Contact lenes

[Karen]

Sorry to bring this topic up once more, but I have decided to try contact lenses again (daily disposables). Prescription dictates the best compromise is the "right eye for distance, left eye for map" that some orienteers use. We haven't got the lenses quite right yet, but they are promising.

I'm hoping for some help in the management of these.
How long before the start do you put them in? Do you drive to the event in them so your eyes are well adjusted? Or do leave it till the last possible moment. An old post on here recommends "warming up" your eyesight, and that makes sense to me.
(My optician says my sight is perfectly legal for driving with these lenses - which I find a tad worrying....)

Do you find, with practice, you can insert/remove them without mirrors etc.
I've been warned that getting dust in the eye is very painful - do you have to take the lens out, clean it and put it back? Or carry a spare set of lenses? Or is it so painful that you can't use a lens at all for a while?

My eyes feel very vulnerable without glasses (illogical when I have spent the last 60+ years tearing about with a chunk of glass just in front of each eye!). Is it a good idea to wear clear cycling/running shades to protect the eyes and to stop lenses being flicked out.

I know I will have to work out for myself how to best use the lenses, but there is a wealth of experience out there, so it seems worth asking!

[andy]

I usually travel to the race with glasses on and as soon as I get there I pop in my contacts to give enough time to settle before the start. Usually take them out while I'm changing after the race.

After losing a bit of a lens in a race years ago I wore protective eyeglasses for a few months but stopped doing so as I didn't like wearing them (and they come with all the usual problems in the rain)

I definitely need a mirror to put them in, but I know a lot of people who don't. Never had a problem with dust getting in after they are in, but sometimes if it feels uncomfortable on putting it in I take it back out and wash it in the little disposable thingy it came in, then pop it back in.

[Mrs H]

I definitely need a mirror and like a little time to adjust as I feel a bit "drunk" to start with - or maybe I'm just a bit drunk anyway
Haven't had any dust problems and anyway your eyes quickly tolerate things. Definitely need to take spares as they tear quite easily.
But if you are thinking of wearing shades anyway I would have the new magnifying glasses and not bother with the lenses. I only wear the lenses when its raining as I can see better with the new style glasses and the lenses are quite expensive.

[EddieH]

When I first had them I had to put them in before driving as I needed the best possible light and even then it could take an hour to actually get one in

At first my normal vision was seriously compromised - I couldn't recognise anyone at 5 yards. However that quickly improves with usage. Now as long as I've used them within a week I am straight into them, although I had 4 weeks without recently and vision was difficult for some minutes when I put them in again.

I have found that I can get good light for inserting them on any reasonable day by sitting in the car and covering the side windows with clothing thus having the light coming directly into my face so that I can see.

Regarding dust etc, it only needs speck for discomfort and worse still the whole thing to disappear round the back. You should definitely wash your hands every time immediately before putting them in.

I have never had one flick out, but have on a number of occasions lost one round the back which is pretty terminal to my race. I keep meaning to take a bumbag with a pair of glasses in but invariably forget.

[mykind]

All these posts are making it sound like a bit of a trial! It isn't. I pop mine in about 10 mins before I start ( for about 10 goes it was a fiddle but now after about 10 years at it it just happens) and I seem to adjust almost immediately although I do use them about weekly.
I still use a mirror ( get a folding shaving mirror which hangs nicely on your steering wheel ).
I hardly ever suffer from dust in the eyes - or maybe I just have insensitive eyes?
Only problem for me has been occasionally not being able to get a lens out that has been a rare event.
You only really appreciate them on wet days when the spectacle wearers are using ninety different contraptions (none of which work)to keep the rain off and for that reason I've never bothered with eye protection.

[Karen]

Many thanks everyone. Plenty of different approaches, but nice to know I'm not re-inventing the wheel.
Mrs H - thanks for the suggestion, but my complicated prescription means so far I have not been able to get prescription cycling or running glasses

[NFKleanne]

I tried to try contacts because of rain issues, but never managed to get a pair in as my eyes are to small, or I am too impatient - or both. I wear a baseball cap, and if rain to much I stick my glasses in my pocket, and refer to map only when needed. If you get on with them I can see the benefit, but I unfortunately cannot!

[awk]

I used to run in my glasses, also having what is apparently a very complex prescription (including astigmatism), but swapped to contacts when the old age long sight issue started kicking in. None of the standard magnifying glasses even remotely deal with the problem. After a fair amount of experimentation working with my optician (who specialises in sport), I run in what is essentially my reading prescription: sharp map reading close to, slightly fuzzy longer distance, but still fine and legal for things like driving.

It varies when I put my lenses in: sometimes just before warming up, other times before driving to an event. Doesn't seem to make much difference. Even after some years, I need a mirror to put them in; they are very easy to remove without one. I have a smal folding mirror which hangs off steering wheel or back of seat, but I've found using the driving mirror adequate on occasions; I have even used a shop window when a lens came out in the Venice street race a couple of years ago (amazingly, it went in first time!!), but it's not recommended!

