Question about wearing contacts for the first time...

[Meagan]

I got my first pair of contacts today! :smile: Wow, I had no idea it would be so hard to put them in the first few times...the woman who taught me had the patience of a saint!

It is so great to be able to SEE without having glasses sitting on my nose and behind my ears and making me look all, well, MOM-ISH. Unfortunately those chunky thick frames that are so in right now look atrocious on me.

Anyhoo, I've had them in for about 3 hours now and my eyes feel...achy. Not stingy or sore, but just like they've been running around the block for a while. is this normal? They don't feel dry. The prescription is the same as my glasses, but I suppose I would have taken my glasses off several times over the past three hours to give my eyes a rest, even if just for a few minutes.

Whaddya think...normal? Will it pass?

[Anne]

It's probably normal and it will probably pass.

What type of contacts are they? My first contacts were gas permeable lenses, so they were pretty hard. They last forever unless they break. Ugh, I remember learning to get them in correctly and out--that was quite a task, LOL. Anyway, I had to gradually increase the amount of time I could wear them each day.

I have some soft disposable lenses now, though I rarely wear them and haven't even blown through all the samples I got last summer. They feel different to me, and I can wear them for quite a while, but they do tend to bother me a bit, probably because I don't wear lenses that often.

[bannanabette]

I find that contacts don't correct my vision quite the same way that my glasses do (probably because I have a very slight astigmatism in one eye which um... two different optometrists have claimed to be in different eyes, but that's neither here nor there - and with my eyes it's hard to tell the difference between here and there anyway - oh, I'm sorry, is this not the train to tangentville?)

Anyway.... because they correct differently, my eyes feel strained after a few hours if I haven't worn contacts in a while because the muscles aren't used to focusing the same way. You should find that that goes away after you get used to them.

[Meagan]

It's probably normal and it will probably pass.

What type of contacts are they? My first contacts were gas permeable lenses, so they were pretty hard. They last forever unless they break. Ugh, I remember learning to get them in correctly and out--that was quite a task, LOL. Anyway, I had to gradually increase the amount of time I could wear them each day.

I have some soft disposable lenses now, though I rarely wear them and haven't even blown through all the samples I got last summer. They feel different to me, and I can wear them for quite a while, but they do tend to bother me a bit, probably because I don't wear lenses that often.

they're Acuvue Oasis...a new brand, the two-week type. I haven't worn them yet today and my eyes still feel a little tired. I wonder if it's because I was poking at them for well over an hour yesterday while trying to get the (*&)*& things in. The skin around my eyes is all tender, too, from being yanked at and pulled on. Ah, the price of something resembling fashion...

[Meagan]

I find that contacts don't correct my vision quite the same way that my glasses do (probably because I have a very slight astigmatism in one eye which um... two different optometrists have claimed to be in different eyes, but that's neither here nor there - and with my eyes it's hard to tell the difference between here and there anyway - oh, I'm sorry, is this not the train to tangentville?)

that's funny, because this doc said I had astigmatism in my left eye, but didn't incorporate that into the lenses. My glasses don't correct differently in one eye than the other either.

[Anne]

they're Acuvue Oasis...a new brand, the two-week type. I haven't worn them yet today and my eyes still feel a little tired. I wonder if it's because I was poking at them for well over an hour yesterday while trying to get the (*&)*& things in. The skin around my eyes is all tender, too, from being yanked at and pulled on. Ah, the price of something resembling fashion...

Yeah, all that poking around on top of getting used to lenses can do that. It took me a while to figure out how to get floppy soft lenses in and out, but I also didn't let them show me how since I'd learned with the hard ones and didn't want to go through that process again with someone standing there watching.

I used to freak my husband out by tapping on my hard gas perms while they were in my eye. :eek:

[victoria]

I've had my current contact lenses for a bit over a year. I wore contacts for a while as a teenager for a while too. These ones took me a few months to get really used to them in, and also to get used to putting them in. One eye was more difficult than the other, also. I have astigmatism and my contacts correct my vision better than my glasses do.

I would start wearing them for a shorter amount of time and gradually increase it. I was told something like 4 hours for the first couple days, then 8, then 12, then 16 over just about a week and that was too quick for me to get used to wearing them for longer periods of time.

[Bonny]

If I wear my glasses for several weeks, and then switch to my contacts, it takes a day or two for my eyes to adjust. They are the same prescription ... my eyes just need a little while. Definitely, I would think the poking around/getting used to them would make a difference.