New to contact lenses

January

January

Senior Member
Location
Australia
Have worn glasses for many years, mainly just need them for reading but I have multi focal ones so I can just put one pair on for everything.
Specsavers had a free trial offer on contact lenses. Thought they might be better for sports.
But, boy, not easy!
Learning to put them in and out is much harder than I thought.
Still deciding whether to go ahead after using up the free trial box.
 
If all else feels good, you'll get the part where they have to go in and come out. It's one of those practice and confidence things.

I wore them for many years. Then as I got older my eyes got drier so I moved to the "gas" permeable type. That did not go well. If I moved my eyeball wrong the lense would slip up under my eyelid. Now that one was a real challenge to deal with. So I quit.

I didn't read the article I saw the other day but it had to do with new lenses for dry eye. The temptation is real. Even after 20 years of not wearing them.
 
I got my first pair in 1967 when the lenses were hard plastic and took weeks to get used to, starting with just a few hours a day. Then about ten years later I got my first soft lenses and still wear them when I dress-up.

What might help you, January, is that I was never able to put the soft lenses in the way they taught me, but always, and to this day, put them in the way I had been taught to put in the hard lenses:

Lay a mirror on your counter top. Bend forward over it. Wet the right lens with saline solution and balance it on the tip of your right forefinger. Hold your left arm over your forehead and, using the middle finger of your left hand, hold your upper eyelid up by the rim. Then hold the lower eyelid down with the middle finger of your right hand. Finally lay the lens on your eye with your right forefinger.

I have to do it this way, with a good grip on my eyelids, otherwise they will blink and knock that lens away.

Taking them out is the same "pinch-the-bottom-of-the-lens" way you were probably shown. Be sure your finger tips are wet and the lens will go to them better.
 
I tried them back in the summer of '68. It was between my Junior and senior year of college. My uncle BIll hooked me up with a constuction job with George and Bill Dworetsky's Landscaping and Grading in Fairlawn New Jersey. $2.75 an hour. A lot more than I could make in Florida where I was going to school. The Dworetsky's would hire a bunch of college kids every summer and put them to work as laborers. Most of which consisted of operating a Mexican Dragline. (That's a shovel in construction talk).

Yeah I know. Not politically correct. But that's how construction guys talk. Actually back then, in north Jersey, it wasn't Mexicans that got the brunt of the vertbal abuse, it was Puerto Ricans. The ultimate insullt was to refer to one of your fellow construction workers as a Puerto Rican. "Hey you! Puerto Rico! Whatsamatter? You no wanna work?! Go home!"

But I digress. Anyway with $2.75 an hour plus free room and board from my aunt and uncle I had some extra cash so I decided to try contact lenses.

Turns out trying to get used to contacts while working in a sandy dusty construction job was not the best idea. I was having to spend a couple of minutes every morning just peeling all the crusty stuff off my eyelids so that i could get my eyes open. I gave up after about a week ot two and never tried them again.

I don't see the point of them these days. Back in the day most people, especially women, wore them out of vanity, thanking that they would be more attractive without glasses. But these days the nerdy look is in and wearing glasses has become quite fashionable.
 
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Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone who posted,

Trade I dont mind wearing glasses and I still will most of the time as reading is nowhere near as sharp with the contact lenses,

It wasn't for vanity or appearance more for running and table-tennis, sports I play.

Della, that is the way they taught me to put them in. Taking out is easier but was still taking me 20 minutes of trying to get them in.

Robin, yes I guess I just have to keep practicing and hopefully get better over time
 
January said:
Taking out is easier but was still taking me 20 minutes of trying to get them in.
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Poor thing! After 20 minutes of that my eyes would be so red and angry they would spit the things right out. Yes, I've had my eyelids tighten and flip them out, all on their own.

@Trade have you seen Clint Eastwood's, "Gran Torino?" The scene in it when Clint is trying to teach his young neighbor how to talk like a construction worker, is one of the funniest things ever.
 
Della said:
Poor thing! After 20 minutes of that my eyes would be so red and angry they would spit the things right out. Yes, I've had my eyelids tighten and flip them out, all on their own.

@Trade have you seen Clint Eastwood's, "Gran Torino?" The scene in it when Clint is trying to teach his young neighbor how to talk like a construction worker, is one of the funniest things ever.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It wasn't far off from the truth. Lol!
 
Never had problems with contact lenses from the first day, wore them for about 30 years or more. But now I have blepharitis. For those, who don't know what that is and dealing with contact lenses: " Blepharitis causes inflammation, itching, and crusting of the eyelids, making contact lens wear uncomfortable and increasing the risk of infection or increased dryness. "
 
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