Sunday, May 22, 2005

Post No. 8b - I am a Contact Lens Failure!

Then came the part where she put the contact lens in my eyes so I could see if they are for me or not. What a palava that is, I have been told I have an extremely strong blink reflex and you can imagine how hard it is to get a little bit of plastic over your eyeballs when both your eyes are shut. And then my eyes started streaming and I couldn't open them. I was extremely apologetic at this stage in the proceedings but she told me that some people are even worse (see that old saying - "remember there is someone always worse off then you" really can make you feel better about yourself!). Finally she got them in and I saw the world in a whole new light. It is pretty cool to be able to see stuff without seeing the frame of your glasses in your peripheral!.

So I got sent out the room to sit and see how I felt. I felt good, this is good, I can do this, I can wear these whilst belting down a big rushing river in a dinghy I say to myself. After a while she came along and just popped the little suckers right back out of my eyes and I hardly felt a thing.

Then came along the bit where I have to put the lenses in myself and take them out again before they will let me take them away. And this is where it all started going wrong. After about 20 attempts, dropping it on the floor twice, having to clean it 5 times I finally got the one in my right eye. Managed to get the one in my left eye on the 2nd attempt - woo-hoo! I am on a roll - this is for me, its easy I start to think.

Whilst my eyes were calming down and the streams of water slowed down I was talked through how to care for my lenses and not to eat them or rinse them under the tap, general things like that.

So I am happy - may take some getting used to but they are in, I can see.
But then I had to take them out and do you think I could do it? I am pretty sure you can guess thats a no! I was trying for about 20 minutes, was managing to get my finger in my eye to touch the lense but just couldn't pull it out. Turned out they had to get the optician back in and she just popped those little suckers right back out again.

So there you have it, a long and sorry tale and its not yet finished! I am to go back next week to try again!
If anyone has any helpful contact lens hints please post and let me know!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kate, (me again!) I have a great tip.... Don't get the bloody things! It just ain't right, I tells ya! If God wanted us to stick our fingers (or anything else, for that matter) in our eyes, he wouldn't have given us eyelids!!