Contact lenses!

[kate_nepveu]

As of three hours ago, I have soft contact lenses. I am most pleased about this. Consequently, I ask you all:

Tell me all the interesting ways you've lost your soft contact lenses, so I can try and avoid them. (I already know about the uninteresting ways of swimming, showering, and getting hit in the eye. => )

Comments

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

When I wore them, I never lost one, but I did have a moment early on where normally fixed objects seemed to be squirming around in my peripheral vision.

Turned out, I had the lens in back-to-front and the corner was lifting up, causing solid objects (desks, floors, walls) to appear as if they were squirming. Luckily, it didn't happen while I was driving. It was eerie.

[kate_nepveu]

You mean inside-out? They told me I'd know if I did that, it would sting like crazy. But I'll keep that in mind.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

I don't recall it stinging exactly - but it was within the first month I had them, so I was probably ascribing any discomfort to "new lenses - dunno what else might happen..."

My lenses were also rather thin - my prescription isn't that strong, but just strong enough so that I am not comfortable driving to a place I have not been before without them (can't read street signs so well without 'em).

[annewashere.livejournal.com]

I've worn them for 16 years now, and the best I can say is make sure you get the tinted ones so that you can see them when you inevitably drop them.

Also, don't rub your eye too much and get them stuck around the corner of your eyeball. That really sucks.

[kate_nepveu]

Yup, and eek, thank you.

[thormation.livejournal.com]

This sometimes also happens if you happen to fall asleep with them in, but only may once every 200 times or so, and moreso if you tend to roll around in your sleep. When this happens, the best thing is to take a bottle of moisturizing drops (aka, your best friend) and just flood the heck out of the affected eye. The rising tide should bring it home again.

One aggravating place to lose a lens is in the protective soaking case. This can happen if you don't use enough solution and then your case gets jostled. The next morning the lens is stuck to the lid, dry as a bone, and quite irretrievable. Also, if your case has screw on lids, you're doomed to screw a lens into the threads at some point. And if you don't have screw on lids, they will pop open at some point and dry out your lenses, guaranteed.

And one other thing--always replace your lenses in pairs. The only exception should be if you lose a lens within 48 hours of starting a new set. Your eyes are joined at the hip, and if one has an old, fuzzy lens, the other might as well have one too. Also makes date-watching easier too.

[kate_nepveu]

Don't fall asleep with lenses in: knew that, but good to have it reinforced.

Be careful of screw-on lids: check.

Replace in pairs: two week disposables, so probably not an issue, but check.

Thanks!

[montoya.livejournal.com]

So based on a) the fact that I don't remember you wearing glasses ever, and b) the slightly archaic emphasis on soft contact lenses, I'm assuming you've been wearing the hard ones? If I'm not wrong, wow, I didn't realize they even made those any more.

[kate_nepveu]

Nope. I've only gone to wearing glasses full-time within the last few years, so I probably wasn't wearing them the one and only time we met; and I was emphasizing soft because Chad does still wear hard lenses, though he's going to investigate whether the tech has improved enough to change lenses.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I've worn contact lenses off and on for about fourteen years. I lost my first contact on the very first day that I owned one; no one's still quite sure how I did that. (You can imagine the scolding I got from my mom for that one!) I haven't lost any since then, but I have ripped a few by screwing the lid of the case down on top of them. This happens when I'm particularly tired and clumsy at the end of the day. I've just learned to take them out earlier. And now I have two week disposables (Acuvue II in one eye, a different brand in the other because of my astigmatism), which makes the whole losing/ripping issue much less of a big deal. I love disposables; they're a thousand times more comfortable than my old non-disposables ever were.

[kate_nepveu]

Be careful of screw-on lids: double check.

I've only worn mine for four hours so far, of course, but they were a lot more comfortable right off the bat than I expected. We'll see how the adjustment goes.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I keep those little bottles of rewetting drops just about everywhere--in all my bags, at my office, and at home. They're very useful.

