Spec-free at 40! (Contact Lenses in general)

Member Name: jammaker49

Product:	Contact Lenses in general
Date:	11/01/02 (247 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No blisters!, No misting up., No spots before the eyes in the rain

Disadvantages: Must keep fingernails short

I have been wearing glasses since the age of 11 for short sight. Without them I would climb on a fire engine instead of a London bus. Gradually, through the years, my short-sight has worstened, and consequently, so has the thickness of the lenses in my glasses. By the time I'd reached minus 8 strength, they were like the bottoms of bottles, and even with plastic lenses, were still heavy and becoming uncomfortable to wear, even when I chose the smallest frames possible.

This became more and more of a nuisance, especially in the hot weather, when they would slip down my nose, causing me to constantly push them back, and I had permanent blisters behind my ears. I was in a dilemma. If I had spectacles with reactolite to darken in the sun, they could only be made of glass, and if I opted for clip-on sunglasses, it added to the weight anyway!

When my daughter was 16, we promised her she could change to contact lenses. She went for several fittings for hers, and the optician would not let her have them until she could take them in and out with ease. I went with her for these fittings , and it got me thinking that if she could wear them, why shouldn't I?

Previously I had never really considered them, thinking that they would take time and energy to get used to wearing them, be too much hassle to maintain the strict regime of cleaning, disinfecting and storing them, and be way out of my price range. But on a whim, I went into the optician to enquire about them, and came out of the optician wearing them! It was really that easy!

First of all, the optician did a full eye test, including puffing air into the eyes to check the shape, and looking closely at the health of the eyes. Then he popped a pair into my eyes and left me to sit for half an hour, before doing the tests all over again. I was pleasantly surprised to find that apart from the vision being slightly different from when I was wearing specs, I really could not feel them in
my eyes at all.

Having decided that I was a suitable candidate for the lenses, I then had to go with a technician to practice inserting and removing them. So long as I had a mirror in front of me, this presented no problem at all, which really surprised me.

I then went home, complete with a pair of lenses designed to last six months, a little pot to store them in, and various cans of disinfectant, neutraliser, cleaner, and protein removal tablets! Things have much improved since even ten years ago!

I had to begin by wearing the lenses for just three hours, gradually increasing the time every other day, until I was wearing them for twelve hours at a time. The cleaning and disinfecting routine had to be carried out nightly, and they protein removal once every two weeks. This was no problem really, taking about ten minutes each night.

Two weeks later I went back to the optician, who set me up on their monthly plan, which meant I paid £10 a month for the one pair of lenses and all the lotions necessary, plus a free eye examination every six months to check the health of the eyes.

What a difference wearing lenses made! I no longer had a red mark across the bridge of my nose, or blisters behind my ears. I could wear a pair of lightweight sunglasses in the summer, which did not need pushing back up my nose every five minutes. And I honestly could not feel the lenses once they were in my eyes. If I did feel any discomfort, it usually meant a speck of dust had got on the lens, and I just pooped it out, sprayed it with saline to clean it, and popped it back in again!

Later, I changed to monthly disposables, which did away with the need for the protein removal, and changed to a different regime, which did not require me to remember to neutralise the lenses after ten minutes. I just popped a neutralising tablet straight into the pot with the sterilising fluid.

I still wear contact lenses now, at the age of 51, alth
ough I now only wear them periodically. This is because, along with most people of my generation, my long sight has deteriorated, and I find it difficult to focus to read. I began to have to wear reading glasses over the lenses, and I would have to remove them for working on the computer, which is at a different distance from the eyes than when reading a book! I found I was carting a sackload of specs around with me wherever I went, and for work now, I find glases the better option.

At present, I use the daily disposable lenses. I receive thirty pairs every three months, and pay £10 per month by direct debit. I probably only use about ten pairs in the three months, so I am now thinking of coming off the direct debit scheme, and just buying them as I need them.

To anyone who is reluctant to try contact lenses for whatever reason, I would say, give it a go. Most opticians will give you a free trial before you commit yourself. If you decide that you really cannot put them in and remove them, at least you will have given it a go. And so long as you attend regular health checks, and are scrupulous about hygiene, there is little risk of eye infections. In twelve years of wearing them I have not had a single problem in that respect.

The convenience of daily disposables, which means no pots or lotions to carry about, is well worth the extra money.

With hindsight, I wish I had tried contact lenses years before I did!

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