Eye Hate Contacts

Eye Hate Contacts

February 9th, 2009 @ 5:41 pm by Mrs. Piglet
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… But I’m stuck with them for now. My eyes can only take a couple hours of contact wear before drying out. Then the excessive blinking begins. Unfortunately, my corneas are irregularly shaped (I have a mild form of keratoconus), thus, disqualifying me for LASIK and PRK, aka LASIK without the flap. While there are several contact brands available specifically catered towards dry eyes, only a limited number offer the toric lens in my power.

I rarely wear contacts during the week, but when I do, 2-3 people always comment, “You look different today.” Hmmm, does it make that much of a difference? The glasses I don’t mind so much, especially since they cover up the bags and the occasional zit that pops up in between the brows, but I won’t be wearing them come wedding day! In the meantime, I’m using artificial tears pretty consistently and will be heavily lubricating my eyes the week of the wedding per my doc’s recommendation.

I normally use the Systane preservative free drops. My doc just gave me a sample of Systane Ultra to use when not wearing contacts.

At one point, I also gave Restasis a try. The thought of Restasis being able to increase my eyes’ ability to generate more tears was promising, but I didn’t notice a difference.

Eye Hate Contacts : wedding beauty health oahu Systane systane

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Anyone else suffer from dry eyes? What are you doing to ease the discomfort on your wedding day?

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32 Responses to “Eye Hate Contacts”

1 2 Last

Member

MrsSl82be (message) 7,970 posts, Bee Keeper

I’ll give you my watery eyes!! Mine water like crazy unless I take allergy medicine every day, which I am horrible at doing. People wonder why I’m crying all the time…

2/9/09 @ 5:49 pm (reply)

Member

AmandaP (message) 37 posts, Newbee

I had LASIK surgery about 3 years ago and now suffer from dry eyes. I have used several types of drops, but found that Systane seemed to work the best and lasted the longest.

2/9/09 @ 5:51 pm (reply)

Guest

Anya

I love Blink Contacts–my eye doc prescribed them to me for similar reasons–extreme dry eye with contact lens wear. They help me a lot! The Systane drops are great for when I’m in glasses though. Good luck!

2/9/09 @ 5:52 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Meatball (message) 624 posts, Busy bee

I have terribly dry eyes - my doc recommended hot compresses twice a day for 5 minutes to clear my glands, and also says EFA supplements help! I use systane and blink depending on if I’ve got contacts in or not… I feel your pain!

2/9/09 @ 6:06 pm (reply)

Member

kenziegirl (message) 339 posts, Helper bee

I got LASIK surgery 5 years ago, and my dry eyes went away! Of course I had to be heavy-handed with the saline/drops during the healing process, but now, I can go days without touching them!

2/9/09 @ 6:08 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Hot Wings (message) 2,213 posts, Buzzing bee

I too suffer from dry eyes. My torics were never happy in my eyes, so I stuck to wearing glasses for the last 5 years. Now with wedding planning, I was of going to Hard lenses because they don’t absorb any water from your eyes. Anyone try that before? Would love to hear if you find a good solution to this problem Miss Piglet.

2/9/09 @ 6:12 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Bruschetta (message) 5,565 posts, Bee Keeper

Yes! I like the Refresh Tears brand of eye drops…though I fear I’ll be manufacturing tons of natural ones on my wedding day — thus leading to even drier eyes!

2/9/09 @ 6:15 pm (reply)

Hostess

Miss Burgundy (message) 1,426 posts, Bumble bee

I haven’t had a lot of issues with my contacts drying out, but my optomitrist recommended Oasis brand eyedrops, claiming that he tried them out and thought they were amazing. The website is: http://www.oasistears.com/.

2/9/09 @ 6:18 pm (reply)

Member

agrosses (message) 98 posts, Worker bee

Have you ever tried the plugs that the optometrist puts in your tear ducts? They cause your eyes to reabsorb tears more slowly, thus keeping your eyes more moist. I can only make it a few hours in my contacts before my eyes are too dry. I have a GREAT relationship with my optometrist, who I have seen since I was a preteen. We tried a temporary set of the plugs to see if they were an option. For me, unfortunately, they didn’t help, but the trial plugs were free (we just did them when I was in for my annual), and the permanent ones, if they work for you, are not very expensive (and painless and reversible).

2/9/09 @ 6:20 pm (reply)

10.

Bee

Miss Piglet (message) 1,045 posts, Bumble bee

@MrsSl82be: That sounds just as bad! Glad to hear allergy medicine works.
@Miss Meatball: Thanks Meatball! That’s the first I’ve heard of EFA supplements to help with dry eyes.
@nelzbels: I’ll keep ya posted if anything shows promise…
@agrosses: My optometrist actually recommended this today. I wanted to do a bit more research first. Sounds promising!

