I recently got contacts
after wearing glasses full-time for 15 years. I waited until adulthood to get contacts for a number of
reasons. I’m glad I did, even if
it may not be the conventional way to go, because it forced me to actually
think about WHY I wanted them and why our culture idolizes them at times.
Here are the things I
love about having contacts:
1.) Convenience. I need vision
correction for reading as well as distance, and cannot control my eye movements
enough to use bi-focals. It’s
really nice to be able to just throw on a pair of reading glasses and take them
off and still see clearly, instead of switching between my distance and reading
glasses all the time.
2.) Being able to see at the pool. My
vision issues are profound, so I feel very unsafe walking without my glasses
for any length of time. Frankly, I
don’t care that wearing contacts in the water is “not advisable”, according to
my eye doc. I haven’t lost a lens
yet, and if her vision was as bad as mine, she’d understand my excitement at
being able to see at the pool.
3.) Being able to wear “regular” sunglasses.
Thanks to the inventions of fitover sunglasses and transition lenses,
protecting your eyes with glasses has gotten a lot simpler and more
convenient. But looking at the
rack of sunglasses at the dollar store and knowing I could finally wear any
pair I wanted was freakishly exciting, haha!
Alright, now for the
things I’m not so thrilled about:
1.) The cost. No matter what kind of
lenses you choose, or where youyou’re your lenses, wearing contacts is always
more expensive than wearing a pair of glasses. The lenses themselves don’t come cheap, especially for
specialty lenses like ones for astigmatism. Lens solution is an ongoing expense, regardless of whether
you buy your solution or make it yourself, because you still have to pay for
the supplies to make it. Part of
the reason I put off getting contacts as long as I did was I couldn’t have
afforded these expenses.
2.) The way our culture idolizes contact
lenses. I can’t tell you how much judgment I’ve received
for wearing glasses. The sad thing
is, all the nasty comments I’ve gotten were not during my childhood. No one really cared about my glasses,
believe it or not. But in my teens
and during adulthood, people have let me know just what they think of an adult
wearing glasses full-time. Yes, I like my contacts, and yes, I like how I look with them. But our obsession with looks is stupid and immoral. There
may be a perfectly good reason NOT to wear contacts, such as cost, or being too
visually impaired to put them in safely.
What about in parts of the world that are less developed in the US,
where glasses or corrective surgery would be better options? I refuse to get to the point of taking
my contact lenses for granted, or forgetting my true motives for wearing them. I
will “fast” from them for however long I need to if I feel like I’m getting to
that point. Feel free to call me crazy, but I actually care about WHY we do the things we do.
3.) The challenge for people with astigmatism.
What I didn’t know until I tried to get contacts is that there are
varying degrees of astigmatism. I
just thought astigmatism was astigmatism, and if someone else who had it could
wear contacts, there should be no reason I couldn’t. My eye doc explained that with “normal” astigmatism, the
eyeball is curved slightly. I do
not have “normal” astigmatism. I
have it so profoundly that my eyes are shaped like footballs. We had to try three different brands of
lenses before we found one that will sit properly on my eyes. In recent years, I’ve been having
farsightedness as well as the nearsightedness I’ve had forever. It’s so severe that if it gets any
worse, I may have to give up on contacts or opt for eye surgery.
What I wish people had
told me about wearing contacts:
1.) Rinse them THOROUGHLY when you open new ones.
They will most likely be sitting in enzyme cleaner, not saline. That hurts like all get-out if you get
it in your eyes. I’ve learned that
one the hard way, unfortunately.
2.) Your eyes will look like something out of a
horror movie while you are first learning to put your contacts in.
This is simply because you are touching your eyes more than usual. It goes away as you become able to put
in your lenses without touching your eyes much, but it’s a bit unsettling while
it lasts.
3.) If you have been wearing glasses full time,
looking at your naked face will freak you out. I
kept wanting to grab objects to hide behind like Wilson on “Home
Improvement.” I looked very
different to myself, and it was weird.
I got over it after a couple weeks.
