Contact Lense users - advice?

[Zebra]

I wore contact lenses for almost 10 years, when I was a teenager until my mid-twenties. I started having a lot of problems with them, and also found out I was severely allergic to my cats. I stopped wearing them, and have been wearing glasses for about 8 years now.

 

We no longer have cats, and yesterday I went in for a regular eye exam and am trying contacts again.

 

I had a long conversation with the eye dr, he was very nice. We decided I should try the daily disposables. They are at the top of my expense limit. They don't feel great. I hate glasses and would love to wear contacts again...but I just don't know if this is worth it. I had so many eye infections before, it just became ridiculous. I thought not having cats, and buying better contacts would help...but I am wondering now if I am just not the type of person who can wear contacts!

 

I guess my question is, what are contacts supposed to feel like in your eyes? I remember in my teens loving them. But now I am wondering if I was just vain and put up with them because they were better than "dreaded" glasses! Yesterday I struggled with them feeling weird in my eyes all day, not painful, just annoying. Plus, they seem to blur up a lot. It's harder to read, use the computer etc. Actually, annoyingly hard. I thought today maybe they would be better, but they definitely are not.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts? I hate to give up so easily, but I just don't have the energy to fight with things like this anymore :lol::lol::lol:!!!

Edited July 21, 2010 by MeAmy

[simka2]

If they are blurring up alot I wonder if you have dry eyes? You might need to look into better lubricateing drops :)

 

Mine only gets fuzzy when they've been on for a long time. Hope that helps!

[mrs.m]

I had to try different brands to get the right ones. My eyes get dry too. Call your eye Dr. and see what he suggests. I found a brand that I can even sleep in! I forget they are there. But there have been other brands that drove me nuts!

[justlittleoldme]

Talk to your eye doctor and try some different brands. Different brands have different size lenses. Some of them are thicker then the others, and wider. I love my acuvue advance's, you wear them for a week and then toss them. Sometimes its helpful to rinse them off with contact solution when you take them out of the package.

 

My husband can't wear contacts because he can't, no matter how hard him and the eye doctor try, he can't open his eye enough to get the contacts in his eyes. Once he gets them in he is good- but it takes around 2 hours to get them in!

[ChristusG]

I have tried and tried to wear contacts. I absolutely hate my glasses and want so bad to change to contacts. But I just can't do it. I honestly feel like I need to claw my eyes out whenever the contacts are in. I have lots of allergies and I'm wondering if the contacts are just "foreign" to my body and my body just doesn't deal well with them. People keep telling me "oh, give it a week and you will adjust." Well, they hurt so badly and bother me so much that I can barely give it just a few hours. With your allergies, I'm wondering if that is effecting your contacts.

[ChristusG]

On a side note....my husband had a lot of problems with contacts and then he tried the Acuvue Oasys (sp?) and he's had absolutely no problems with them. I've tried lots of brands and can't find any that work with my eyes. I have very small eyes...so that combined with my allergies is just terrible.

[Joker]

My dh wore contacts for years but when we moved to FL they hurt him a lot. Apparently he seems to be allergic to whatever is in the air here and can't wear them.

[Ester Maria]

I guess my question is, what are contacts supposed to feel like in your eyes? I remember in my teens loving them. But now I am wondering if I was just vain and put up with them because they were better than "dreaded" glasses! Yesterday I struggled with them feeling weird in my eyes all day, not painful, just annoying. Plus, they seem to blur up a lot. It's harder to read, use the computer etc. Actually, annoyingly hard. I thought today maybe they would be better, but they definitely are not.

You aren't supposed to "feel" them at all. If everything is alright, and if your eyes are used to contacts (if you don't wear the "soft" ones - there are several types - it DOES take some time, even weeks for some people, to get used to them), you don't feel them in your eyes and you aren't aware of them being in your eyes unless your eyes go dry.

 

I'm not sure what type of contacts you have. If I were you, I would try to get the "soft" ones that are replaced yearly - people usually feel the most comfortable with those, but with some additional issues (some forms of astigmatism for example) they might not be suggested. Talk to your doctor.

[AngelaNYC]

They are going to feel weird for a day or 2, but then you shouldn't really feel them at all - only when you move your eyes complete to one side should you feel anything weird.

 

I had the dailies, and they were fine but expensive. I switched to the ones you wear every 2 weeks. Those were so much more reasonable and you just put then in some saline every night and wear them again. I was told that you can actually stretch those out to almost a month. I know one box (3 pairs) is about $20. I get the Acuvue Oasys and have had no problems. See if you can get a trial pair of those.

[Ailaena]

Are you correcting for astigmatism, as well? Every couple of years my dr makes me try some new lenses and so far, I have only been able to wear monthlies that are NON toric, and I am only corrected to 20-30 (NOT complaining about that!).

 

Because they are weighted, and because my astigmatism is unstable, the toric lenses spin around in my eyes and my vision goes from breathtakingly perfect to blindingly blurry the entire time I am wearing them. Both eyes at different times, of course. Within an hour or so I have to take them out or I get a huge headache. I could DEFINITELY feel them, and they felt AWKWARD or even uncomfortable!

