Contact Lens Wearers--help!

MalibuPam, I also had a lot of trouble with it (I got contacts at age 15, so... 13 years :eek). I just could not bring myself to actually touch my eyeball. :ohno After many tries, the optometrist made me go home to let my eyes rest. And to trim my long, lovingly cultivated fingernails. :crying :laugh Anyway, after all that, I eventually got them in. And it did take a while of wearing them for me to adjust to the feeling. But I did, and now it's easy. Just keep practicing, you'll get the hang of it. :)
Oh, it might also depend on what kind of contact you have. I have soft ones -- my sister had semi-rigid gas-permeable ones, or something weird like that, and they *always* gave her fits. :ohno Get the soft ones.

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Originally Posted by Gutmutter

beerbelly's right - a lot of solution in the lens helps a lot. I don't look at the contact, though. I get close to the mirror, spread my lids with my left hand, and approach with my right pointer while looking at the eye in the mirror. With a lot of solution, you aren't actually touching the eye - the liquids sort of sucks it on. Always make sure your drain is closed!

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Yupper, that's how I do it. The liquid in the lens creates a little vacuum, and it adheres to your eyeball.

When I first got contacts, it took me 45 mins per EYE to get those darn things in. That first weekend I went on a camping trip and lost a lens. I thought it was still in my eye. I had about 10 people looking in my eye for that pesky lens, but it was gone. That was when I perfected one of my most valuable assets - walking, talking and driving without any depth perception. It's tough, but you can do it (especially if you forgot to bring your glasses with you). :mmm It took me two more months to save up for another pair of contact lenses. I was much more careful after that. :lol :lol :lol

ETA: My brother was a volunteer EMT at this time and saw a bad accident where an eye was involved. I won't gross you out, but I had an added incentive to learn to put my lenses in and take them out wherever I happened to be. Nothing was sweeter than popping out a lens just to gross out my big bro. Ok, so it was a long time ago, but the memory is still sweet. :rofl :rofl :rofl

Oh, Gagi. I DID lose a lens behind my eyeball once. :omg It actually didn't hurt, just felt a bit twingey, but the *knowing* it was back there just grossed me out. :ohno
It did float back around in a few hours, by the way.

I didn't know that was possible, Lucy. I'd have been seriously freaking.

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Originally Posted by Lucy

Oh, Gagi. I DID lose a lens behind my eyeball once. :omg It actually didn't hurt, just felt a bit twingey, but the *knowing* it was back there just grossed me out. :ohno
It did float back around in a few hours, by the way.

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Crap. I've done that a couple of times. One time when I was pregnant and super hormonal, and I freaked because the feel of it was making me seriously nuts. I actually pulled some of the tissue on the inside of my eyelid trying to fish it out, and you can still see it if you look very closely at my right eye. :ohno

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Originally Posted by Lucy

Oh, Gagi. I DID lose a lens behind my eyeball once. :omg It actually didn't hurt, just felt a bit twingey, but the *knowing* it was back there just grossed me out. :ohno
It did float back around in a few hours, by the way.

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I wore contacts from the time I was 13 until I was 27. Then I had to get bifocals (too much reading tax regulations in graduate school) so I gave them up. :ohno

I too have lost a lens behind my eyeball. Except, mine were gas perms and I thought I had just lost it until I felt something in my eye two days later. Ouch! Of course, the reason I wasn't sure is that I got the bright idea it would be a good idea to drink 5 Long Island Ice Teas after I got my LSAT results back. :blush

Pam, I wouldn't feel too bad about not getting them in right away. Last year, due to potential scarring on my corneas from my gas perms which I'd worn for 15 years, I had to switch to soft lenses. Complicating matters is that I've got astigmatism, so I have to have toric lenses that have to go in a certain way or the world looks wavy. And, even though I had 15 years of experience putting in the gas perms (which are way smaller, BTW), I still had trouble at first getting the soft lenses in. Now they're super-easy and much more comfortable but my vision is not nearly as good as it was with the gas perms. Everyone here's been saying make sure there's lots of solution in the lens, which is true, but don't have TOO much on or it'll fold in on itself or slide down your finger. It's also critical to have a smooth, short nail on your pointer finger because you don't want to poke your eye. And if you do get them in, be sure to get some of your dr-recommended eye drops because at first your eyes may dry faster than usual and the lenses will just fly out if they're too dry.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by Lucy

Oh, Gagi. I DID lose a lens behind my eyeball once. :omg It actually didn't hurt, just felt a bit twingey, but the *knowing* it was back there just grossed me out. :ohno
It did float back around in a few hours, by the way.

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Ewwwww, ewwwww, ewwwww, ewwww, ewwww! I must have blocked it out, but one of my contacts did roll up at the top of my eye. I thought I had lost it. When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't open my eye because the contact was all gunky. (This probably isn't a good post for poor Pam. :lol )

That's when I learned not to rub my eye when my contacts were in. :rofl :rofl

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Originally Posted by Lucy

Oh, Gagi. I DID lose a lens behind my eyeball once. :omg It actually didn't hurt, just felt a bit twingey, but the *knowing* it was back there just grossed me out. :ohno
It did float back around in a few hours, by the way.

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Happened to me once. I was having trouble with them that morning, and I rubbed my eye because it didn't feel right, and it went behind my eye, and I thought it fell out. I have the disposable kind, so I got a new one and put it in. After about an hour, the lost one came back to the front of my eye. That was weird.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lucy

Oh, Gagi. I DID lose a lens behind my eyeball once. :omg It actually didn't hurt, just felt a bit twingey, but the *knowing* it was back there just grossed me out. :ohno
It did float back around in a few hours, by the way.

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I wore contacts for years. I remember having a lot of trouble learning how to put them in...but I am so vain, I kept working at it. I had to let my eyes rest for a day...try to insert them a bunch of times...rest for another day. Repeat process. After awhile it's so natural, you don't even realize you are putting them in. Or that you are wearing them. I once put mine in - headed for the car and realized I could not see crap. Found out I put both of them in the same eye...one over the other (I really needed to lay off the vodka so early in the morning :lol Just kidding).

I got laser surgery four years ago and gave up contacts forever...but now I have to wear reading glasses, so I'm not sure I recommend that.