Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The eyes were not meant for foreign objects. Period. Not dirt, debris, sand, and especially not contacts. My eyes feel like they are full of sand all the time! And I am still only up to 3 hours :( I can't believe I'm about to say this but come on eye callouses!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Day 3 with my contacts. I wore them while driving and I've gotta say, I was quite overwhelmed by all this vision. For goodness sakes has the sun always been this bright?? Perhaps my diminishing vision was an evolutionary development to help me survive in this visually overwhelming world. Wow! The colors! I mean, it's nice to be able to read a street sign before the second I go whizzing by it but someone get me some super dark sunshades for crying out loud!

The extra good news is that I really am blinking less now, and can somewhat look around without turning my entire head like a muppet.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

My contacts arrived and today I went in for my "contact lens fitting." First of all, my eyes are very, very sensitive (you're surprised, right?). It's hard for me even to put eyeliner on. Whenever anything comes toward my eye, safe or not, it goes into spasms (helpful as a natural reflex, not so helpful in the world of contacts. Let's not even talk about how hard it is for the opthamologist to do the glaucoma test that blows that puff of air into your eye). Anyway, my eye sensitivity is compounded by anxiety about how hard lenses cannot be easily moved around your eye. Because they are hard, you risk scratching your cornea if you slide them across your eye. If you've ever had contacts, you know it's not that hard to put them in wrong or rub your eye without thinking, which dislodges the contact and allows it to float up into your brain (ok, that is theoretically impossible but that doesn't make me feel any less nervous about it).


What was I talking about again? I got distracted by the thought of having a collection of contacts in my brain.


Well, after I actually got the contacts in (minus the time when I blinked too soon and the contact when into the abyss of my eye corner and I screamed, "Help! Help!" and the secretary yelled, "Somebody get the doctor!" causing all kinds of mayhem and staring, and by the time the doctor arrived I had wedged it out of my eye and I said, "I'm ok now."), the doctor took a look and said my vision was 20/20 and the contacts were sitting well. I had to admit, I could see!....so long as I only looked downward at the floor...without blinking.

"I can only see straight in front of me--everything to the sides is blurry--is that normal?" I asked.

"Yes." she replied.

Really? Couldn't they come up with something better? Like, isn't peripheral vision important?

"And how long until I get used to them?" I continued, through my red, puffy, traumatized eyes, and mascara running down my face.

"About a week. You're already blinking less than when you first put them in." (And by this I assumed she meant at a rate less than 400 times per minute.)

SO a week here I go....

Friday, August 13, 2010

I'm giving contact lenses a try for the, oh, fiftieth time in my life. I have had glasses since I was five years old but I only wear my glasses at home to read and use the computer (even though I should probably wear them all the time). I have tried contacts many, many times and have been unsuccessful every time. I have astigmatism which makes contact-wearing difficult in the first place. One must use weighted toric lenses that only focus when the weighted side sits at the bottom of your eye. For me, the contacts never quite settled properly and therefore my vision was always blurry. I tried every brand of toric lenses before finally moving on to hard lenses.

Hard lenses are, well, hard. They take a while to get used to because you can feel them in your eye. Supposedly, after wearing them for awhile your eye develops a callous (gross!) which desensitizes your eye and you don't feel the hard lenses any more. The last time I tried hard lenses I was never able to get used to them. To further complicate things, I also have very dry eyes. As a result, I was putting eye drops into my eyes as frequently as less than every 30 minutes. That makes for a very long, uncomfortable day. With all these factors together, I decided to give up on contact lenses and just go through life being partially blind.

Then I got pregnant.

I found out that pregnancy can make your eyes even dryer and make your vision worse. What I wasn't told, was that after pregnancy your eyesight never goes back to the way it was pre-pregnancy. Um, does this mean that with each child I just keep getting blinder??? Well anyway, last week I decided it was time to visit the eye doctor to renew my 10+ year old glasses prescription. While I was there, I decided to give contacts another go. After all, it would be nice to be able to see at work.

The doctor had me try on all the toric lenses they had in stock, even newer ones that are especially for dry eyes. I couldn't see. Not even a little bit. The doctor determined that I have flat corneas which prevent the weighted lenses from ever settling properly. I was grateful to finally find out the reason behind my life of contact drama! The solution? Hard lenses or glasses. I ordered a pair of hard lenses (not covered by insurance, thank you very much) and my total bill was $400+ without even ordering the glasses. *Gulp* No wonder I haven't been to the eye doctor in so long! I will go back to buy a pair of glasses when my FCPS insurance kicks in (did you know that frames and lenses are sold separately???).