I used to wear contacts and started at 18. Unfortunately, my dry eyes became too dry:( A few years back I did try again, but they are uncomfortable. So, if anyone has dry eyes and wears contacts, let me know the type you use.

Debra, they are so worth it. I used to be able to wear mine 14 hours a day. I started with a gas permeable lens (my doctor helped develop this type) and then I tried the soft. I couldn't wear them. I'm thinking you have difficulty squeezing the soft lens to pull it out. With the hard, or gas permeable all I did was pull my eyes to a slant and blink, so much easier.
Don't be stressed. Take as long as you need to. You'll be glad you did.

I wore contacts when I was younger (probably started at like aged 12). I had a terrible time learning how to do it and it was very stressful for me.

I also had tremendous problems w/ the "permanent" ones, they used to really irritate my eyes. I got disposables that you could wear for a week to two weeks all the time (even sleep in them) and then they got thrown out, so there was no cleaning or need to take them in and out all the time. It was more expensive but so, so much better!

I wore them from age 12-20 when I got lasik which was the BEST thing ever I'm 31 now and still have perfect vision and cannot imagine ever having to go back to contacts or glasses.

I got my lasik on my parent's flexible spending account before I got kicked off their insurance so it made it a LOT cheaper. Not sure if you have a FSA that could lower your cost...

I wore them until my mid 40s. Soft disposables loved them. My glasses looked like coke bottles.

I had to stop wearing them when my eyes got too dry. Shortly after that I had LASIK. Overnight I had better than 20/20 vision. Still do. But...I have to wear reading glasses which is fine.

I remember when I started wearing them it was a challenge. Just keep at it. You will catch on. You need short nails, clean hands, and a good mirror.

My twin son has very bad vision and has been wearing contacts for two years. I had to beg the Doc for them because he was too young. I put them in every morning and take them out every night, but he has dyslexia and his reading went way up when he could see better...which he could with the contacts. By next school year I'm hoping he will be able to do it himself.

Good luck!!!

Red, there are contacts are are worn at night and taken out during the day. I saw them advertised at my optometrists office. Great for kids that involved in sports.

I feel your pain Debra. The stress of the Dr's office is adding to your anxiety. Everyone has a different method- I put my head down while myson tilts his head back. Hopefully, the office staff allows you some quiet time to just do it! Good luck.

Thanks for the posts.

I watched some videos online and see different methods than what they are showing me in the office. I will try some of these when I go back.

I don't "feel" the contact with my fingers so its hard to squeeze it to remove it. I'm supposed to practice putting my finger on my eye until the next visit.

I don't have dry eyes at all so that is a good thing.

I googled about lasik. It sounds like you still might have to wear reading glasses which is what I'm trying to avoid. Not an option right now as I'm still paying on my Invisalign.

red_lover I can't imagine taking contacts in and out of someone else's eyes! You are a great parent for doing that.

My doctor has those contacts you only wear at night and they reshape you eyes. I knew someone who had great success with it. He didn't suggest that so I guess it may not be an option for me???

ratherbesewing, I wish the optician would not sit there and watch. She is very nice but being watched is stressful. I suppose they want to watch to make sure you are not doing something to injure your eye???

Thanks for the help!

When I wore soft contacts, I went with colored contacts. Not only did I like the colors, but I found the contacts were easier to handle as I could see them. When I was using clear, they were harder to find in the liquid.

To remove them, I never used an "approved" technique. What worked for me was to touch the contact and drag it toward the outer corner of my eye where it would start to rumple up and lift off my eye so then I had something to grab.

And, I found that fingernails of any length at all were deadly to my contacts. Guaranteed a rip.

I now deal with glasses...on to see distance and off to see close. Doc keeps wanting me to get bifocals, I'd actually need trifocals, but I'm resistant...or should I say stubborn.

And as many of you in these threads may remember, I NEVER lose my glasses!!!
;)

When I first got contacts in high school,for weeks I had to get up half an hour earlier in the morning, it took me so long to put them in. All those years of being told NOT to touch one's eyes were hard to overcome! Now I love them. Just got "bifocal" lenses because I started needing reading glasses and after several yeas couldn't read ANYTHING without the reading glasses, such a pain, but I'm still in "contact lens boot camp" as you say, figuring out which lenses work for me.

One thing I've always I liked about lenses is I can wear any sunglasses I want!

It takes awhile, but it will get easier. I promise.

As for nails.... I have long nail beds. What that means is even if my nails are as short as they can be they still extend past my fingertips. My son has the same and it was very difficult for him to learn to play the guitar because of it. I see women with long fake nails and contacts! How do they do it?

