I love being able to do things online instead of over the phone. While I was working the long holiday weekend, I decided to look up a local optometry chain and was surprised to find that you schedule appointments online, even if you are a new patient! Well, that was all it took, and I had my appointment this morning. I liked my doctor very much, but the greatest thing was the new technology that uses a laser to scan your eyes and check for retinal defects... no more dilations!!! Here's the website... http://www.optos.com/en/Patients/ It was very cool. And the appointment was all good. My prescription hadn't even changed in the last two years, which was nice to hear. He was a little concerned that my eyes seem a little dry, but I told him this is unusual, and I think it's mostly related to having worked that last six days and having been pretty stressed and tired.
Anyway, since I had had contacts before (albeit almost 20 years ago), he just gave me the contact lenses to take home and try out. I have a slight astigmatism in my right eye, but since I only want to wear the contacts occasionally and not all the time, he didn't feel it was necessary to use lenses that would correct that. My take-home bag contained ten pairs of lenses, contact solution, and some drops for dry eyes that can be used with or without the contacts being in. I have to admit that I was a little nervous about putting the lenses in. Never mind that I did it every day for four years, but that was a long time ago! So I didn't exactly rush right home and stick them in, but eventually curiousity got the better of me. These are disposables, compared to the durable soft lenses that I used to wear, so my first surprise was how much thinner and flexible they are. Nice in theory, but every time I got them on my eyeball, there would be little air bubbles that caused them to stick up and then they would immediately pop back out as soon as I blinked! It took several minutes on each eye, but eventually they went in and stayed.
Wow! I had forgotten how nice it is not to have the "blind spots" that you get outside the lens of your glasses. I am horribly nearsighted, so if you wear glasses, you have to get used to having very blurry peripheral vision. No more! I can feel them floating around in there, but it's not too bad. And the vision in my right eye is definitely blurrier, so I'm not sure about this whole not correcting the astigmatism thing. Maybe it will be less noticeable as I get on with normal activities. I was planning on taking my "new eyes" out and running some errands this afternoon, but since it is bright and sunny, my first stop will have to be for a pair of sunglasses! Didn't think about needing to have them before I got the contacts. My prescription sunglasses aren't exactly going to work with the contacts in. But shopping will be fun... I'll actually be able to see what they look like while I'm trying them on!! I have a follow-up appointment in two weeks, but I feel pretty safe in going ahead and crossing this off the list (#28)!!
Wow, that is just great! I am glad you got this one done so soon. I didn't realize that you wore them for four years! What made you stop?
ReplyDeleteI hope you bought some really cute sunglasses. I can't wait to see you without your glasses on for a whole day!
I wore contacts sophomore year of high school through sophomore year of college, and I really stopped mostly out of laziness. Too many late nights (ummm, yea, for studying... mmm-hmm...), and I hated having to take them out and clean them. It all seemed like such a hassle, and my parents wouldn't let me get the diposables (they hadn't been out very long at the time and were still pretty expensive). And I honestly, truly think I look better - or at least not worse - with glasses, so it didn't really bother me to go back to them.
ReplyDeleteI did find a pair of cute sunglasses at Target that have total UVA/UVB protection and are polarized (because I definitely can't go back to non-polarized)!