Contact lenses - First experiences.

The biggest problem I have with contacts is when my eye/hands get too wet, normally after I've had to take a lense in and out a couple of times. When it happens my hands start to slip and it becomes much more difficult to keep the eye open.
 
I recently tried contact lenses. Soft ones, re-use for 2 weeks then throw away.

In the optician's, no problem. Straight in, straight out, straight in. OK, off I go.

Next day, half an hour of failing to get them in until eventually I managed. What a fuss.

Then they weren't in at precisely the right angle, so I didn't have the 20/20 vision I get so easily with glasses. I have quite severe astigmatism (-2.75 in one eye, I forget the other), which means the lenses must be in at a precise angle. There are tiny faint lines on them for alignment. They're very hard to see, especially for someone as short-sighted as I am (-7.00, can't see anything clearly because if it's close enough for me to see clearly it's too close for my eyes to focus on). Even when I did get a glimpse of the lines, it's not easy to put a lens in at exactly the right angle. You can't see the lines as they approach your eye, only when you have the lens on your fingertip.

Then taking them out...more fuss.

The next day, I lost one. Put it in, close my eye and bing! it's flopped out and gone somewhere on the carpet. Never did find it.

Got a replacement...and it didn't get any less fuss for the two weeks. So I gave it up as a bad job. 10 times as expensive as glasses, far, far more fuss, didn't give me as good sight. The positive side didn't outweigh the negative side.
 
Took me a while to begin with but now I can take them in and out in around 15 seconds :). Practice makes perfect!

I'm now back on glasses though, much better than having contacts on for long periods of time (i.e all day) imo.
 
My first couple weeks on contacts were awful. My first test run, supposed to be for four hours, lasted nearly seven because that's how long it took me to get it out. Now I can get them in and out without a mirror in only a matter of seconds - so stick with it, you'll be proficient in no time.
 
Got them in within seconds.
When they did go in, it was awesome. The shop was overlooking the street and I was on the third floor, was gobsmacked at being able to look up without some stupid frame in the way/blurriness.
 
I really hope it starts to 'click' for me and I can use them properly and quickly! I won't be using them constantly, only for sport and going out sometimes, when I feel like strutting my manliness about town... :cool: :p :eek: :D
 
Doonhamer said:
Can you start with them or do you have to build up with daily lenses first?
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Doesn't have to be dailies, continous wear ones are essentially monthlies, some people take them out every night, or every other night, once a week and clean then.

In general a good optician will monitor you pretty closely when new to contacts. They should be recommending, after you've got taking them out/putting them in, to wear for a few hours the first time, few more hours the next day, few more hours the next day and then probably wear them for 6-8 hours and come in the next day wearing them so they can see how your doing. Some peoples eyes just don't go with contacts.

The same will happen at a later date when it comes to continous wear, firstly they'll(probably) be a different material to your other dailies so they'll want to just make sure you don't react to them. But they'll have you wear them for a couple days, come in, check a week later, if all's good probably take them out, clean the, give your eyes a break and try a couple weeks, see how the eyes are at the end of a month if theres no problems before then.

Some people can only use "continous" ones for a week before their eyes need a break, some can go a month, the only continous ones around last time just didn't get on with my eyes at all, I have astigmatism which sucks as contact lenses for astigmatism generally cost a LOT more than normal distance ones :( But also limited choices, I tried them and after 3-4 days my eyes got really irritated so I use dailies or glasses if I cba'd. Monthlies/weeklies are crazy cheaper than dailies, even more so for astigmatism dailies. Depends how much you want to spend long term and how often you'll use them tbh, if its a couple days a week, dailies are easier, if every single day, try continous, or monthlies, its a slight pain but will save a lot of cash.
 
Pookie Bear said:
My first couple weeks on contacts were awful. My first test run, supposed to be for four hours, lasted nearly seven because that's how long it took me to get it out. Now I can get them in and out without a mirror in only a matter of seconds - so stick with it, you'll be proficient in no time.
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Yeah, that can be a pain, it wasn't during my trial, after the first day though it didn't take seconds I never really had an issue getting them in/out, then randomly like 6 months down the line I just could not get one out, my eye would not stop watering like mad and I couldn't get a grip on it.

Though thats much better than trying to take out a contact that isn't even there :p
 
next time just get a mate to help, instruct him to hold a needle next to your eye and stab you in that very eye if you don't manage to get it in within 1min.

you will be surprised at how quick you can become pro.
 
When I first got mine fitted, the optician actually put them in for me. Then I had to take them out and put them back in again.

Sure it took a bit of learning, but easiest way at the start is to look up, and put the lens on the white of the eye, then blink. It'll eventually get to the point where you can put them in straight onto the coloured part of the eye.

It does feel like you have grit in your eye for a few days, nothing painful or anything, just....weird. Best advice that I can give is to just look up at the ceiling and just focus on not blinking, and it should all work out fine. All comes with time!
 
I first tried lenses about 18 or so years ago and they were hideous gas permeable ones, they were so uncomfortable! After a while I moved onto soft lenses and they were amazing.

Can't say I ever had trouble getting them in or out although getting drunk and falling asleep with my lenses in was an experience, I had real trouble getting the damn things out of what felt like the back of my eye the next morning!

I had laser eye surgery three months ago and am thankful I no longer have to wear glasses or lenses!
 
Problem I had was getting them out, they dried out so much they were practically welded to my eye balls.
I would squeeze and pull till my eyes had gone red like a stoner, untill someone told me that if you gently place your finger on your eye and rub down, they will fold a crease in the lens that you can grab off.
Works a treat.

Also another piece of advice is if you clean your hands before like you should, let them drip dry or shake them off, because you'd be suprised how many little bits of fluff come off a towel and get stuck in your eye. Hurts!!
 
Like everyone else the first time the optometrist managed to get those lenses in my eye I was thinking what the hell have I got myself into. 2nd time around (I call it 2nd but it was countless attempts) to do them myself usually resulted in fail. But I persevered (and changed to daily as its such a pain to clean them properly) that now a while down the line I can hold a conversation easily whilst putting the things in.
 
I can do my right eye in 3 seconds, left eye takes 20 as I am not as proficient with my left hand :(
 
Did the same but gave up. I didn't manage to get any in. They all fell on the floor - kept blinking and that knocked them off my finger. The optician tried to help but she had no luck.

Back to wearing glasses now but thinking about laser.
 
I did this with specsavers a few years ago. It was £35 for the training and I went twice. They would'nt let me take contacts till I was happy putting them in and out and that was at the end of my second session. I went for day ones as I dont have to worry bout taking cleaning them and all that. Out and down the sink! easy. For the £35 they gave me a few days set and I think I pay about £35 every 3 months.

I dont wear them all the time just when I need to!

Everyone has got their own way of doing you just need to find you way!
 
I've been wearing contacts for about 8 years now. When I first started wearing them I used to get into a right state putting them in and getting them out as like you I used to hate anything going near my eyes.

It's something that you will get used to though, now I don't have an issue with it at all and it takes seconds to put my lenses in or take them out. In fact if you put them in correctly you don't really have to touch your eye at all.

I say if you really want them then it's worth persevering with it, even though it's not very fun for the first few weeks.
 
Took me about half an hour to get them in properly. The optician left to do something else and just checked back to see how I was doing, which wasn't very well. It gets much easier with time though, they only take seconds to put in now.
 
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