I just got contacts

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have glasses. I have had them for a while. I only wear them when I’m driving and in movies or plays - when I have to see something far away across a dark room. So it isn’t like I need constant vision correction. The eye doctor even tells me that I shouldn’t wear them all the time, just in the above situations, or if I feel I really need them. Which is good, because I don’t really like them very much.

Still, I thought it might be nice. Have them around occasionally in case I wanted to go to a play and not carry the stupid glasses with me. Just every so often.

So, now I’m typing with contacts in. They’re weird, kind of annoying. I definitely know they’re there. I can feel the ridges poking into my eyeballs. It is definitely less than comfortable. And they might be giving me a headache (of course, that could also be my job - there are so many potential headache sources). And there’s this cloud on the left edge of my left eye’s field of vision that I don’t really like, but it’s a bit elusive.

Did I mention, they hurt?

Also, I’m very much less sure about getting them in - at the doctor’s I couldn’t hold my other eye open (the eye that the contact wasn’t going into.) My eyes were both streaming while he tried to put them in. My trying to do it was damn near impossible. I’m a bit afraid that these are going to be stuck in for life, because I’m not sure I’ll be able to get my finger near enough to ever take them out.

I may have made a mistake. And not a cheap one either.

I wish I had perfect vision.

2

Hard as it may be to believe, it does get better. I went for contacts about two months ago, pretty much purely for the cricket season.

For the first fortnight they’ll drive you bug-fu_k nuts. Then you start getting desensitised.

I also went for the 30-day continuous-wear lenses, which irritated me far less than the others - I don’t know why. Maybe they’re a bit thinner. I still have to take them out and clean them every few days, but they certainly feel better.

When I got the things it took me almost half an hour to put them in. I’m still up around five minutes. Two quick tips:

  • Grab your eyelashes, not your eyelid, to open your eye. The eyelid will slip if you don’t.
  • Use a tissue over your middle finger to open your bottom lid - it gives better traction, and if you start tearing it can soak it up. Then reach over the top of your head to hold your top lid. THis stops you from pulling to the side.

But yes, it does settle down. It’ll take a couple of weeks, but it will settle down.

3

I wear glasses for what sounds like the same reason you do. Only to see far away, and just to “crisp things up a bit” However I was told because my prescription is so slight I might find I wear my glasses all the time. Well let me tell you, it’s a pain at the office to keep taking my glasses off n on, so I did get used to always wearing them … and I hate em, so I went the contact road too.

The headache maybe because you are not used to wearing your prescription all the time? As for feeling them and they hurt, if it doesn’t get better I’d say go back and try a different brand. It took three brands at the fitting before they didn’t feel all scratchy and itchy to me, and that’s what they sent me home with.

It took a good week to be totally used to it (and be able to get em in all the time), but it does indeed get better!

4

Well, I’ve worn contacts for the past, erm, ::counts on fingers since she could remember starting to until the present year:: five or six years. At first it was a little miserable, but after a few days you’ll get used to it right away. I’ve only had experience with disposable contacts, and I’ve got incredibly horrible vision [I can’t do much of anything that doesn’t require contacts], so it might skew my opinion of them. I always HATED glasses, and I still find them a pain in my ass when I wear them… all that time spent cleaning and not just doing whatever I’m doing. Good luck with your contacts, be patient, relax and just go with it. It’ll get easier after the first few times; just make sure that you’ll be patient and not panicky about getting them in or out of your eyes. Even I put them in backwards every now and then.

5

I don’t think that’s how you’re meant to wear your glasses.

6

I’m with all the others on saying stick it out, it gets better! I am also going to mention that maybe you should talk to your doctor and try a few different pairs of contacts. I have worn contacts for about 10 years and last time I got new contacts I had to try about 3 different pairs because non of the contacts were working. They all kind of messed up my vision, made me dizzy, gave me headaches etc. Finally I found some that work, they are two different brands (one for left, one for right) and they are working great. I have astigmatism and my vision is still clear and the lenses are comfy. So all I am saying is, don’t give up!

