Does anyone here wear contacts?

[Guest SweetNSexyDiva]

Mine are bugging the crap out of me today! I must have put eye drops in 5 times already and it is only 7:15 am my time! I usually don't need to put them in until the end of the day... ARGH! Does anyone have a comfy brand to recommend?

[Guest hardyz1]

I have astigmatism (with nearsightedness) and lazy eye, so contacts would require special order and money, which I don't really have.

 

The bad thing, though, is that I can't get Lasik surgery because my eyes are so crappy.

[Guest SweetNSexyDiva]

That's a bummer. I usually wear my glasses, but my son broke them and they weren't insured. I have to wait a couple of weeks before I can get new ones.

[The Dames 0]

Nope...I don't wear them at all and this is why.

 

I didn't get glasses until my sophmore year of high school as I had excellent to great vision until around then. I got some wire frame glasses and I think I looked ok. I was kinda hesistant to try on contacts.

 

When I went away to college, I wanted to get a whole new look and all that crap that comes with being on your own for the first time, so I got some contacts.

 

I took the eye test and all that and they told me to come back in a few hours to get them. I was doing some last minute shopping and arrived at the last possible second at the eye place and they told me they were closing so they'd have to rush. They showed me how to put them on....and TOLD me how to take them off and I left because they were closing.

 

So, that night, I had them on...and I still remember going "wow...I can SEE!" as I'm walking down the street. I had gotten extended wear lenses so I didn't have to bother taking them out all the time, but that night was the first night I had them on so I didn't want to sleep with them. So...I go to take them out....and I can't do it. I try and I try and I try and I CAN'T DO IT! Finally, 8 HOURS LATER, my best friend at the time (and roommate in college) came over to pick me up and the rest of my stuff and literally poked me in the eye to take them out. Painful shit.

 

I was kinda hesitant to put them on again after that, but after a few weeks, I decided to give it another shot. I would be in the community bathroom for an hour...an hour and a half...just to fucking put them ON. It was a disaster, but eventually, I was able to get used to the process.

 

A few months later....

 

One night, I was up all night and I was tired as phuck. I went to bed with them on, like I had done so many times in the past by now. When I woke up...they were GONE! I looked everywhere! I looked on the bed, on the covers, on the floor, nothing. I was kinda freaked out by it. I came up with conspiracy theories and all sorts of other bullshit to explain it. What sucks is the fact that my glasses had broken earlier in the year and now I was left with no vision correction.

 

So naturally, I'm sitting down watching TV in the lounge when all of a sudden, my eye starts REALLY bothering me. I start to rub it...and what do you know. I actually PULLED it from underneath my eye lid.

 

MY CONTACTS WERE IN THE BACK OF MY HEAD. What's even worse is that we NEVER found the other one...so for all I know, it's still in my head, floating around causing brain damage.

 

If you think THAT is bad, I'm not done.

 

It took me a while to gain confidence in them again, but I got another pair of contacts and glasses. I mostly wore my glasses though because I felt a hell of a lot more comfortable.

 

This is where the story gets fucked up.

 

I have a dog...and he's really, really fucking dumb. Anyway, one morning, I fell asleep on the couch and left my glasses on the counter. I woke up and I had plans to go out with my girlfriend at the time and spend most of the day outside. So, I'm looking for my glasses and I just CAN'T find them! I'm looking all over the place and finally...I look over at my dog's bed...and there they are. All chewed up, bent and with scratched up lenses. Oh BOY was I PISSED.

 

I had to whip out the old contacts, which I hadn't worn for months and went out with them on. Everyone laughed as I told them the dog story, but whatever, you know.

 

So, I went out and had a good time and by the time I got home, it was about 1am, I think. My eyes are fucking DRY at this point and the contacts were really bothering me. I go and take the left one out with no problem. I go to take the right one out...no dice. Argh...not this again!

