contact lens discussion thread (merged)

welshman10

mrcow wrote: »

Why not take a trial pair home so you can practice at your own leisure?

My missus has the same prescription as me, so she said when her new set (which are due any day now) turn up, I can use one of those pairs to practice with at home.

suki1964

Im so glad Im not the only one who finds it difficult.

Ive been to specsavers and tbh their set up isnt the best - you are learning how to put them in in the shop itself - world and his wife watching:eek: Plus the wee lass sitting there advising me was enough to scare the wits out of anyone. 43 and crying in a shop over a pair of lenses - what a fool i was feeling:embarasse

Anyway after the first practice someone else had to take them out and I had to go back the next day to try again. Following day same thing, getting all upset and shaky and just felt I was never going to get it so went out for a while and came back. Finally I managed it, in and out three times so was allowed to leave with a pair to trial for two weeks. Took me 40 mins to get them out that evening - thought I was going to end up in casualty

I have really really small eyes and not the finest of fingers. Im also so very squeamish about my eyes. so much so Ive not even ticked corneas on my organ donor card.

The way Im doing it (still struggling and had yet another tuition today) is not to look. I mean Im still looking but Im not really focussing. If I focus on what Im doing I blink and I flick the beggars off onto the floor :rotfl:

I tilt the mirror so the bottom is nearly tucked under my chin, then I move in real close, have the lens on my finger (dry finger most important), hold up my top lid as much as possible, just to stop myself blinking really, look as far up into my head as I can and just go for it - Works:) As long as its touching the eye before you blink you can actually get it in place by rolling your eye and slowly blinking

Removing them - nightmare cos I couldn't see the the things Now if Im removing the right one I turn my head right but look towards my nose so lots of white of eye is showing to the right, then I just stroke the lens over to the white then pinch it off.Do it the other way to remove the left.

The pair I got today are a lot better then the first pair I got. Those first ones were just so flimsy i was scared of them. The ones today are Toric and as such are really thick and have a blue tint. So now I can see them and am not so scared of them. I got this pair out first time tonight in about 20 secs.

Dont give up. Do accept that its not a natural thing for you to do and dont be hard on yourself. Do practice touching your eye (I had to) and see if you can learn to look without the focus if you know what I mean.

Its took me years to pluck up the courage as I knew I had a "thing" about eyeballs. Im still not perfect and Im often flaffing around for what seems like ages but Im giving myself plenty of time and if I cant do it at first, i go make a coffee, have a smoke, calm down and try again. And its a lot easier knowing they arent so flimsy after all and can take a bit of handling

Good luck

suki1964

mrcow wrote: »

Why not take a trial pair home so you can practice at your own leisure?

Thats the trouble, they wont give you the trials to take home until you can demonstrate that you can get them in and out - hence my third practice run today

juni0r123

Hi Welshman10,
I too was exactly like you & during the fitting I couldn't get to grips with fitting them, I hate even touching my eyes.
This despite the woman consultant doing the fitting having 18 years experience.
I got them in a couple of times, but they wouldn't stay in, to be honest I was starting to look like someone had rubbed salt in my eyes, the tears were unbelieveable.
But the consultant was really good, after about 1 hour in the shop, she told me to take them home & see how I manage on my own.

I did this & found that I could get them in (eventually) but couldn't wear them for very long.
To be honest taking them out was the easy part.
This gradually got better as time went on & so has my technique.
I can now wear them for about 7-8 hours max, longer if I apply drops from time to time during the day.

This might not work for everyone, but I found the best way to fit them was to look up & place the lens on the white of the eye, then holding the upper lid so as not to dislodge the lens, lower the eye down slowly till the lens fits.
It's a strange feeling until you get used to it, but believe me, once you've mastered it you'll not want to wear glasses again.
To remove them, just reverse the process.
I currently wear monthly torics & get on fine with these.
I tried the dailies & great as they are I have much more trouble removing these (clumsy fingers)

I found out later that the consultant had spoken with the others in the shop & said there was no chance I would ever do it.

Good luck, just stick with it.
J

ddudgeon

I get my contacts from http://www.1800contacts.com/ in the U.S. They ship to the UK and don't require a prescription when shipping overseas. (Just make sure you get a regular eye check up as normal and then write down the prescription.)

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I recently switched from Specsavers easyvision daily disposable contact lenses to Johnson&Johnson 1-Day Acuvue and have been experiencing problems with my vision ever since. Distance wise I can see fine with them but anything up close (reading, writing e.t.c) it's very hard to focus. I work in a pharmacy dispensing prescriptions and I'm petrified of making an error because I can't see properly. I can't understand why I'm experiencing such problems. Are the lenses between the two brands that different? Anyone have any idea why I'm having these problems?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

wishiwasarichgirl

did your prescription change?

why did you change to the J&J lenses, were you having problems with the other ones?

lens sizes vary, if the new ones don't fit so well the vision may not be as stable.

how old are you? if you are in your 40's your close vision will deteriorate naturally, it could just be coincidence that you started noticing it since you switched lenses.

best thing to do is to go back to the optician who switched you to the J&J lenses and explain the problems you are having.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

My prescription has recently changed from -4.00 to -4.50 (right eye) and -5.00 to -5.50 (left eye). I've worn a few pairs of the Specsavers easyvision lenses with the new prescription strength and they were fine vision wise. I changed to J&J lenses because I thought perhaps they might be slightly more comfortable. However, this doesn't seem to be the case as I don't seem to be able to see as well (close up) and also I end up taking them out as soon as I finish work as they are just irritating and I can't even see the text on the PC without having to blink constantly.

I am 23 years old.

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully if I go back to Specsavers they might be able to swap the lenses back to the brand I had before.

steve_r123

I used to wear the J&J Acuvue standard type, and never really got on with them very well. About a year ago J&J released the Acuvue Oasys (I think thats what they are called), they are a smidge more expensive but sooooo much more comfortable.

The Oasys apparently let more oxygen into your eye or something, I seem the remember the optician telling me....... Whatever it is, it works....:j

blizeH

Just curious about monthly lenses. I buy monthly Pro-clear Toric lenses but only wear them once a week - the rest of the time they're in a case with the Opti Express all-in-one solution but I'm just wondering if I still have to dispose of them after a month in this scenario?

Cheers