So, last weekend I lost my glasses, the details of which won’t be repeated here *grin*. I’ll have a new pair hopefully tomorrow, but in the interim I’ve been wearing my first pair of contacts. I thought I’d compile some quick thoughts on the experience, bullet style:
-better peripheral vision than glasses
-great not having to worry about glasses when putting on clothes
-sometimes wonder where my glasses are even though i have my contacts in
-much harder to put on than glasses
-harder to take out contacts than taking off glasses
-harder to read computer screens than with glasses
-eyes sometimes burn after taking them out
-running out of solution!
-putting a drop of solution in each eye before attempting to take them out makes it much easier
-think my eyes were really dry on the first day, making it stick to my eye more (it took 1/2 hour to get them out!)
-lenses must be more durable than they look because the doctor instructs to “rub” them between my fingers to help the cleaning process
-a little tricky to tell if lens is inside out, but “if you put them in wrong, you’ll know” according to my coworker jason
-my eyes are still very sensitive to things going into them. most sucessful technique now involves placing lens somewhere on eyeball and sliding into place
-while putting them in, also helps to tilt head up and look down (makes it easier to reach top of iris)
-while taking them out, helps to tilt head down and look up (makes it easy to remove lens)
-i’m going through a lot of solution! nearly 60ml in 1 week.
-eyes hurt more with contacts after a long day than with glasses. and then they itch post-removal.
-i can get sunglasses if i wear contacts!
-people at work find it odd to see me without glasses
-i almost don’t recognize me without my glasses
-looking forward to trying out some ultimate with contacts
-glad i have two-week disposables, that are more o2 permeable than prior lenses — my eyes need the oxygen
-a box of six two-week disposables costs about $25 and should last about three months = $100/year, and longer if you take them out every night
-seems to be okay showering with them in. at least, nothing bad happened the one time I’ve tried so far 🙂
-have not slept with them in, but apparently it’s possible to do so
-on a good morning, seems to take about 10 minutes to get them in, bad, about 20 (I am told this will get easier, but so far I am not seeing it)
So, there we go. Any readers out there have any tips or tricks related to contacts? Adding some solution to my eyes just before trying to take them out was a big help — the first night, I was scared to do this, noting that that solution is supposed to be used for cleaning the lenses — so is that really something you want to put in your eyes? But, well.. that doesn’t really make a lot of sense, since they pretty much go directly from the solution into your eyes the next morning. But I hadn’t gotten that far yet 🙂
Contacts: 1 week later
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3 responses to “Contacts: 1 week later”
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I have been wearing it since I was 16 and it does get easier. But I have very bad astigmatism, so even with contacts I don’t see as well as with glasses.
One trick I discover is to keep your finger nails short as you don’t want to poke your eye ball when taking them out. You have to be firm, hold your eyes open and open your finger tips (use the thumb and index) to the width of the contact lens, then put the finger tips on the contact and push the tips closer. The pressure of the fingers tips coming closer together and against lightly to the eyeball, should squeeze the lens in to a semi-fold and it will just pop out of your eye.
Use the bottom part of the finger tips also helps, the meaty part, not the pointy part of the finger. So your fingers and palm should almost be touching your face. You know what I mean? Make a fist and hold it against your cheek, then stick the two fingers out to reach the eye. Hum, maybe I should take a picture and show you.
I guess you don’t have astigmatism because if you do, your contact is weighted with a line which will help you position it on your eyeball. Making sure your finger tip is dry will help putting the contact into your eye. If I can do it with my super-small-Asian eyes, you can do it!
I tried not to wear it unless I am in sport; when starring at a computer, your eyes don’t blink as much so make them very dry which is not good for contact wearing. I will buy some artificial tear drops instead of using the cleaning solution as eye drops! I definitely don’t wear it to sleep, it creeps me out.
If your eyes burn after you took out the contacts, then make sure your hands is washed and well rinsed, there might be soap residues.
Any question, just ask. -
Oh BTW, I used to have hard lens and that was awful … …
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Hey, wow, thanks for all the advice. You’re right, I don’t have astigmatism, just (apparently) a relatively mild case of near-sightedness. I’ve made some progress over the last two days getting the contacts out; now I don’t require the drop of solution I mentioned in the post. Part of this is probably my eyes being a little more used to the contacts, but it’s also probably in part explained by me getting used to sticking a finger into my eyes. I’m not sure if this is a good thing.
Thanks for the tip about the soap; I will watch for that.
Hard lenses must have sucked! How long ago were you able to switch?
My glasses came in today; I will be picking them up tomorrow morning.
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