[aranel.livejournal.com]

It is possible to cry so hard that your contacts find their way back into your eye (i.e., where you cannot see any part of their rims looking into the mirror). Needless to say, not recommended.

[kate_nepveu]

Eeee. What do you *do* then?

One of my errands today is getting spare contact lens cases--many, for work, the car, my bag . . .

[aranel.livejournal.com]

Just be patient, take deep breaths, and blink a lot. They'll eventually find their way back, or at least mine did. Panic is counterproductive, though difficult to resist. Obviously, if it's been hours and you still can't see them, it's probably time to call a doctor. This had never happened to me, though.

[khavrinen.livejournal.com]

Probably not an issue with soft lenses, but my Dad once had one of his ( hard ) blown out of his eye by a gust of wind. Not a severe one, either, merely an ordinary, 15mph or so whoosh; just caught it at the right angle, I guess. The amazing thing is, he actually found it -- in a clump of grass alongside the road where we were riding our bikes. Because of his keratoconus, he's been wearing hard contacts for over forty years ( it can't be corrected by soft lenses ), so I'm sure he probably could tell lots of stories about them, but that's the most dramatic one that I remember.

[kate_nepveu]

That's pretty impressive. Chad once had wind blow dust or something under his hard lens and scratch his eye, which hurt amazingly, he says.

[leaina.livejournal.com]

I've worn soft lenses for years and years, and the only time I lost one was because of not realizing right away that I had lost it. I must have lost it near the sink while I was trying to put it in. I didn't check carefully to make sure that it actually was in, and only later realized that one eye was seeing a little blurrily. (My eyes are both pretty badly nearsighted, but one is about twice as bad as the other, and it was the better eye that was contact-free.) When I went back home and checked the bathroom, I couldn't find it anywhere. So my advice: when you're putting your contacts in, just make sure they really go in.

[kate_nepveu]

Yes, I'm worried about this, because I do have one fairly good eye (and once didn't notice that I'd lost a glasses lens because of that). Tonight when I put them in, I both looked for the little line on my eyeball, and covered one eye and looked down the stairs. We'll see how long I keep that up.

[mdevnich.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can offer that no one else has, is that contacts have really wierd aerodynamics. I dropped one once and finally found it stuck to the *underside* of some furniture.

[kate_nepveu]

Well then.

I was surprised at how *squooshy* mine were, and also how clingy, so I guess that makes sense. I will keep it in mind for when I do inevitably drop one.

the physics of falling lenses

[rabidotter.livejournal.com]

Learn about where they fall. This is an important skill that nobody will tell you about but makes your life much easier.

Are they disposable? I used to have the 180 and 90 day lenses, but I always kept them for far too long. Now I have disposable lenses and they are always fresh and new.

Avoid smokey places, as smoke mucks up many lenses.

Re: the physics of falling lenses

[kate_nepveu]

They're two week disposables, and I intend to keep to the schedule.

I dislike smokey places anyway.

So far I've only dropped one in the sink. *knocks on wood*

Thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

First off, give thanks that you get soft lenses instead of hard! I wore hard for going on twenty years, and then the doctor told me I could maybe try soft, so I've been on them for the least three years, and then the (different) doctor said my astigmatism is reasserting itself, so I've been back on hard for a month or so, and it's taking a while for my eyes to readjust.
Anyway, enough about me--I never had a lot of problems with losing soft lenses. You will drop them every once in awhile, but they don't tend to bounce, unlike hard lenses...those little buggers, you have to scour the entire floor to find. Soft lenses, you just look down to where they fell.
Enjoy!

--Trent

[kate_nepveu]

Chad's got hard lenses and he says that the first time he put them in, he could only stand to wear them for half an hour. I had a rotten time getting these in this morning, and I'm just glad that I don't need hard lenses, because if I can't get soft ones in without dropped them several times and turning them inside-out on my fingertip several *more* times, well, there's no way that I'm getting hard lenses in without scratching up my eye to hell and gone.

And yes, not-bouncing is definitely a good thing!

Thanks!