2/9/09 @ 6:37 pm (reply)

11.

Guest

Victoria

I used to have a similar problem, and thought the solution was worth sharing.

I share the extreme Toric-ness in contacts, and at one point had two different brands, one per eye. After a while (years actually), one of them became so uncomfortable that I couldn’t wear it for more than a few hours at a time. It was itchy, and watery, like terrible allergies. I finally went to the doctor, and he explained that the contact that was bothering me was made out of a protein based material, and I was actually having an allergic reaction to it. The other one was lipid based and was fine. He gave me some prescription eyedrops to used until it healed (and no contact sue in the meantime!), and then we were able to find a brand that worked in both eyes. It actually meant going down a few in strength, but I can see fine, and they are much more comfortable.

May not be relevant, but if it’s really bad, may be worth checking out. The difference now is unbelievable. I believe the term was Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis (GPC). Good luck!

2/9/09 @ 6:50 pm (reply)

12.

Guest

liz

punctal plugs is what they’re called…the plugs that go in your tear ducts. it sounds painful, but i got collagen plugs when i got my LASIK and i HIGHLY recommend them. they didn’t hurt a bit going in, they cut my healing time in half (vs. my other friends who had LASIK), they’re absorbed into your tear duct after a few days (perfect for the week of the wedding) and they weren’t that expensive. plus, i bet insurance will cover it if you always have dry eyes!

good luck!

2/9/09 @ 6:58 pm (reply)

13.

Member

FutureTacco (message) 128 posts, Blushing bee

Miss Piglet… I am right there with you. I almost never wear my contacts during the week. I am a middle school teacher, so I figure it doesn’t matter how nerdy I look. Probably the nerdier the better! I am really concerned about the big day, though. I just had my doc change my lenses to the Acuvue Oasys…. with hopes that it would help.

2/9/09 @ 7:24 pm (reply)

14.

Member

flbeachbride (message) 497 posts, Helper bee

I use the protopic contacts, which help but not really, and I use the refresh eye drops. Still, though, the dry-eye constant blinking and sometimes burning is very irritating. I hope you find a better solution to help enjoy your wedding day fully!

2/9/09 @ 7:41 pm (reply)

15.

Guest

phruphru

Sorry but I totally LOL’d at the glasses hiding zits — I love wearing my glasses on bad skin days!

2/9/09 @ 7:43 pm (reply)

16.

Guest

Kit

I’d wear my glasses. My eyes get along with contacts and I might wear my glasses anyway b/c they’re my friend.s

2/9/09 @ 7:49 pm (reply)

17.

Member

GAprincess_22 (message) 31 posts, Newbee

I love how I get on weddingbee and there’s a topic related to something I’m going through! Last week I got bangs, and the day of there was a post on bangs. Since I got bangs I’ve been wearing my contacts everyday and am like you… a couple of hours later my eyes are very dry. Let me know what works best for you! I’m very interested to know!

2/9/09 @ 9:22 pm (reply)

18.

Member

kristay (message) 63 posts, Worker bee

YES! I actually have super dry eyes; it only happened in the last year or two, though. Prior to summer 2007, I was able to wear contacts all day every day.

I had a very expensive procedure done where an eye doctor puts in “punctal plugs.” My insurance didn’t end up covering it, by my doctor was super nice and waived the majority of the fees b/c I was a student and didn’t have money. Unfortunately, this process did not work for me…

What have I used that’s worked? GenTeal makes a good one that is also preservative free. I also like the Bausch and Lomb gel stuff for nighttime use. You can also take vitamins (there’s one by theratears, one by hydroeye and one other one but i can’t remember the name of it…it smelled like coffee and didn’t work very well plus gave me weird side effects).

The best thing for me was a prescription eye drop, though. I think it’s called fluormethaoxle, but I could be wrong. I DO know, though, that the abbreviation is called FLM. It’s the only eye drop that I used that let me wear contacts all day long again!

2/9/09 @ 9:40 pm (reply)

19.

Member

cj2009 (message) 304 posts, Helper bee

I have super watery eyes. I wish I could stop it.

2/9/09 @ 10:48 pm (reply)

20.

Bee

Miss Latte (message) 651 posts, Busy bee

Just cry a lot on your wedding day…that should get rid of those dry eyes. I’m afraid of losing my contacts in my eyes…everytime I cry, I tend to rub my eyes and then they’re gone and I have to fish around to find them again. OK, this is getting gross so I’ll stop.