 

In an attempt to have some rigidity, I use Proclear, which is a thicker lens. I cannot feel them AT ALL. They are @$120/yr, but I stretch them out to 5, sometimes 6 weeks (even though I know I shouldnt:blushing:).

[Zebra]

Wow! Thanks for all the quick replies!

 

Dry eyes sound right...also, I have so many allergies...I wonder about the "contacts being a foreign body" theory too.

 

I don't want to be a wimp, but I also don't think these feel very good. Not an emergency, but just uncomfortable. When I took them out it was a big relief. Now my eyes feel sore. They seemed extremely dry when I took them out.

 

I called the Dr and they want me to come in again Monday...but I am not feeling very optimistic! :lol:

[Britomart]

I wore rigid gas-permeable lenses for twenty years, and really loved them. The gas-permeable part means that oxygen can get through to your eyes, which makes them more comfortable. I rarely noticed them. They are also a lot smaller than disposables; rigid gas-permeable lenses are about the size of your iris. You do have to be careful not to lose them.

 

I got them in fourth grade, and wow! were they better than glasses. No blurriness in the corners of my eyes. It was like a miracle.

[Michelle O. in MO]

My eye doctor recommends her patients get on a good omega-3 vitamin for about 6 weeks before even trying contact lenses. I don't remember her reasoning for this.

[Tap]

I agree with trying more brands. My dh needs to try 3-4 if not more brands each time he decides to switch. It varies so much from brand to brand and people's needs change from year to year also, making it hard to find the perfect lenses the first time, every time.

 

Most docs have lots of brands to sample out. I would call and tell them the problem and they should be able to give you something else to try.

[mom2a&z]

I wore contacts for close to 25 years and then 2 years ago, they started to really bother me. I tried many different brands and none felt great.

 

I have extremely dry eyes and within an hour or two of putting them in, my eyes felt sore. My eyes would even hurt after I took the contacts out.

 

Now I just were glasses but I still wish I could wear contacts. Just not worth the hassle.

[Zebra]

Now I just were glasses but I still wish I could wear contacts. Just not worth the hassle.

 

I'm thinking this may be the case with me. DH reminded me that when I wore contacts I had the eyedrop bottle out all the time, which I completely forgot.

 

I think the eye dr is going to let me try some other brands Monday. They have been wonderful to have to try on glasses with :lol:!!! I could never see what I looked like before!

[sleepymommy]

I've been wearing contacts since my early teens. I had to switch over to daily disposables around age 19 because I kept getting infections. The dailies definitely helped with that.

 

As far as the feeling in your eye, you should not be able to feel them. I have dry eyes and the only time I feel them is at the end of a long day.

 

I strongly suggest trying a different brand. I switched brands once because they were more economical, but could not wear them at all. They kept sliding around in my eye and they felt very uncomfortable.

[cdrumm4448]

I also have to plug rigid gas permeable lenses. I wore regular hard lenses from age 13-23. Then, I switched to rigid gas permeable. I don't think they even make regular hard lenses anymore. Anyway, rigid gas permeable lenses provide the best vision correction over soft lenses.

 

I recently went to the eye dr and mentioned that the idea of switching to soft lenses was passing briefly through the transom of my mind and he told me I would feel like I couldn't see with them. So, I ended up getting monovision gas permeables. A little straining by the end of the day, but OK.

[gingersmom]

I have been contact lens free for years and will never go back. I have unusually large eyes and they just do not work.

[Mom-ninja.]

I'm struggling with this right now. Apparently my eyelids are covered in bumps that are due to allergies. Now, I do not suffer from allergies in the normal sense. I do not get stuffy, sneeze, cough, watery eyes.....nothing. So I was surprised when the Dr. said allergies had caused bumps in my eyes. He said I may have developed an allergy/immune reaction to the contact solution and/or deposits on my contacts not being cleaned off.

 

He gave me a prescription eye drop to use for a month, and told me to use a different cleaning solution. I can't remember the name right now. It's the one with the disk in the storage case. Anyway, I haven't tried contacts again yet. I'm supposed to wait at a least a month.

[MarinesWife]

I only feel them when I first put them. Then nothing.

 

Also when I get a new prescription sometimes it takes a few days for my eyes to adjust to the new "good."

 

AND if they don't, I get the prescription adjusted. Sometimes they are just TOO strong or they are not focusing together well enough. I usually have this problem when my prescription changes too much at once.

[Guest janainaz]

I have very dry eyes and I had to try several different types in order to find the right ones. I use the Air Optix Night & Day - they are supposed to be more breathable. I do take them out at night, I have to or they dry out.

 

You should not feel your lenses in your eyes at all. Just keep trying lenses until you find the right ones. Your eye doctor should give you sample lenses to try and if they are not comfortable, tell him/her.

 

My eye doctor gave me several different brands and I would wear them one day and my eyes would be so dryed out and the lenses would tear. That should not happen. Also, I see MUCH better with my contacts in as opposed to my glasses. Your peripheral vision is much better and you should have very clear vision with your lenses.