Contact lenses - normal ones!

Ok so I now wear contact lenses as my short sightedness got worse and I was wearing my glasses every day but it got annoying.
I got sick of my glasses fogging up when I eat soup. Or (and this probably doesn't happen to everyone...) getting sweaty on my face where my glasses are. I always get sweaty there when I'm nervous. And it doesn't really add to my 'cool girl chic' when I'm wiping away sweat from under my glasses.

And the main logical reason - I'm going in to a new profession (nursing) and I became really aware of how often I touch my glasses, and it just seemed cumbersome and unhygienic.

I wanted to get laser eye surgery but when I researched it I read that your eyes need to have stabilised. Mine were still getting worse so I didn't think I'd be a candidate.

Contacts it is!

So I went to my optometrist and they did all their measuring and such and then gave me a trial set (I think they normally test you out on whether you can put them in and take them out, but I told them I had tried the freshlook lenses before so I was ok with that).

I chose monthly lenses - I wanted the ones that were "the best for my eye health" and these seemed the best option. It felt too wasteful or something to get daily ones that you chuck out every time, and I figured that would have been better if I wasn't wearing them every day. But for every day...  Monthly ones seemed better.

Ok so for me, putting them in was pretty ok. I don't have an issue with touching my eye balls. I thought about the technique I use - I look in the mirror, hold my eyelids open with one hand, and try to put the contact right in the middle of my eye ball with the other hand. Then I kind of let it settle on to the eye (it magically finds it's own way into the right spot on the iris) and then I slowly let my eyelids back over it. Sometimes there's an air bubble under it but when you blink a couple of times it goes away.
Sometimes my eye lid catches on the side of it and knocks it out and I have to try again.

Oh and I use hand sanitiser beforehand, but I let it dry on my fingers so I'm not putting that directly on my eye (I reckon that would sting).

I don't look at the approaching finger with the contact lense on it either - I'm looking in the mirror at my hand, aiming it. It's like I kind of shut off the sight of the eye that is actually receiving the contact.

Initially I had issues with whether the contact was inside out or not. So annoying, I just couldn't really tell. I read on the net about it, people saying right way up is like a "bowl" and wrong way is like a "saucer". I can see that now, but at the time, the difference between the bowl and the saucer was nothingggggg.

They are right though, when it's wrong way it's like the edges are a bit flatter out, and when it's right way the edges look more like they want to curl inwards like a ball.

Now I can tell more from the fact that it feels uncomfortable if it's in the wrong way. And that's another thing - I didn't know what "feeling uncomfortable" meant, because wearing them AT ALL felt "uncomfortable" because it was just not natural feeling.
Now I'd describe uncomfortable as kind of tired? Like a dull ache. And I think that's when your eye balls are dry. I bought drops to put in every now and then - they are compatible with the contacts and just alleviate that feeling a tad.
The other thing that I would call "uncomfortable" is the easier one to notice - like if you have dust in your eye and it's just irritating. That's when you know something isn't quite right. I usually take them out, rinse them with solution and try putting them in again.

I have a friend that tried contacts ages ago but just could never get them in or out (when he was at the optomestrist). If this happens to you I suggest asking them for the trial pair and trying at home. I found it way easier to get them in when I was by myself with no pressure.  Sure the first time my eyes were watering like crazy (ok for the first week this happened!) but I kept trying and eventually got used to it.

Oh and how is your eye sight when you wear contacts compared to glasses? AMAZING. I felt like superman. Everything was so clear, like everywherrrrre. That sounds silly but with the contacts on it's your entire field of vision, not just the bits within that frame of glasses. And boy do I notice that frame now when I wear glasses instead of contacts. I've only been wearing my big frames because I find the smaller frames uber annoying now after wearing contacts.

So yay for contacts! Definitely recommended.

Keep em clean though - make sure you change the solution they are in, and change your contact case maybe every time you start a new bottle of solution? (they usually come with a free case anyway).

Don't rinse them in water, even if you are desperate.

I had to stay at a mates house as an emergency to look after her little girl and didn't have my contact solution or case.... I ended up putting them in a water bottle lid, filled with my eye drops. Wasn't ideal but it was better than nothing!

After that I went on to ebay and bought some emergency contact boxes - they were about $1.50 and they are a small plastic square box with a small contact case inside and a little bottle for solution, and it has a mirror. This way whenever I have an emergency I have a storage case, solution and a mirror.

:)