Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

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perkele
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Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

Post by perkele »

Hello!

I'm having trouble with my eyes and coming to ask here as a last resort.

I am quite strongly short-sighted (-3.25 dpt on the left, -3.75 dpt on the right). I just broke my glasses a few days ago and now I have to wait at least one more week before I get new ones.
So I bought off-the-shelf contact lenses from the drugstore for the interim period, because otherwise I'm blind as a mole.
The possible options were "soft" or "hard" lenses, and "monthly" (reusable, to be thrown away after one month) or "daily" (should be used for no longer than a day). I bought the soft daily lenses at first. I've been using them for a few days now (a new pair every day, of course [actually several a day, because I had to change them so often, I thought they might be worn out already after so much fidgeting]). After that I also bought and tried a pair of soft monthly to see if that's any better. I don't notice a difference.

I have big trouble with these lenses. After putting them on, and some minutes of first adjustment, vision is sharp, but not for long.
I get one hour at most of mostly sharp vision. During that first period the feeling of that foreign object on my eye is most irritating. I get used to it after a while. But that is also the time when vision starts to become a bit blurry and smudgy every so often and I have to blink a few times or shift the lens around, to make it "stick" again, I guess. Sometimes putting some drops of saline solution in my eyes is also necessay, presumably to wash away some smudgy mucus on the outside of the lens.

I assume there's some stuff building up between the contact lens and my actual lens as well. But I don't know what to do about that. I wash my eyes with clean water before I put fresh lenses on. I take the fresh lenses directly out of the "all-in-one solution" (for cleaning and storing) in which they are packaged and put them onto my clean eye. But it seems that too much mucus builds up in my eye under the contact lens pretty soon. So after a certain period, no adjustment from outside, - shifting the lens around, blinking, dripping saline solution into the eye, - helps anymore. I have to get the lenses out, clean my eyes, clean the lenses - or take new ones.

Taking them out and cleaning them, and cleaning my eyes, and putting them back in, works for a moment. Taking new ones works for a moment longer than that.
But nothing really works for at least an hour or two without problems.

The longer I wear them, the better they seem to "stick" in place, without shifting away from the iris. But at the same time, the blurring/smudging becomes so annoying by that time, I don't even get a full minute of clear vision anymore. It seems there is just too much mucus building up over time, and drying up in place around the lenses. Applying a few drops of saline solution clears the sight somewhat for a few seconds at most.

This vision problem is really driving me insane. I need to be able to read and write on a computer screen for many hours a day. But in this condition I cannot do that.

Does anyone here have similar experiences with contact lenses and with possible remedies for such apparent mucus over-production?

Thanks in advance for any helpful tips.

:anjali:
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DNS
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Re: Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

Post by DNS »

I wore contact lenses (soft) from around ages 20 to 30 and had a lot of the problems you are experiencing. It could be allergies, but I also had a lot of mucus building up quickly on the lenses and it got to be too irritating, so just went back to glasses. Or it could just be a natural defense against something foreign on our eye balls.

There is surgery that can be done now, but I've heard from some people who have done that, that it only lasts for a few years or so and then they have to go back to surgery when the eyes change again! So that was never an option for me as I'm not a fan of repetitive, mostly unnecessary surgery.

If you do decide to stick with contacts, I'd recommend the daily disposable types. At least that way the lenses don't get the chance to develop too much mucus and other debris as you are changing them quite often.
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Pondera
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Re: Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

Post by Pondera »

If you have astigmatism and you’ve bought contacts that aren’t specific to the shape of your eye ball, this could account for the discomfort. You might want to get a prescription from your eye doctor.
A written prescription usually includes the following specifications: base curve, diameter, power (or sphere), and then additional figures for Cylinder and Axis if you have an astigmatism, and Addition and Dominant figures for presbyopia correction.
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binocular
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Re: Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

Post by binocular »

perkele wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 3:47 amI just broke my glasses a few days ago and now I have to wait at least one more week before I get new ones.
Which is why it's good to have two pairs of glasses; one spare pair for the case that something happens to the first.

