Eye Spy

Yesterday I let a (not quite complete but almost) stranger put her fingers in my eyes twice. Actually, technically, it was four times because she put her fingers in each of my eyes twice.

It was contact lens trial day. I drove to the office at lunch with more than a few butterflies in my stomach. I have been wearing glasses for twenty years but have never, ever, tried contact lenses before. So putting something in my eyes - on purpose - and leaving it there - on purpose - was going to take some getting used to.

She tilted my head back, unceremoniously held my eye lids apart, and popped the first one in. Then the second. It was over and, suddenly I could see clearly without my glasses. It was really neat to be able to do that but it was also a very weird feeling and I felt oddly naked without my glasses on.

I was sent off with a reminder to be back by 4:30pm to have them removed. I popped on my non-prescription sun glasses and drove back to work. I read every street sign and saw everything as it should be seen. THAT was awesome.

I spent the next few hours in meetings or working at my computer. I got used to the idea of having contacts on my eyes but never got used to the feeling. I could clearly feel them sitting there. Towards the end of the time, I started to notice that my vision would get a little blurry but, with a few hurried blinks, it would clear up again. Never having worn these things before, I didn't know if that was normal or not. So I kept blinking rapidly when needed and, at precisely 4:15pm I pulled into the parking lot.

As I sat in the office I explained what the contacts felt like, the random blurring of my vision and the blinking. She tested my vision with the contacts in, checked the fit and then proceeded to try to take them out.

Emphasis on the word 'try'.

Apparently they were stuck to my eyes. Like fused.

"That explains it" she said. You have very dry eyes. (yup). Diabetes can cause dry eyes. So can allergies. So can birth control pills. Looks like I have three strikes against me. She put eye drops in and managed to peel the contacts off.

Emphasis on the word 'peel'.

I liked the contacts enough to try them again but there will definitely be eye drops in my future. We booked an appointment for next week so I can go in and learn how to put them in and take them out myself. They're also ordering me a few different trial sets so I can see if there is one that feels a little better than another. And they're going to give me some eye drops.

As for learning how to put things on and peel things off of my eyeballs. I figure I've learned how to lance my fingers, give myself up to 8 needles a day and change my infusion sites. This should be a piece of cake.