watervole | Contact lenses

I'm trying contact lenses for the first time. Life had got to the point where I had to wear specs to be able to focus on the faces of people I was talking to. Wearing glasses all the time tends to be tricky for me as the field of vision is smaller and I have to move my head rather than my eyes to see what I want to see. Holding the head at unnatural angles makes my neck hurt - which is not a good idea.

So, I'm experimenting with fairly weak contact lenses backed up with reading glasses.

So far, (all of one day) I love the lenses when they're in. The world close to me is suddenly far more detailed and I don't need glasses for gardening, dishwashing, etc. However, the reading glasses I'm now using (slightly weaker) turn out to slide down my nose... I suspect that can be resolved (they were only ten quid from the rack in the chemist, so I'm not complaining), but I'll get someone else to try it..

The hard part is getting the lenses in...

The lady at the opticians gave me several practices and was very helpful, but it's definitely an acquired skill. I need to get a tall shaving mirror asap so I have a fighting chance of seeing what I'm doing. I almost lost a lens this morning trying to put them in. It took around a dozen attempts before I managed it - I hope it gets easier with time!

I hope I get better at it. I'm enjoying having peripheral vision again - and I'm finding it easier to move around the house as well.

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I loved lenses when I had them, but putting them in I hated; in the end the only way I really managed to do it was to look to the ceiling/half in the mirror and stick it in with one hand while pulling my eyelid up with the other.

Thankfully laser powered death eyes mean I don't have to any more.

Learning to put contact lenses in is a real pain, but once you get used to it, its like you've been doing it all your life. A good mirror is essential for the first few months.

It definitely gets easier :) By the time I stopped wearing lenses, I had been popping them in without a mirror for several years - actually , I found that easier than using a mirror for some reason.

If you do stick with them, keep a spare pair handy and a backup pair of glasses in the car or similar location as it is very easy to lose them!

Good tips; another tip is if they are itching too much even after cleaning (if you're on non-dailies) it's probably a sign they're about to rip!

Congratulations on getting the lenses in! I had a go about ten years ago and, after I'd spent two hours in a corner of the optician's front room trying and failing to put a lens on either eye, the optician said "I don't think this is going to work out."

So if you can do it at all, I think it will get easier soon.

I'll second what

gaspodia said: it gets much easier in time. At least, unless you're in that small percentage of people who find it's simply impossible to get used to. I actually find a mirror more of a distraction than anything else now, because I'm *trying* to look at the lens with the eye I'm putting it into. But that's maybe just me;

soccer_fox can't put hers in without a mirror.

What's worked for me most of the time is (a) lifting up my top eyelid with the left forefinger while holding down the bottom lid with my left thumb, (b) looking straight forward, and (c) moving the right forefinger (which has the lens balanced on it--oh, I guess that was step a-1 :-) straight in towards the eye until the lens plops onto it. I guess I sort of have a mental image of it being like docking a spacecraft :-) or to be more mundane, backing a lorry up to a loading dock.

I'm finding one eye is a bit itchy now, so I've taken them out for the day. I'm not sure how long is a good idea initially.

THe getting out part seems to be easy. I'll practice teh getting in part again tomorrow.

HOw do you get your lens the correct way up on your finger? It's hte other way up as you draw it out of the container.

When you're just gettting used to them, they can get itchy ; as you get more used to them, you may find it less so. Remember to blink a lot more than you usually do, and carry around rewetting drops--I find those invaluable (though tiresomely expensive).

Getting them right way up can be fiddly. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to even be sure which is which. I find I can sometimes put my right fore finger into the container and have the lens adhere directly to my finger tip. Then I put the container down and pinch the sides of the lens with the thumb and forefinger of my left hand until the lens un-adheres from the fingertip, turn my left hand over and put my right forefinger underneath the lens and lower away. (I hope that's even close to clear :-)

I keep a bottle of lens solution nearby and rise/rewet the inside of the lens if I've handled it a lot in the process (especially if I've dropped it and picked it up again, which often happens).

Your optician should have suggested a wearing schedule.

I remember when I started it was one hour in/ one hour out/ one hour in, then two in, one out, two in etc building up the time to let the eye get used to them.

I presume when you say getting the lens the "right" way up you mean getting it concave side up? Simple: Take the left lens out of the container with your right index finger then drop it onto your left index finger and vice versa :-)

I think the wearing schedule is different for soft lenses. I got the impression from her that you could wear them all the time from the start, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

The finger trick sounds like a good idea. I'll try that.

I got used to putting them in quite quickly, but I still find getting them out quite distressing. I find crying helps!

Getting them out seems to be easy for me. It's the other way that's hard. How do you get the lens the right way up on your finger? I tend to drop it while trying to do this...

Practice...

There is also a way to tell whether they're inside out, which is a hazard. But it's best learnt by watching someone do it, so ask the optician to demonstarte if you haven't already seen it.

Yeah, some of the ones sold here have "123" sort of etched or something on the inside of the lens, formed in such a way that one can see the numerals and so tell if they are on the surface that will be contacting your eye. I don't know if all lenses do that.

Congratulations on the lenses! I believe you will get used to getting them in fast. Enjoy you new view - I hope you will see only nice things:-)

I've been wearing gas permeable hard lenses for many years now (my prescription doesn't work with soft lenses), but I presume you're using soft lenses?

I started with them when I was 16 because in those days you weren't allowed to have them any earlier and, after a little fiddling, putting them in becomes second nature.

What I find easiest is to bend over the sink (with the plug in, of course!) with the lens on my index finger, then use the middle finger to pull down the lower eyelid.

At the same time I look "up" and drop the lens onto the white of the eye and then use a mirror to slide it into place.

They are so much better than glasses, no smudges, no steaming up walking into a cold room, no sliding down your nose (ask your optician you could either get the fit of the glasses changed or get some little stick-on pads that will help) and much less hassle all round.

Contact lenses

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