Good luck!


PS.
Have you tried the generic dioptry glasses they have at drugstores? It's not optimal, but it's something.
Both of my parents wear those glasses for reading (they actually prefer them over their prescription glasses).
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TamHanhHi
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Re: Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

Post by TamHanhHi »

I've worn contacts for about 10 years now, only the soft kind. I now use dailies, which I prefer and never have had problems with. Buying contact lenses "over-the-counter" is definitely a bad idea. A licensed eye doctor needs to prescribe them so that they can get the best fit for your eyes (and sometimes contacts won't work for you). You don't want to risk damaging your eyes.
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perkele
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Re: Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

Post by perkele »

Thanks for all the replies!
TamHanhHi wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 1:05 pm I've worn contacts for about 10 years now, only the soft kind. I now use dailies, which I prefer and never have had problems with. Buying contact lenses "over-the-counter" is definitely a bad idea. A licensed eye doctor needs to prescribe them so that they can get the best fit for your eyes (and sometimes contacts won't work for you). You don't want to risk damaging your eyes.
Thanks! Yes, the soft daily ones were what my sister recommended to me as well, and has been using them for years without any of the problems I described, and so I bought them. The thing is I just needed a quick solution for a week or two, and there is no other option here. (Generic glasses for short-sightedness can't be sold here, but contact lenses can! I don't understand why.) Since they are available to be bought here without prescription, I figured there won't be much risk associated with using them for a short time. I don't want to use them any longer after I get my new glasses.
DNS wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 4:16 am
Good to know that my problems are not too uncommon.
I would also never consider surgery for the same reasons, and the small risk, and the costs (I don't think my insurance would cover for it). I always fared well with glasses, and as I said, the contact lenses are just an emergency solution for the waiting period to get new ones.
Pondera wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 5:11 amIf you have astigmatism and you’ve bought contacts that aren’t specific to the shape of your eye ball, this could account for the discomfort. You might want to get a prescription from your eye doctor.
I got my eyes tested at the optician's. I was surprised at how quick that went, so I hope the test does account for all those things. I think I do have some astigmatism, and the test result does show values for "cylinder" and "axis".
binocular wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 8:58 amWhich is why it's good to have two pairs of glasses; one spare pair for the case that something happens to the first.
Yes, I had an older pair of glasses as a spare which I thought would suffice for situations such as these. Turns out, though, that I get a terrible headache after just a few minutes of wearing those, and nausea if I wear them much longer. It seems something significant must have changed with my eyes since then. Maybe astigmatism that I developed after having those glasses which was accounted for with my newer glasses. I hope the new new glasses will account for that just as well.
binocular wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 8:58 amPS.
Have you tried the generic dioptry glasses they have at drugstores? It's not optimal, but it's something.
Both of my parents wear those glasses for reading (they actually prefer them over their prescription glasses).
We don't have those here in Germany for short-sightedness. Only for near-sightendess, generic glasses are allowed to be sold here. That is why I bought contact lenses instead, because those are freely available for sale in the drugstore.
I don't really understand the reasoning behind these regulations.
binocular wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 8:58 amGood luck!
Thanks!


I just bought some lubricating eye-drops, with hyaluronic acid as the active ingredient. Maybe that will help in some way.

:thanks:
denise
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Re: Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

Post by denise »

be sure you haven't put them on inside out....they should not pop slide and move when you put them on with the correct side to your eye.... :roll:
perkele
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Re: Anyone here wearing contact lenses?

Post by perkele »

denise wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 2:02 pm be sure you haven't put them on inside out....they should not pop slide and move when you put them on with the correct side to your eye.... :roll:
Thanks. Yes, that was another thing I had to learn. :o Figured it out after two days. :P

(Update: Eye drops seem to be helping so far. More than four hours in now, few drops for irrigation, not much mucus or irritation.)
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