposed to rock, but I’m allergic to the Advance material, so I can’t give personal opinion on those, though we have LOTS of patients wearing Advance). I found more patients sensitive to Renu than most other solutions (oddly enough, I liked it). You might find you’d like something called Complete MoisturePlus by AMO. Just a thought there. And ABSOLUTELY do NOT re-use the solution in the case!!! Dump it out after every insertion, rinse the case with a little more solution, and leave the lids of the case off so it can dry out and minimize bacterial growth. You might also try a rewetting drop called BLINK by AMO. That’s my new favorite. Blink-n-Clean (also AMO) might work well for you too, as it seems to clear some of the “gunk” off the lenses when you blink. Alcon makes one similar to it called Clerz Plus, but I think that one is more expensive. Whatever you do, DO NOT use a drop called Systane while wearing contacts. It is AWESOME in “naked” eyes, but awful with contacts in. If you want the easiest solution available, ask your doctor about ClearCare (Ciba vision I think). It’s a peroxide solution, which is pretty “old school”, but I LOVE it so much, I think I should write an Ode to it
Appreciate away I’m all too happy to help. It makes me sad to think of how many people leave the doctor’s office without the proper education on contact lenses. I guess I care about my job a little too much. The doctors at our office call me the Contact Lens Nazi (No contacts for you!) LOL
I have a question first… where exactly IS the armpit of PA? Because I live in the “coal region” and I thought we were, well…
Anyway, if it’s been 15 years since you tried, GET THEE TO THE EYE DOCTOR! There’s all sorts of new stuff in contact lenses today. You could probably wear soft torics (price increases if your astigmatism is over 2.50 diopters, sorry).
Sounds like your last foray into contact lenses was an awful experience. Talk to all your friends about their eye doctors, and find one who will take the time to get it right for you. Yes, gas perms hurt when you start out, but the dr. should have advised you to start VERY slowly. Some patients can tolerate only 1 hour a day for the first few, then increase in 30 minute increments as tolerated. Again, another situation where I just hate knowing that it sucked for you. Bums me out and I wish you were a patient where I work
I wish the floaters were removable for you Are you seeing a retinal specialist? I’m guessing that you probably are, esp. since you’re diabetic. If you’re not already, ask for a referral to one. That’s an art I wish I knew more about. Our retinal guy is so intelligent, it sort of freaks me out. But if my maculas ever crap out on me, I’ll be glad he’s here!
And I totally understand being devastated when your dr. retired. I once cried for a day when I found out my dentist was relocating…
Actually, eyecare is the only real matter i have gone apeshite on the tricare people about The navy has never particularly given a crap about dependant health [the general consensus was always that the wives all are munchausens drones who come to the hospital for no reason looking for attention because hubby is always out to sea … assholes.] so I have had to be anal about demanding things from them. My current Doc is also diabetic, and is wonderful. I know I get run through different diagnostic goodies than the run of the mill patient, and I get exams every 6 months instead of annually because of her. She has done something to change my status from generic to specialized care. The only thing she really cant do is prescribe me my contacts - as I didt get them from the navy originally, they cant do a contact specific exam and prescription, but she has suggested a civillian that I can see once I have the cash to actually get a new scrip.
I just wish random idiots would stop lying to doctors so it would be easy for them to just listen to people. If I have a problem, I dont want to have to expend a serious amount of energy trying to convince someone that I have a real no shit problems that needs addressing=( I dont understand why it should be unusual for me to be able to describe the exact apparent size, and shape that a floater has. They are in my damn eye, and I do see them daily. With the previous doctor I had to spend 45 minutes convincing them that the new floaty actually existed, and yes I could actually see it, and yes it was not there before…
[I have 3 floaties, a trilobed ‘clover’, a ‘dna strand’ and a ‘tadpole’. I can see them wandering around as I sit here and type. Cant everybody see their floaties against a white background?!]
Harrisburg…If you look at the turnpike as being an arm (divided down the middle with I-83) then Philadelphia is one hand, Pittsburg the other, Harrisburg is the middle and 83 is the body…nevermind.
Thanks for your input on contacts. I have a vision appointment due soon, and I just may explore contacts this time.
I hope that you always have the good fortune of a doctor who is good at fitting them (not all are). For the sake of sanity, and in the event that you do have to change doctors at some point, ALWAYS request and keep a copy of your RGP Rx so that future eye exams will go more smoothly for you. This will be very important in the event that you relocate or for some reason can no longer see the same eye doctor. You’ll save yourself and your new doctor a lot of time.
Since then, I’ve been extremely careful while taking them out.
I’m feeling much better now
The navy has never particularly given a crap about dependant health [the general consensus was always that the wives all are munchausens drones who come to the hospital for no reason looking for attention because hubby is always out to sea … assholes.] so I have had to be anal about demanding things from them. My current Doc is also diabetic, and is wonderful. I know I get run through different diagnostic goodies than the run of the mill patient, and I get exams every 6 months instead of annually because of her. She has done something to change my status from generic to specialized care. The only thing she really cant do is prescribe me my contacts - as I didt get them from the navy originally, they cant do a contact specific exam and prescription, but she has suggested a civillian that I can see once I have the cash to actually get a new scrip.