Glasses vs. contacts

Wore glasses from 9 to 13. Hated 'em. Hated 'em. Hated 'em. Had to wear goggles to play basketball/football -- got insecure about stupid teasing -- terrible self-image.

Wore soft contacts from 13 to 24. No more self-image problem. No hassle. Sucks having to travel with extra lenses, carrying case, solution, etc., but no biggie. Would recommend to anyone who wants 'em.

Got LASIK at 24. Best decision I ever made. Absolutely worth every penny. Can't say enough about it.

 

I've worn soft contacts since 1986, and I'm a believer in them. While you have to worry about eye irritants ... dust, etc. ... it's usually not that much of a problem for me because I naturally try to protect my eyes when I'm in a situation like that.

It does make swimming a bit tougher and it's a pain taking them out and putting them back in every day, but it's a helluva lot better than glasses.

And I'd do the lasik thing if I could afford it or if my insurance covered it.

 

I wear glasses, but have often considered getting contacts.
Learned I needed glasses when I was the only one at the drive-in theater laying on the horn and screaming "focus."
Contacts are probably out because I wear bifocals.
Can one get bifocal contacts?

 

Same here. I got Lasik seven years ago and count it as among the Top 3 decisions of my life.

 

A doctor told me that when you hit 45 or so, your eyes slide back to where they were pre-Lasik.

 

Seven years later I'm 48 and haven't experienced any vision loss. I do use reading glasses but I already had bifocal contacts when I had the Lasik procedure.

 

Let us know how it goes, OK?

When I was getting glasses, I was still considering contacts too. Then I started working on a story about a local volleyball coach. She went to Vegas with her husband, and while relaxing in a hot tub, she got splashed in the face with some water. She had contacts on. Parasites lodged in between the contacts and eyes. She was off her feet in literally living in darkness for the next five months. She told me the pain was so bad that she would rather go through labor 10 more times in a year rather than go through that again.

I didn't even think about contacts again, until the other day.

 

I think if you feel anything in your eye, you need to take them out. Someone may have just ignored the warning signals.

 

Have a long history with all that, and had really bad eyesight.
Started wearing glasses when I was 9.

Got contacts in high school. But at the time, with the astigmatism I had, had to wear the hard ones. The minute I walked into a bar, red-eye city. Went into a lotta bars back then. Tough.

Finally got the soft ones. The astigmatism tripled. Had to get these special soft ones that were thick as rubber and had to be put in a certain way, with weights on the sides of them.

that worked for awhile. They discontinued the model. None of the "new" models fit. Got to the point where I was on the tennis court, not moving. Things were fine. The minute I dashed to or fro, the contacts rotated around and everything was fuzzy. between points, had to poke my fingers in my eye and rotate them back. Hell.

Got Lasik. With my combination of myopia and astigmatism, I was right on the borderline for them to do it. They said it was a one-shot deal, no retouching available. Went for it.
It was great. Changed my life. Can't even describe it.

Five years later, got very sick. Eyesight was one of the things that sort of went poof. Not in a major way, but enough I couldn't see the ball clearly. Might have happened without the illness. Don't know.

Tried contacts again, for sports. Trouble is, when they laser the eyeball, it flattens out. And they don't make contacts for post-Lasik people with the right curve. Darn things just fell right out for no reason. Started playing tennis with glasses. Hadn't done that since I was 15. Not good.

Went back to Lasik. They said they found room to tweak it, but I would guaranteed need reading glasses afterwards. Since I'm getting to that age soon enough, I figured it was a small price to pay. Worked fine.

Need the reading glasses only slightly. The thing they don't tell you about that, though, is that it's also a lot harder to see in the dark. Don't need glasses to play tennis or drive outside during the day. At night, a little shaky. Indoor tennis, a bit shaky.

So I took the glasses with the slight prescription I had from before (even though, technically, I have very close to 20-20 vision), and use them to drive at night and play tennis indoors. Don't know why this works, but it does.

If my eyes slide back to where they were before when I get to 45, I'll shoot myself. That's a long, long slide. Seems unlikely to happen at this point.

Long story. Bottom line. Wouldn't change a thing. Contacts and Lasik changed my life. Never had an issue with poking my fingers in my eyes, though. I can see where that would be an issue.

My mom has never been able to adjust to contacts. She just uses it as an excuse to own 20 pairs of designer glasses for every different day of the week.

 

I've had glasses for 20 years, but only started wearing them all the time about eight years ago. Three years ago I finally switched to contacts and I can't believe I waited so long. I see a lot better than I did with my glasses and I quickly got over the fear of putting something on my eyes.

 

I tried to get contacts when I was 13. The store had a class for all of the new people to teach them how to put the things in. After 10 or 15 minutes, everyone else had done it and left. After 45 minutes, I kind of sort of had one in. Just couldn''t seem to keep my eyes open long enough to stick the contacts in there. After two weeks, I gave up and decided glasses were just easier.

 

I could never do contacts. They bothered me too much. I wore glasses from the end of college until about three years ago when I got Lasik. It cost $3K, but it was money very well spent...