Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Oh Wonderful Sight!

WARNING - Long story that I could have easily summed up, but chose not to.

I think I take for granted my sight too much. The last week I have been having some troubles with contacts. I ordered some new ones off the Internet and threw away the old ones. But the first set I put in didn't feel quite right, so I switched them out one at a time (could have been inverted or ripped or something), but by this time I had several in the garbage. I could see, but it just didn't feel comfortable and my sight seemed a little off, but not too bad.

So, I called my eye doctor and got put on the cancellation list & managed to get in that same day (Monday). I got some new contacts and a full exam. The vision still felt a little off and one contact was just moving all around in my eye. The doctor said that the contacts tend to shrink a little to fit to the eye and after that happened then maybe it would stop moving around and I would see better (if it was just the moving around that caused the sight issues).

But then I had a conference to go to today an hour away and driving SUCKED. I thought for sure I was going to die on the roads today and kept telling myself I should not be going. My nearsightedness was great, it was things far that were problems, as well as glare from car lights in the morning. I called my eye doctor and told her that it just wasn't working. She told me to come in and pick up a different brand and try them out.

I picked them up with a little note that says that this brand fits different which is why the prescription on these is different. I put these in and they are no different, initially no better and no worse. But as the minutes and hours drag on it all gets bad and I consider ripping out my eyes while I am at the night class I teach, hoping that they have optical transplant surgery after-the-fact.

I go home and take out my contacts and put my glasses on to see is it just the contacts bothering me or if my glasses were bothering me too. So - the glasses went on and 30 minutes later came off. I hate not having peripheral vision and the prescription was just not right anymore. So, back to the contact drawing board.

I try on another set from the Internet company - and they just feel AWFUL! I can't take it and they come out. I try Monday's set again and that's no good the one contact still floats around. I try today's set and they do feel good in my eyes, but the prescription is just not right. So, I tried mixing & matching (& remembering which was which) and have come to the realization that my L eye has the wrong prescription. I went digging around to see if there were any older "new" contacts still left from when my prescription had changed previously. I found 1 contact and it happened to be the prescription that was just one level above my L eye and the expiration date on it is next month - SCORE!

In goes that L contact and things seem better, although I have not been out driving, so I don't know if it helps my farsightedness, but it feels better -- so much better. And much of my headache has gone away, I think what is left is just the residual affects of going a whole day with straining my eyes. I am sure my eye doctor is not going to like what I did, but I needed to do something and hopefully when I go in there next week I'll get some new boxes of contacts that are good for me. And hopefully I don't get yelled at too much.

3 comments:

McBean said...

I feel your pain. I put in my contacts on Saturday and started cussing because the right one wasn't working. I could see, but I could feel it and it was scratching my freaking eye. So I took both contacts out and put on my glasses. I trip in my glasses. Can't drive. I feel short. I bump into walls. But I wore them for two days. Monday I tried to wear the contacts again and the same thing happened. I tried a new right contact and it was fine. I'm calling the contact company to tell them that other lens was defective. I hate it when they don't fit right though. I knew these did because I got a set from the eye doctor first...and then when it was time to order them I got them from 1-800-contacts.

Lame Shrill Owl said...

So - did the defective one come from 1-800 contacts?

McBean said...

Yep! I called them today to complain and they said they would send a new one.