Is this normally experienced with contact lenses?

Question

I just got contacts today for the first time; my vision is highly impaired without corrective lenses and I've worn glasses since I was five.

The contacts worked fine for a while, although my vision was not as acute as with glasses. The doctor recommended that I don't wear them for more than a couple hours today, so I didn't. But before the few hours he'd given me had elapsed, my vision began to get rather blurred, and I was having a hard time focusing. Is this normal with new lenses, or is it possible there was a problem? Maybe they slipped somehow? Is there any way to expediate the acclimation process? I'm going on a trip soon and want to wear them as much as possible.

Thank you for your time~

Answer 1

Most people get used to their contacts without this problem. Are the contacts rigid or soft? If they are soft, it could be a dryness problem. If it clears up with wetting drops, that is it. If they are rigid, that is a different story. Either way,they may not be fitting right, and you should check with your doc. If the optician doesn't help, I would go to an optometrist or ophthalmologist.

Answer 2

It's not rare, but it's not what most people experience.

It could be simple acclimatisation, in which case trying to get used to them faster is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Was your vision OK with you glasses straight after taking the contacts out?  If so there's no major problem.

Repeat the same wearing time, and if that's OK, increase by two hours per day.

If this is difficult it could be fit, reaction to solutions, tear problems, or the need for a lens material with a higher oxygen transmission, but it's a little too soon to tell: if there's no severe reaction, give it a least a couple more tries before reporting it to your prescriber.

Ah, one more thing... Did you have any trouble getting them in?  If the eyes were at all sore from repeated insertion attempts, or the contacts could have got less than perfectly clean during attempts, the reaction would be fairly unsurprising.

Rinse the contacts every couple of attempts, and make sure your hands are spotless before starting.  A little bit of oil or make-up makes a big difference.

(Apply make-up *after* contacts are in, rather than try to insert contacts past "booby-trapped" eye lids... It gets a lot easier with practice.)

Answer 3

You say the doctor advise you,isn't it the Optician who should be advising you. I would be going to my Optician,he is the right person. Good luck

Answer 4

i'd also say go to your optician :) but if you want my advice anyway, that could either mean two things -

if it's just blurry for a few seconds but once you blink a few times or move your eyes around a bit it corrects itself, that's normal. that happens to me ALL the time, and sometimes i actually need to close my eye and massage my eyelid a tiny bit... i asked my optomitrist about that, and she said it's totally normal, and it happens because all the ...things (i've forgotten what they're called... some technical term, haha) that correct your vision are meant to be lined up but have just been knocked out of place, like they've just slipped a bit from where they're meant to be, so just blinking them back into place is fine.

BUT! if your vision is constantly blurred, like almost all of the time and even after blinking they don't un-blurr, i'd definitely get that checked. my optomitrist warned me about that, because if that does happen, there might be something wrong, like you're wearing the wrong type, or you have a bad batch or perscription or whatever, and with contacts it's ALWAYS better safe than sorry because the consequenses can be pretty scary (permanent blindness... you probably know :))

so yeah. at the risk that it's something major, check up anyway :)