 

I try it again...nothing. I try and I try and I try...until my eye starts to fucking HURT! At this point, my eye is 100% bloodshot red and I attempt to take the damn contact out every 15 minutes fighting SEARING PAIN. I can't sleep like this...nor would I want to! So I stay up...ALL night, trying my damndest. It's finally 8 o'clock in the god damned morning and I still haven't gotten it out! So, I called my best friend...the one who took it out before. He had actually moved to Yonkers, but I was in so much pain that I asked him to just come here in an emergency. While he was on his way, I said to myself "hey...maybe if I start to tear up, it'll make it easier for it to come out". So, I started thinking of some sad shit and started to cry.

 

My mom wakes up...sees me BAWLING in the bathroom because I'm in fucking PAIN and freaks out! I tell her whats going on and finally, my best friend arrives. He pokes me in the damn eye...and can't get it out. He does it again and IT HURTS DAMMIT!

 

He opens up my eye and takes a look...

 

"Yo D...I don't see any contact in there."

 

"WHAT!?"

 

I'm in such pain that we ended up going to the emergency room. I didn't have insurance so we played it off like I was him and he was me....and it actually worked. So, the doctor puts in some dye and all that...and sees FRAGMENTS of the contact, but no contact itself. They remove everything and said that basically, I had been scratching and clawing my cornea for the past 7 hours, causing tons of cuts on the surface of my eye. He gave me dorky hospital shades and sent me home with some drops. The doc told me that I wasn't able to work because I sit in front of a PC all day.

 

So, I call up my boss and try to explain it...and it sounds like bullshit, you know? They bought it...but I showed up a week later with new glasses and no real symptoms (I was fine after 3 days or so) and since this took place in the summer, they ALL thought I was bullshitting.

 

So yeah...I got a contact floating around in my head and I tried to remove my cornea once.

 

No more contacts for me.

 

Dames

[Guest SweetNSexyDiva]

OMG. That story is horrifying!

[Guest Miss Indy Queen]

Well you might want to check the contact. Sometimes if there is the slightest tear in them they are going to bother you all day. I have been wearing contacts for about 5 years now and I only use Acuvue. I've tried focus once and didn't like them because the contact felt weird in my eye.

 

Dames, I remember that story all too well trying to keep you calm throughout the whole thing. What an experience.

[Guest SweetNSexyDiva]

The feel fine once I put some saline on my eyes. For some reason my eyes seem to be super dry today! I really hate these things! I miss my glasses.

[Guest stardust]

I have astigmatism (with nearsightedness) and lazy eye, so contacts would require special order and money, which I don't really have.

 

The bad thing, though, is that I can't get Lasik surgery because my eyes are so crappy.

Has your eye doctor said anything to you about corrective surgery for the lazy eye?

 

Seriously...I had to start wearing glasses when I was 15 months old, was almost legally blind in my left eye and it was a lazy one, to boot (I also happen to be far-sighted, which didn't help with some things). I had to do the whole eye patch thing all through elementary (oh, God, that was horrible), and eventually the laziness got a little bit better. In high school I was finally able to get contacts, and I loved them. But after a couple of months, though, my left eye started irritating me, and it always felt like there was something in my eye, and no amount of eye drops would get whatever it was out. I was down in Austin for a state academic competition when I noticed that there was a little bump on the inside of my eyelid. I went to the eye doctor as soon as I got a chance, and it ends up I'd had an allergic reaction to SOMETHING with the contacts. So we start thinking about the products I used, and realized that it the enzyme I was using did it, because it had pork in it (pork always made me break out into hives). So no more contacts for me.

 

Freshman year of college rolls around, and midway through the second semester, my eyes start getting really bad, and I start seeing double like all the freaking time. Not fun. Once I got back home and was driving again, that really wasn't fun or easy, since I was seeing two lines on the road, so half the time would end up partially in the other lane. Went to the eye doctor again, and it ends up my lazy eye had gotten much, much worse. It had seriously drifted over to the far left corner of my left eye. Just a year before, my eye dr had told me that my eye had improved so much that he thought that I wouldn't ever have to have corrective surgery. Well, for some reason my eye decided to get bad again, and surgery was all of a sudden a reality.

