Contacts

I've been trying out contact lenses for the last couple of weeks. It has been a very hit and miss affair so far with them.

First of all, I decided that I wanted to have the daily disposable lenses so that I could just wear a pair occasionally when I felt like it and then throw them away. However when I went for my initial consultation with the Optician I learned that they didn't make the daily lenses that corrected astigmatism strong enough for my left eye which is about 1.25 worse than my right. I tried a pair anyway, but I just couldn't see well enough in them.... so on to plan 2.

Plan 2 was the day and night wear lenses. In theory you could leave them in for a month with the occasional day off to give your eyes a break. In theory anyway. I can't seem to keep a pair in for more than a few hours before them starting to irritate me, also the lenses were having a derogatory affect on my mid range vision, i.e. reading a computer screen or paperwork on a desk which I do all day long at work. When I first put a pair in, I went into a bakers and attempted to pay for a sandwich by putting some coins on the glass countertop. I kept missing it, not quite knowing where it was. I felt such a fool. I tried two different prescriptions for these lenses, but even with the prescription change helping the reading a little, the irritation still persisted.

So a couple of weeks go past... and then they suddenly increase the prescription of the toric astigmatism-correcting lenses so I can now try some of these. They are a lot more flimsy than the monthly day and night ones and keep sticking to my finger when I try to put them in, but they seem a little bit better for reading, and less irritating, and probably the best thing is that I can just put them in when I want to go out in the evening and use them on an ad hoc basis which is what I wanted in the first instance.

I did have a mishap with them the first day I wore them though, one of the lenses split when I was trying to take it out, it broke into three pieces and I was convinced for the rest of the evening that I still had a piece of lens in my eye. I had an emergency appointment at the optician the next morning, who checked my still inflamed eye - but fortunately there was nothing in it and I had got the lens out.... so that's why I'm not wearing my glasses in these pics anymore.