Annie, your non approved technique is what they are trying to get me to do. It doesn't work (at least not yet) because I can't look straight and put my finger over my iris because I instinctively roll my eye up and miss the contact. Does the colored contacts actually change your eye color?

Another walking advertisement for Lasik. I started wearing contacts when I was 14 and continued until I was in my 40's when I had Lasik. Love, love it. I was to the point of needing reading glasses in addition to the contacts, plus my eyes were really getting more dry. I hate the transitional/bifocal lenses and can't get accustomed to those, so I went for the Lasik plus reading glasses. Yes, reading glasses are almost a given anyway as you age into your 40's, but that's fine with me.

My contacts were hard, gas-permeable, gray-tinted. Not hard to find. You pull the corner of the eye a bit and blink and they come out. Hard contacts do affect the shape of your cornea. Prior to having my Lasik surgery I had to discontinue wearing my contacts for a period of 2 weeks so my eyes could conform to their natural shape prior to the surgery. I don't know if the soft contacts cause the eyes to 're-shape' or not.

Good luck. I believe it will get easier. BTW, I think there once was a suction device you could use to get the contacts out, but maybe they discontinued that. I, for one, couldn't see me putting my finger in my eye and getting a soft contact out either.

I used to wear them so didn't start at an older age. At some point my eyes started getting too dry after a long day in front of my computer at work. At the same time frames got smaller and more comfortable. At the first sign of not being able to read with my glasses on (could read fine without them but then distance was a problem) I got progressive lenses so I had perfect vision at all distances with glasses on. I think getting them early made it easy to adjust. Now that I'm even older I like the fact that glasses detract from wrinkles, etc. My mom always liked glasses in her later years to cover up the bags under her eyes. I'm starting to see what she was talking about.

LASIK would be great if you could adjust to the mono vision for close up and distance. I tried that with contacts and it drove me nuts. Never got the hang of it and felt like I could never see anything clearly.

I fortunately have never had to deal with the reading glasses thing. I just put the glasses on in the morning and never think about it again until I take them off at night.

Good luck with the contacts. Hope you can make it work if that's what you really want.

I think one thing that impacts the ability to get contacts in and out easily is the size of your eyes. My one daughter with small beedy eyes(don't tell her I said that ;-0 ) had a hard time learning how to insert her contacts. The wide eyed one had an easy time.

For those of you with the dry eye complaints, I have been living that story the past year. Infections from dryness, more drops than I can count, tear drop plugs, etc. I am trialing daily multifocal disposables currently and I love them! I have been able to tolerate them well. They are super thin. I describe them like a piece of Saran wrap, thin and floppy. If I wore my biweekly disposables for 2 hours my eyes would be red for days. With the daily wear, I wore them 12+ hours yesterday with no problems.

Talk to your eye MD about them. It does not appear that the cost is that prohibitive for them. My MD said that the biggest issue in the contact lens industry is how to make a contact that the old boomers with dry eyes can tolerate.

Like you, I hate wearing glasses. I started wearing hard contacts when I was 13 and then had Lasik when I was in my upper 40's. Be aware that when you get ready to have Lasik you cannot wear contacts for a few weeks leading up to it. At least that was how it was for me. Also, with Lasik you'll need to adjust for the monovision, with one eye seeing up close and another seeing far away. And eventually you'll need reading glasses.
Isn't aging fun?

The Lasik worked for me for awhile; however I was both near sighted and have astigmatism so after a few years I was back to needing glasses. At that time I was in my early to mid-50's and I tried wearing all different kinds of contacts; however my eyes couldn't take it. My eyes aren't really dry, but they were dry enough that it just didn't work. I have several friends in the same boat. They reach a certain point that their eyes just can't take the contacts any more.

I ordered a pair of frameless glasses. I like those the best because they're less conspicuous. I've since ordered 2 pair that have far more bold frames, but while they may be stylish, it's not for me. I prefer my frameless lenses.

Annie - I read your post about wearing contacts until your eyes got too dry. I had the same problem & miss my contacts too. That being said, run, don't walk to get those trifocals. I wish they would change the name, because to me it meant "too old to see good anymore" & I Hated it!! My glasses which used to resemble Coke bottle bottoms back in the 80's are now ultra-thin and no one (except me) even knows they are trifocals (I think there is a cute name for lineless bifocals, but I don't know what it is!). My thin, frameless lenses are the best! I can look at an iPad or computer screen at any distance without any difficulty and then look up and see across the lake without fooling around with my glasses. It took me a few months to convince myself that the name was all in my head. I wish I had gotten them sooner. I promise you will love them!!