7

I have been wearing contacts since I was 14 - I’m 37 now. At first it was for vanity, but now it’s because I like wearing contacts better. Contacts have come a long way, I can still remember how uncomfortable they were at first.

With contacts you can take stuff out of the oven without your glasses fogging up (that really annoys me), or come in from the cold into a warm room - and no fogging! I can’t stand driving with my glasses - my eyes are bad enough that I have to turn my whole head to look for traffic - when I wear glasses I am seeing things out of the corner of my eye that aren’t there. It is so much easier with contacts.

I can take them out and put them in without a mirror, I don’t mind sticking my finger in my eyes anymore - it doesn’t bother me a bit. I just pick up my contact on my middle finger, pull down on my lower lid and pop it in, blink once, the deed is done. Just relax, and putting them in and taking them out will be easier.

8

Sorry, Amarinth, I should have said a bit more in my initial reply.

Let me preface this by saying two things. Firstly, I’m very slightly astigmatic. This is (apparently) traditionally compensated for by stepping up the strength of the lens a quarter of a diopter. Secondly, my optometrist gave me some pretty solid pre-prescription care, which I don’t know whether or not is standard. I was given an initial scrip, walked through the process, then had another appointment the next day, and a bit later. Then I was given another set of lenses to try. And another appointment. And so on.

At the one-week checkup after I was first given the lenses, I had a piercing ache coming from the socket around my right eye and a duller one from the left. The optometrist suggested a weaker prescription for the right eye and a slightly larger curve for the left eye. Bang. Both aches gone instantly.

Again, it could be that they don’t quite fit, but I didn’t have that symptom.

My major gripe is that the vision I get through the lenses isn’t nearly as good as my vision with glasses, especially in the right eye where I appear to be stuck between diopters - one’s a shade strong, the next one down’s a shade weak. Also, apparently due to the astigmatism, I take a fraction of a second to change from long to short focus, which I don’t do with glasses.

I’ve had 'em for two months. I still can’t do that reliably. But you do start to get less sensitive about poking yourself in the eye pretty quickly. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do except practice.

So do I, but LASIK’s about $5,500, and neither Medicare nor my health fund will pay for any of it. They’ll subsidise my contacts and/or glasses indefinitely, but they won’t even make one year’s optical contribution toward an elective, non-hospital procedure.

9

Aw, good luck. I got my contacts over the summer.

I can still sort of feel them, sometimes, but mainly they’re really good. I love them compared to my glasses.

Although here’s a little tip- don’t do what I did a few weeks ago. Don’t accidentally think it’s gone into your eye when it hasn’t and then spend eternity trying to peel a lens off when it isn’t there. Ugh, I get the shivers just thinking about what I was doing…<ugh>

10

I almost did that. Quick tip. If you don’t know if it’s in, shut your other eye and look at something that’s in your bad-vision range. If I can count the bricks on my neighbour’s wall, I know the lens is in. If I dry my eye and the wall’s still a mass of white, I get to spend half an hour looking for the lens on my bathroom floor.

On the bright side, having contacts mean that I’ve started cleaning my bathroom floor more often…

11

I got contacts when I was 13. being one of those tomboyish girls that are like “look! I can touch my eyeballs!” and would run around poking myself in the eyes,(prolly why I need them in the first place) contacts were no big deal. I got them in the first try.

If You can feel them its probably becAuse they’re in backwards. take them out, flip them over, put a drop of saline in it, use one hand to pull open your eye, and then pop it in. You shouldn’t feel them at all. I got the hang of it really quickly. I get the disposable ones that you use one pair for 2 months then throw them out, and they’re 60 bucks for 6 pairs.

12

I’m no optometrist, but I do wear contacts, and it sounds to me like you have one of two things going on.

First, you may have them on inside out, like ** magic8ball ** says.

Second, if they’re on right-side out, then in all likelihood, they’re not fitted right. It took my optometrist and I several tries to get it right- they felt exactly like you describe, UNTIL we got the right fit. Once you get that, you literally can’t feel them at all.

And, like ** magic8ball ** said, the 2 week disposables are great! That way, if you drop one on the floor or lose one in the pool, etc… you just open some new ones up.

