3….2….1….Contacts!: 14 Straight Days of Seeing Clearly
I have worn contacts since I was in high school. I would get up every morning and put in my eyeballs and miraculously I could see! If you don’t wear contacts, then it’s hard to explain the world of eye ball play. It’s a routine you get used to, but is pretty odd to the untrained eye. Really easy to maintain, but weird if you think about it; there is a foreign object sitting on your eye all day long.
A buddy of mine once told me that he swore the guy at the optometrists office told him to just continue to wear his normal weekly disposable contacts over night for two weeks straight. He pretty much wore his contacts all of the time, and only his glasses when he was letting his eyes breathe for a day or was out of contacts. He ended up stretching it out farther and got at least a month or more out of his contacts, I believe.
I had only ever had the yearly ones or whatever you call them; the extended wear, I guess, not the daily/weekly disposables. I always had to take my contacts out over night every night and soaked them weekly in the enzyme solution stuff. It was more of a pain, but at least they were soft contacts and not hard lenses, which are pretty much unheard of now. After I got out of wearing my contacts, I started to rely on my glasses pretty much constantly for quite a few years. I had an old pair of glasses that I had forever because I didn't go to the optometrist for so long (money). I just got used to always wearing them because it was more of a pain than anything to take them out put them in take them out. A year or so ago I got a new type of weekly disposable contacts when I got a new pair of glasses and an eye appointment. I always just wore them daily like my old contacts, but instead of throwing them away, just saved them and reused them. I was able to make my entire prescription of them last probably 2 or 3 years that way while still wearing my glasses most of the time. I opened the last pair and put them in at the end of October. I decided to try it out wearing them how my buddy suggested. I have left them in for a few days before, but decided, since they were a fresh new pair, to see how long I could get before they started to bother me.
The contacts I am wearing are Acuvue Advance with Hydraclear. It is November 12. I have a pair of contacts in this morning that were a fresh pair I opened and put in on October 29. I have had these in day and night, and been sleeping with them in for over 2 weeks now. I have been wetting my eyes with saline solution before bed and then in the morning, but I can’t get over how comfortable they still are and easy this is. I can see! Given, I don’t think I have had eye make up on in the two weeks (wow) that I have had them in, which can make contacts more of a pain. But overall, I am pretty satisfied with these contacts. My eyes don’t really hurt and I don’t get that crazy white haze you would always get from the other contacts that reminds you of the chlorine fog you get after swimming with your eyes open in the pool all day. None of that.
I do have some slight residue on the lenses in the morning that either just works its way off or out with the saline or sometimes I use a Q-tip to swipe my eyes out clean, but nothing close to what you would get with the old contacts we wore in high school. I think that it is the Hydraclear that is so awesome about these things. They definitely make them different now I think. I remember seeing a 20/20 way back when that was pointing out that the extended wear contacts and the disposables were actually the same thing. These ones are supposed to be worn weekly I think and then thrown away. The optometrist told my buddy to just wear them for a month constantly without taking them out. My friend would then even leave his in longer usually up to a month or so, just taking them out for a day or two to air his eyes and let them soak. He found he could get a long time out of them. [This way of wearing your lenses, however, is not recommended by your optometrist or on the box.]
I have half a month already in these without even taking them out. I was in desperate need for new glasses, mine are annoyingly falling off of my face every time I bend my head down and at this point so scratched and ill positioned from broken nose guards that I feel like I have blurry vision all of the time. Quite an annoying phase of the frames. So I threw these in. I was thinking of ordering more of them off of the internet, because my prescription seems alright. Then maybe I could just wear contacts for awhile and put off getting new glasses. Although, glasses are me and I would like to find a 2 frame deal somewhere because it would be worth it for me. I love my glasses, I’m so used to me with them, but I really am enjoying the simplicity of being able to wake up in the morning and pretty much see! It’s amazing. In high school I remember my eyes were just so messed up if I slept with my contacts in. I did it once in awhile and if you wet them the white fog would eventually go away, but it didn’t feel anywhere near as comfortable as these are. I believe the Hydraclear definitely allows your eyes to stay moister and breathe better. I like it. I think that today I may end up letting them sit air. They are still okay, but getting perhaps a little blurred. 2 weeks, though, is a good amount of time, I think. 14 days is over twice as long as they are intended for, so that would cut the price in half for you at least. I’m sure some could go even longer. I think they are actually suggested for weekly disposable use, so keeping that in mind, I think two weeks is awesome! I'm sure I could even get more out of them if I really wanted to wet my eyes aggressively. When they are fresh, they seem fine overnight. I think maybe I will let these soak tonight and then try to see if I could get two more weeks out of them. Even if I can't comfortably get a month out of them, I can easily get twice as long as they are intended. I'm sure a lot of people do this and I think that is something to think about and could potentially save you a lot of money.
Well, all in all, the Acuvue Advance with Hydraclear contact lenses…thumbs up!
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