I'll start by mentioning that my red eye has healed completely now. It looked pretty horrible there for a while, but my main regret was that it didn't happen at Halloween so I could at least pull off a superior zombie costume. C'est la vie.
My latest eye problem has nothing to do with how they look and everything about how they feel. When I last visited my eye doctor, he told me, "You get a new kind of contact lens this time - Acuvue Advance. They let more oxygen in. They're better than your old lenses, but they didn't make them for your prescription until now."
My vision is 20/800, which means that when I'm not wearing my glasses, I can't read at all because my nose touches the page before the words come into focus. With such a strong prescription, it's not really a surprise that I get all the cool, new stuff last. I'd been just fine with Acuvue 2 for quite some time, but I'm not one to question the new and improved.
The new contacts were noticeably slimy compared to what I'm used to. They felt okay in my eyes at first and I didn't think much about them for a couple of days. Then, they WENT BAD. Remember the scene in "Evil Dead 2" where Bruce Campbell's hand goes bad and he has to cut it off with a chainsaw? Well, the contacts got so uncomfortable that I had a desperate need to rip them out of my eyes. If an eyeball happened to come out in the process, I'd have considered it an acceptable loss under the circumstances.
The contacts were sneaky. They felt fine in the morning and for a while into the afternoon. By late afternoon, though, they would start to feel kind of dry. By evening, they felt like they were self-marinating in capsaicin. My vision was so blurry that I was afraid I was going to wreck my car driving anywhere after dark.
In case the problem was allergies, I decided to give the first pair the whole two-week wearing period. They didn't last that long. Two days short of the day I would ordinarily put in a new pair, the original pair came out of the case looking kind of squashed and feeling wrong in my eyes no matter which way I turned them. Grrr.
I called my eye doctor's office and told them how much I haaated my new contacts. They were properly apologetic and offered to trade me back for my usual ones. I have a feeling they won't be recommending them so enthusiastically for long. It didn't take much research to find that I'm not the only person who's less than thrilled with them.
I'm just relieved that my old contact lenses haven't been discontinued. Then what would I do?
My eye doctor recently switched me to Acuvue 2 with Hydraclear. Fortunately, I haven't had the problems you've had, but I don't think they're any better than the original Acuvue 2s. Just more $$$.
Posted by: Rozanne | September 28, 2005 at 02:45 AM
I actually found your blog while searching info on Acuvue Advanced! Thanks to you... I think I'll stick with my Acuvue 2s... ;)
Posted by: Lindsay | November 03, 2005 at 10:29 PM