13

Well, they’re out. Only took 25 minutes, at the gym - (it was just too annoying then, and good lighting). The people who wear these just to change their eyecolor & not for vision correction are insane.

I doubt they were in inside out - one, my optometrist put in. The other I put in with him sitting right there, watching every move I made…
It also tended to dig into my eye, not my eyelid.

I only plan to wear them every so often (maybe once every few weeks or less) so I’m using the daily disposable kind. I think it was the having them on inside for that long that contributed to the headache (the glasses almost never leave the car, I don’t tend to wear them inside if the room is even going to be semi-well lit.) But, I might try a different type next time it is refilled. Not sure how far away “next time” might be. Thank you for the tips. Maybe someday I’ll be able to “pop” them in. Now, it’s going to be more of a “wrangle.”

Zoggie, you’ve just scared the crap out of me. Oh wow, that’s awful.

14

I tried contact lenses-and gave them up. I could never reach to take them out,without my eyes blinking shut. I alsonever got used to wearing them-they always flet weird in my eyes.
I guess I am just unlucky-but have contacts improved over the past years? I just never felt comfortable wearing them.

15

Another tip: Don’t rub your eyes while you’re wearing contacts. You can lose your contact behind your eye.

This has happened to me more than once. I’m just dumb, I guess. I’ve retrieved them by pulling up my eyelid and ooking sharply into the edge of my vision against the bridge of my nose…the contact is usually way up on the opposite side of my eye, on the white part.

I’ve also absentmindedly put two contacts in on top of one another and then searched high and low for the “missing” contact.

16

If the contacts are bothing you a LOT:

Change cleaning solutions!

Odds are you’re mildly allergic to the one you’re using.

17

If it’s digging into your eye, by the feel, the lens is probably too small! If the fit is correct, it should float on the eye, and you shouldn’t feel any digging in, even if you can feel exactly where the lens is. (Which I still feel on occasion, usually if the lens is cold when I put it in.)

And your eyes do have to adjust to the lenses, like they do to a new pair of glasses: ever get glasses with a different perscription and suddenly everything seems funky when you look through them? Similar kind of adjustment is needed for contacts.

I feel very lucky, that my eyeballs positively love contacts. The contacts are even managing to improve my vision, so next time I get a new prescription, it won’t be as strong…

<< (A)bort, ®etry, (T)ake down entire network? >>

18

Hey, Zoggie, I’ve done that too.
[sub]But I did it because I was bored.**

19

I didn’t blinkfor a while, in a contest and ten when I blunk(new word!) it fell off my eye.

I’ve also put 2 on one eye, and then since I thought I lost one I opened another one and put that one on the same eye as the other 2!

I’m just simple I guess.

Whats really bothersome is gettin geyeliner on your eye. It takes FOREVER to clean them!

20

amarinth – I feel (or used to feel) your pain. When I got contacts, I had the damndest time at first trying to get them in. The doctor, when he tried to put them in my eyes, probably thought he was wrestling a rabid crocodile on amphetamenes.

They kept trying to suggest different ways to hold my eyelids open, but what I eventually found the easiest was not to put the contact directly on the pupil when I put it in. Instead, I only hold the lower lid, roll my eyes up just a little, put the contact on the white of my eye, and let it slide up (blink a few times to let it get into place). Guess what? The white of your eye won’t feel it when your finger touches it. To take them out, I slide it from the edge down to the white, and pull it off from there.

Always make sure you put them in right side up – you’ll definitely feel it if you don’t!

I started out with the extended wear lenses – the kind that supposedly you can wear for a week, even when you are sleeping. This was before disposables became a bigger thing (which I use now). I also wouldn’t advise sleeping in them, although this is what I did at first (because, duh… the doctor said I could). Eventually, wearing them overnight started wreaking havoc, and I would wake up with contacts stuck to my eyes and eyes all red. Only daily wear for me now, thank you.

I wish I had perfect vision too. My mother and brother both did Lasik. Maybe one of these days I’ll decide to go for it…