You might have noticed something different about my appearance if you’ve seen me lately.
I’m wearing glasses full-time these days; something I used to do only rarely. I was a contact lens wearer for almost 35 years and loved them!
Alas, something happened this summer that made a reluctant glasses girl out of me.
It all started in June, when I began having vision problems. I knew it was contact-related because anytime I took them out and wore my glasses, the issues stopped.
I tried cleaning my lenses, taking a break from them and starting over with a fresh pair. No matter what I did, no contact lens felt right in my eyes or allowed me to see properly. My eyes were dry, my vision was blurry and it was beyond frustrating!
By July 1, I had completely put away my contacts and switched to glasses to give my eyes a break. My glasses helped me to see better – but not perfectly. I hadn’t updated my glasses in almost ten years and my prescription has changed a bit in that time.
Tired of not being able to see well, I finally went to the eye doctor and that’s when I learned that I was suffering from an allergy to my contact lenses. There were allergic bumps on the underside of my lids, and those bumps were preventing my lenses from sitting properly on my eyes – hence the blurry vision, discomfort and dryness I was experiencing.
My eye doc told me that I had to give my eyes a longer break from the contact lenses; the problem would then either go away or it wouldn’t. He warned me some people who develop this problem can never go back to wearing lenses!
You probably heard my scream from wherever you are in the world: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
It turns out contact lenses are not all that great for the eyes. Maybe 35 years of wearing lenses was just too much for my little peepers? So far, I’ve tried a new, fresh pair of contact lenses twice this summer. Once was in mid-July and nothing had changed – that test was a failure.
But then, mid-August, I tried a new, fresh pair of contact lenses again and this time, I felt a significant improvement. It wasn’t back to perfect, but it was better than it had been – and that gave me a little hope.
I’m back to glasses for now and won’t try my contacts again until the fall. It may be that I’m stuck wearing glasses for good. I don’t mind that quite as much now that I’ve got new Pair Eyewear specs with cool toppers that I can change in and out to match my outfit or suit my mood!
I still miss my contacts though – and my emotional support sunglasses, which I wore on my head for about the last 20 years.
Will I be able to return to wearing contacts, or am I now a glasses girl for life? Only time will tell.
Have you ever had issues with your contact lenses, and did things work themselves out over time? I’d love to hear your ocular tales of woe in the comments below or over on Facebook or Instagram.