 

So September two and a half years ago I had corrective surgery on it. All they do is cut the muscle and sew it back together, making it shorter. And holy shit it worked! My eye is now around 98% straight (you seriously can't tell that I ever had a lazy eye) and I can wear contacts again because the bump that was in my eyelid also went away. I've been wearing a contact in my left eye for about a year and a half now (I think, it might be two years--and I don't need a lens for my right eye, woohoo!) and have yet to have any problems (I just can only use a certain saline and certain enzyme solution).

 

So the moral of the story is talk to your eye dr about corrective surgery. My mom's insurance even covered it, which was great. It doesn't take long to perform, and within a few days the patch is off your eye and you can see. Within a couple of weeks you'll notice a difference in straightness of the eye. Granted, it's a very bloody procedure, and afterward your eye gets really nasty and gunky for a few days, but just lightly running warm water over it helps get rid of that. And apparently I was odd, because I was the only patient of my eye dr's who hasn't thrown up after the surgery (it apparently makes you really, really nauseous, because the muscle they cut is also connected somehow to the part of the brain that causes nausea *shrug*). But, yeah, talk to your eye dr about it, because IMO, the surgery's worth it. And having a lazy eye can cause all sorts of problems (like the double vision) which aren't nice. And if you get that corrected, odds are contacts would be an option (I have a friend who has astygmatism and he wears contacts just fine).

 

And Dames...wow does that suck balls. I've heard stories of people accidentally scratching at their corneas when trying to take out their contacts, and all I can say is "ouch." But even if the people at the contact place were closing up the place, they still should have shown you how to properly put them in and take them out. That's just negligent on their part.

 

And Diva, try Refresh Tears by Allergan. They work wonders. And my allergies have been bothering me so much here lately that it's everything I can do to not rub my eye because it's been itching so badly.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

20/20 vision.

 

I was spottin' those squirrels, Jerry.

[Guest My Eyebrow is on fire]

What a horrible story dames.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

I've had similar experiences, Dames, but never anything as bad. I wear glasses a lot but the contacts when I'm not too lazy or tired to put them in. I can get the right one in fine, but for whatever reason, the left one is always a pain to get in. Once they're in it's fine, until it's time for them to come out. I've had some horrible experiences trying to get them out and went through the whole "pick at your eye where you thought your contact was" routine and all I can say is that panic soon sets in and the pain that your eyes go through doesn't make things any easier. Anyone have any tips on getting them in/out with less trouble? I have the problem where my eyes won't stop blinking but I know that's all a matter of training your eye to not do that. To sum it up, I hate glasses and contact so it's laser eye surgery for me come 25.

[The Dames 0]

Why at 25? Is there an age limit that I didn't know about?

 

Dames

[Guest Miss Indy Queen]

I guess i'm grateful none of this has happened to me before *knocks on wood*. I don't know if there is really a specific way to take out the contacts but I just can't open my eyes and pull them out. I have to push the contact to the side of my eye and then grab it from the corner. If I try it the other way, which is the way the people at the eye doctor showed me, my eye tends to blink too much and I can't take them out.

[Guest SweetNSexyDiva]

I don't know if it will help you, but when I put my contacts in I always put a drop of saline on the lens first (which my optometrist hates because it isn't proper procedure) before popping it in. I have trouble getting the darn thing in my right eye. I tend to blink them out. So now I make sure I pull my eyelid a little bit away from my eye with my fingers when I shut them so I don't do that.

[Guest Miss Indy Queen]

Yeah I would also second putting a little bit of saline on the contact before you put them in. It always works for me.

[Guest My Eyebrow is on fire]

Am I the only one who can roll his eyes and have his contacts pop out?

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

Why at 25? Is there an age limit that I didn't know about?

 

Dames

I actually inquired about getting the surgery when I was 15 or so, and was told that it wasn't wise to get them before you're 25, since that is the age when the eyes generally stop changing so much, or so I was told. Hell, I'd almost rather get the surgery a couple of times than have to go through putting in contacts or wearing the glasses.