I feel for you. My kids got contacts this past year and it was so hard for them in the beginning to do it themselves. They needed time to just figure it out. I have similar vision issues and at my next exam I want to try contacts for the first time too. For these reasons, I pretty nervous though. I hope you are able to relax enough to do it. Keep trying!

Are you looking in the mirror when you try to take the contacts out? That never worked for me.

If the contacts fit right, they are right over the center of your eye. Try not looking in a mirror and just touching your finger tip to the center of your eye and then dragging the finger and hopefully the contact lens over to the outer corner of your eye.

I did the same for putting them in. My eyes are so bad that I'd have to lean in too close to the mirror to see what I was doing, so I learned to put them in by sticking the contact on one finger, holding my eye open with the other hand, and just putting the lens in the open eye without looking in the mirror.

My lens would just center themselves on my eye no matter where they landed when I put them in. If yours don't do that, you may have to look in a mirror.

Ellendi--interesting. I have to check into this. Thanks for the tip.

Debra---I put my sons head down and bring the lens to his eye otherwise the lens is so slick it slides right off my finger. Plus it seems I have to go through a process of drying my fingertip multiple times for it to "let go" onto the end of the eyeball. The lens can't be slick and your fingertip. You can almost feel it, hear it..when it attaches to the eye rather than pulling away with your finger.

Getting it out. Be careful. You can scratch your cornea. Your need to look up a little. Until you get the knack of it, hold you eye apart with your opposite hand. Put your fingertip (first finger) or in your case it sounds like the side of the pad of your finger if your nail extends out that far...on the lens and slide it down and without removing the finger add the thumb and pinch it together gently. If it's low enough there will be no suction and it will come right out. Even my son caught on to this part the last couple of months...just couldn't get him to wash his hands first. You will get to where you can do it without a mirror. Your eyes will get desensitized. Just keep at it.

I wore contacts for so many years that it's no big deal to put them in his eyes. Not any better parent than the rest of you, but thanks.

My sons right eye is so bad that his right lens has to be custom made. I used the extended wear disposables which I loved. These do not come in his prescription. It is a pain.

But, he CAN SEE! His reading level went up like you wouldn't believe. So it's all good.

Like I said, just keep at it.

If having the optician watching you makes you nervous, tell her that. She should not have to watch you. If she disagrees, ask to talk with the doc.

The colored potion (cornea) of your eye that is most sensitive to touch. The white portion is far less sensitive. If you are not already doing so, practice touching the white portion.

When I first started wearing lenses, I FIRMLY would rub my closed eyelid downward to get the lens off the cornea - so it would curl up in my lower conjunctival sac (bottom of eye) where I could easily grab it. This is NOT the quickest way, it would take MULTIPLE attempts - but it would eventually work.

Good luck!

I'm an optician and have taught many people how to insert/remove contacts. If it makes you nervous to have the optician watch, just tell her nicely. To be honest- it gets boring watching people struggle to put contacts in, telling them over and over what to do and I would be only too happy to busy myself with something else if the person prefers. Of course, I would check back often.

I find it's rare for it to take more than twice to have someone learn, though it happens. And no, we never let someone take the contacts home if they can't put them in and take them out.

I suggest having short nails. And practice at home. Wash your hands well, than touch the sclera(white) of the eye. It won't hurt. Do it a few times a day.

Once you learn how to put them on and off, you will see if you will be satisfied with your vision. You might not be. I wear multifocal contacts and my vision is much poorer with them, then with my progressive(no line) eyeglasses.

It might take several times to find contacts that work well for you. The main issue is that a lens that gives you decent close vision blurs your distance vision. Many people do fine but generally there is some compromise.

Some people find it helpful to wear driving glasses over mono vision or multifocal contacts. I do and find them very helpful. Also, of you just need glasses for up close and hate having to take them on and off all the time( and hate how they blur the distance) you can wear progressive or bifocal lenses with no or little correction in the top part.

Good luck and let us know how it goes! If you have any questions, I am happy to help.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'm going to consolidate the suggestions in a word document and print it out. Calling the office now to schedule another appointment.

Got my first contacts (hard lenses) when I was ~10 years old. The OD suggested to my mom that I have a shot of whiskey, to get over my anxiety putting in & taking out lenses - I could not believe it. (No, did not follow that advice.)

There may be some value in that old advice.... maybe a glass of wine or a xanax/valium.... However, be sure to have a designated driver!

Good luck!