Lenses have come out on a number of occasions, the most recent at the middle distance race after the British Nights being the most traumatic, when I took a small branch in the eye for the second time in 40-odd years of orienteering, which left me running on one eye for one-third of the race, and referred to the Bradford eye unit by our local minor injuries unit. Fortunately the lens, before it was flicked out, had protected the iris and pupil, and there were only' minor corneal abrasions and a thoroughly horrible (non-existent) night's sleep on the Sunday! The consequence is that I've now bought eye protectors (the most comfortable I've found so far is the ones made by Dunlop for squash, which are a lot cheaper than my cycling shades!), which I wear if it's not raining - I'll take the risk when it is.

Dust etc is irritating rather than painful. On the rare occasion it's a problem, I've found it difficult to remove and put back in without making a mess of the lens with other dust etc., so i simply dump the lens and put a fresh one in - I carry plenty of spares!

Hope that helps.

[Electrocuted]

I wear my lenses for short sight and therefore wear them all day. Mine are weighted to deal with astigmatism so I need to put them in at least 15 minutes before wanti g to see anything properly but as I said I wear them all day. I did notice when I was I'll for 3 weeks a while ago and didn't wear them my eyesight felt really strange when I put them In agai. For the first time so warming up your eyesight is probably a good idea.

I've never really had a problem with grit but if you get caught out without any Saline saliva makes a good substitute.

I can put mine in without a mirror quite easily, but I have worn them for Over 20 years. I've only very occasionally flicked one out, maybe 3 or 4 times over that period. It seems to happen if I blink the wrong wAy. Strong wind is not great either.

[Paul Frost]

I agree with most of the above in that once you have been using them a while everything gets easier, especially if you wear them several times a week.
I'm long sighted and have astigmatism and have been experimenting with multifocal contacts with some success but not perfect yet. These are a bit like varifocal glasses and the view is this is a better option than having I near and 1 far lens (called mono vision).
My wife is now using them is really happy with the way they work.

Make sure you use an optician that understands multifocals and is experienced with them, this article highlights some of the issues from an Optometrists point of view.

[Glucosamine]

There does seem to be a distinction between cheap disposables and regular contacts. After losing relatively expensive lenses more than once in an O-context, I switched to disposables (mainly for rainy days) when they became available for my relatively strong prescription and they seemed to work well for me. The car interior mirror seemed to do the job for putting them in. But as I've got older the poor near-sight using contacts was enough of a disadvantage for me to revert to glasses (with visor when it rains) so that I can still look over the top of my glasses to see the map detail and through the glasses to run. I've never tried disposable bifocal (or varifocal?) contacts, though I seem to remember talk of those becoming available. Is that now an option worth exploring?

[DeerTick]

After three years on the monovision setup I gave up and returned to reading glasses perched on my nose. I never adjusted to putting the lenses in quickly - if they didn't go in on the first couple of attempts it could take twenty minutes or more. I found the best place to put lenses in was the car, using the mirror on the sun visor.

I only used them for orienteering and felt that I needed at least an hour before starting to let my eyes settle down. My optometrist felt that I should have been using them every day to alleviate this.

Occasionally I suffered very watery vision during competition (dust?).

Interested in Paul's comment re varifocal lenses though.

AP.

[Paul Frost]

I've never lost a lens except when I ran into a twig and ended up tearing the cornea, no lenses for 6 months whilst it healed. On another occasion I did a similar thing and only scratched the cornea, it seems the lens protected the cornea a bit.

I'm quite long sighted with a +4.25 needed, so looking over the top of glasses is no use to me. Even with my experiences of cornea damage I wouldn't want to wear glasses or protective eyewear for orienteering, the problems of them steaming and rain up is just too much of an unpleasant experience.

If it's difficult to get the near/far mix acceptable I'd go for the far/middle correction and then rely more a large magnifier on my thumb compass for the detail.

As DeerTick comments, it helps if you wear contacts a few times a week (even if only for a short period), this gets the eye used to them and you get more practice/confidence putting them in and taking them out (which is where I occasionally have problems).
If I have been wearing them for more than a few hours I sometimes find the lenses have dried onto my eyes and won't slide off easily, so if I think it may be a problem I put in a couple of moisturising drops just before taking them out and then they slide around/out easily.

[frog]

I'm like glucosamine. I'm very short sighted and used to wear contacts most of the time, previously gas permeable hard lenses which were the best for your eyes in those days but prone to pop out if you brushed against a twig. My eyes got too dry for those so I swapped to daily disposable soft lenses but have never found my vision as clear with those and now I'm also getting long sighted I have difficulty reading the map with them in so only wear them if it's very rainy otherwise my glasses are much better. When the current ones run out I may try bifocal contacts

[Marian]

previously gas permeable hard lenses which were the best for your eyes in those days

they still are. The clue's in the name - they let oxygen get at the cornea, you can safely wear them for longer. And they are MUCH cheaper for anyone with a stable prescription.

can't think why an optician would suggest anything else.....