Contacts woes (Read 687 times)

Does anyone in here wear contacts? I have to wear them because I'm legally blind without them. But running with them in is not fun. When it's warm, my eyes dry out. When it's cold, my eyes tear up, freeze over, and then dry out. Also, the last time I ran, a bug flew in my eye and mangled a contact, so I was running lopsided the whole time. (i nearly ran into a telephone pole at one point.) Anyone else experience this? The only solution I can think of is to carry contacts solution with me, but that's kind of a pain. My glasses aren't meant to stay on my face during strenuous exercise either...

Do you wear hard contacts? I've never really had trouble exercising in my soft lenses. I just put up with it if I sweat and it makes them sting. If they get dry I just wait until after I get home to use the re-wetting drops, or take them out, clean them and put them back on. I know what you mean about the bugs, though. I've had a couple of times when I gnat flew right into my eye and drove me insane! I tried running in glasses once and hated it. I'll put up with the contact lens discomfort any day over the glasses sliding off my nose, and giving me no peripheral vison to speak of. There are different types of more permeable lenses that are better for exercise I'm sure. Probably this would be a great question for your eye doctor.

Yeah, it's a pain but I haven't figured out a solution. As an early morning runner I go through many work days with red eyes.

Used to have the same problems with my contacts as well. The bugs in the eye thing I solved with sunglasses; dry eyes I took care of with eyedrops or plain water if I forgot the drops. The best solution for me, though, was to eliminate them. I had LASIK surgery a while back, and since then have not had to worry about contacts (although I still may get a bug or two in the eye if I forget my sunglasses). It's a much more expensive solution up front, but I would recommend it to anyone thinking about it.

yeah, my sister had the Lasik surgery and I am incredibly jealous. But a bit too expensive for me right now... That's like 2 months of my stipend!! I may just go with a pair of sunglasses, or switch contacts brand for now.

My doctor said my eyes are so bad I'm not a candidate for LASIK. I have the disposable Accuvue lenses and love them. I started out with hard contacts when I was 10, and hated every type of contacts I tried until I got these Accuvue ones. I love the convenience, and they're so thin I forget I have them in. The hot or cold haven't bothered me.

Same here, my doc said I'd still probably need some sort of correction even afterwards.

If you're legaly blind without correction, then you're probably spending a lot on contacts. I spend about $125 for a pair from Bausch & Laumb because it's the only company that makes my perscription. If that's the case, and you're a candidate for Lasik, that's probably your most cost effective solution in the not-so-long run. I'm not a candidate, or I would have done it years ago. In a year or two, though, I'll be able to get intraoccular lenses. Can't wait.

I started having problems with dry eyes after wearing lenses since I was 10 years old. My eye doc let me try out several different pairs of contact lenses and then wrote the script for the ones that were most comfortable. I use the 2-week disposables, and that helps a lot as i just chuck them when my eyes start getting irritated by them. They aren't all that expensive, esp if you use the mail order companies. The other thing that helped a lot was getting better contact lens solution. Opti-free Replenish is what I ususally use, though there are a few other similiar kinds whose brand names I can't recall. I used to just get the generic or whatever was on sale, but the expensive ones do actually make a difference IME. (I thought it was all marketing hype). Irritated eyes are miserable, and I hate running in my glasses, so I feel your pain here. I'm blind as a bat as well, FWIW. I like the idea of LASIK, but am squeamish about getting my eyeballs cut. It's silly, but nonetheless, i'm sticking with my old contact lenses for now.