I planned on drinking chamomile tea before going.

I remember the dentist telling my mom to have me hold a shot of whiskey on my toothache. She actually gave it to me during a horrible abscess when I was 8.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Tue, Jun 3, 14 at 14:48

When I was a young teenager, I babysat for a mom who instructed me to put vodka on my finger tips and rub them on her baby's sore gums from teething! (sorry to get off topic)

Debra - One removal method that might work for you is to close your eye, look to your left (for your right eye) , place your finger firmly on lid over the outer half of your eyeball and without opening your eye, look to your right, and/or shove your finger towards the inner corner.

Often that breaks the seal between contact and eye and scrunches it up in the inside corner of the eye where you can retrieve it.

=============
I'm one of the "open eye wide and pinch the contact off" people. As long as it's MY hand, I'm fine.

===========
the gas permeables and extended wear kind are soooooooooo flimsy. It's like handling jello.

I find that putting the lens on the pad of my middle finger and pressing it against my eye works best. Don't balance it on the tip of your finger. I hold my eye open by clamping my eyelashes down and pulling down on my lower lid. I rarely have a problem. My lenses are the flimsy disposables.

Had my 2nd appointment. Still can't get them in. Seems like no matter how hard I hold my upper lids, my eye finds a way to blink.

I have to go back Monday. Supposed to practice pulling down my lower lid and hold my finger to my eye while not blinking.

I always stare down into a mirror. That way you are looking past your finger into the "distance" created by the mirror, instead of focusing on the finger coming at your eyeball!

I tried looking down into a mirror. Staring at a distance and not looking in a mirror. Seems that no matter what my eye lid closes as soon as anything gets close.

I was more relaxed as I really did drink chamomile tea before and listened to classical music in the car instead of led zeppelin. The optician did say that I did 90% better than last time.

One thing that was mentioned above is I think I may have small eyes and lids. I know once I was having my makeup done and the person could not believe how small my eye lids are. Apparently little room to apply color. I felt like I was going to rip out my lashes trying to hold my lid in place.

I'm going to start tomorrow trying to touch my eye with my finger without blinking. I can touch my eye but my lids do blink.

Glad to hear you did better! I bet next time you will get it.

Are they fitting you with mono vision or multifocal contacts?

UPDATE: Went to practice session #3 at the eye doctor and was able to get contacts in and out of both eyes. The left eye was harder. The way I got them in was to NOT look in a mirror, pull down just the lower lid, and stare straight ahead.

Another optician joined in to help. She saw my nails which were as short as they can be. She said I need to pull the contact down with the pad of my middle finger and then try to pinch the contact off my lower lid.

They were out of the lenses with my prescription so they sent me home with just practice lenses until a trial set come in. I need to practice everyday putting the contacts in and out.

I am so relieved to have gotten this far! I'm actually glad to just have the practice lenses for a while. I forgot to ask about the mono or multifocal.

Thank you all for the help. I did make a word document with all the advice. I may need to refer to it sometimes if I run into trouble.

edited to add: I ask about those plunger things to put in contacts. Those are only for hard contacts which I will not be getting.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Tue, Jun 10, 14 at 7:20

YEA!!!! Congratulations, so glad to hear that you did not give up. It will get easier.

Hooray for you. You'll get to the point where you can do it without thinking about it. I remember those dreadful hard lenses from back in the 1960's. They were so painful. No matter how hard I tried I could not wear them. And they popped out so easily! Who else remembers when we'd all be on our knees patting around trying to find someone's lost contact lens?

Glad it's going better for you! I can so relateâ¦first pair of glasses when I was 8, contacts (hard) when I was 18, soft contacts the last year of wearing contacts, and cataract surgery last year which solved needing any correction, except for reading for which I just use the otc kind. True bliss.

You'll get the hang of it, although I never completely did with the soft lenses :(

UPDATE:

I gave up on the contacts. One day I was able to get them in and out and then every day after that for a week, I could not. One time I thought one was in and I was struggling to get it out and then realized it was never in. It was on the floor. I realized that it is just not going to work for me. I ordered new glasses. One thing I could never do is tell if they were inside out or not. First of all I could barely see the contact and it looked exactly the same to me inside out or not. This bothered me even though they said it would just irritate my eye not do any damage. Well I don't want to wait to see if my eyes are irritated or not. How could you tell if it was for the contact or something else?

Going to see if we can get a vision plan that covers lasik surgery. I don't even know if I'm a candidate but didn't want to spend even more money right now for another eye exam. Need to put this off until 2015.

Thank you for all the help.