[Guest HBK16]

I have Bausch and Lomb and they are ok. I want those contacts you can leave in for 30 days without taking them out.

[Guest Miss Indy Queen]

Are you talking about the extended wear contact lenses? When I first got contacts I had those which were fine because I didn't have to take them out everyday but they tear very easily because of protein build up and it can be costly to replace each lens when that happens. I stick to disposable ones and just toss them when they start to bother me.

[Guest SweetNSexyDiva]

Me too. You have to be so careful with the extended wear ones.

[Guest AM The Kid]

I wear contacts, if they bug you so much just take them out, use your solution to clean them and put them back in. If they continue bothering you, toss them and use another pair, it's not worth the possible eye damage shitty contacts could cause.

Onto my bad contact story:

I once went all day with just 2 halves of my contact in my eye. I didnt know why my eye was bugging me so much because my contacts were fine when I put them in. When I got home from school and took them out, I found in my right eye two pieces of my contact, perfectly in half. I wore my glasses for the rest of the week.

[Guest Galactic Gigolo]

Dames, that story was painful and great at the same time.

 

I'm really fucking up my eyes right now. One eye isn't very receptive to contacts, so as it stands, I only wear ONE contact, which is in my right eye. And that one contact is removed once every two, three months, whenever it beigns to irritate me. I honestly believe I have some deep psychological problem that causes me to cry while I sleep, because the thing isn't dry in the morning either.

[Guest CanadianChris]

Thanks for sharing that story, Dames. I KNEW there was a reason I never wanted to mess around with contacts.

 

I'm actually going in for LASIK surgery before Christmas...I'll let people know how it went if they're interested.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Ive been wearing contacts about 4 years, no problems, although I have ripped 2 over that time somehow. Never lost one, and I dont have disposables so if I lost one Id be screwed. Im blind as a bat without them as well.

 

I really want those new Day Night ones that you can wear for 30 days straight, but I dont have the money right now.

[Guest Texas Small Arms 09]

Why at 25?  Is there an age limit that I didn't know about?

 

Dames

I actually inquired about getting the surgery when I was 15 or so, and was told that it wasn't wise to get them before you're 25, since that is the age when the eyes generally stop changing so much, or so I was told. Hell, I'd almost rather get the surgery a couple of times than have to go through putting in contacts or wearing the glasses.

Actually Bruiser, your eyes need to stay the same or relatively close prescription for 2 years. Generally when you stop growing so do your eyes. I'm getting mine done this year, I've actually been interested in this since I was about 10 and I've talked to my mother about it. She had it done over 20 years ago with a scalpal (no laser) and the doctor that preformed the surgery actually studied in Russia were this originated. If you are serious about the lasik surgery, I would go back to the doctor and ask again, because I have talked to 2 different doctors (my eye doctor and the guy that did my mother's eyes) and both have told me the same thing.

[HurriShane 0]

I usually just wear my glasses because there's something about putting in and taking out contacts that seems a little weird to me. It's kind of like putting in new eyes.

[Guest CanadianChick]

I wear contacts and basically, probably couldn't live without them. I like wearing glasses at night, but they bug the hell out of me during the day. They get in the way too much for my liking. SO contacts was the way to go.

[Guest crandamaniac]

I wear glasses mainly cuz putting in those little contacts are a bitch to me.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

I tried out contacts today for the first time in a LONG time and surprisingly, I was able to get them both in there in about eight minutes or so, even the left one, which has ALWAYS given me trouble. Of course, they weren't even mine, since I haven't worn them in so long, I don't think any of mine were around, so they were prolly my brother's. Getting them out was a little worse, since I've always been bad at that, but my brother (who's become an expert at these things) gave me a couple pointers and I eventually got them out with little pain. I'll be looking into getting the contacts you can wear for long periods of time very soon. Glasses simply get too annoying when its hot or rainy out.

[Guest HungryJack]

I just recently got contacts, because taking my glasses off and on got fucking anooying, especially when playing sports, or just generally being active.

 

glasses can suck a dick. Maybe I'll wear them again when I get a real job, or something.