Contact lenses - can someone help?

[31weeksgone]

So I’ve got short sighted eyesight, -2.75 and -3 in my eyes and I’ve also got astigmatism in both eyes. This is my FOURTH different type of contact lense I’m trialling and I still can’t see properly. 😣

I’ve told the opticians this but they insist the prescription is right and the angle (?) is right too.

To those of you who are short sighted, can you see as far with your contacts as you can your glasses? Because I can’t see to drive in these, they’re blurry if I shut one eye, they’re a pain to put in and out. Someone tells me it gets easier or better please, or any tips or tricks please? I’m with boots opticians at the moment.

Yes absolutely! I hate, hate, hate wearing glasses so will do everything I can to avoid them.

Same here. My optician tweaks my prescription every now and then, so it is always good at all distances, latest change was a couple of weeks ago and they are absolutely perfect at all distances. Both my lenses are -10, but for one eye this is undercorrecting by a dioptre or 2.

Mind you, when I do wear glasses I'm still fine with single vision ones, for anything really tiny I just take them off and hold whatever it is close as I can still see very well an inch or two from my nose, so not too long-sighted yet. I'm in my early 50s.

,You need to find an alternative optician, preferably by Recommendation. Those answering here are only able to answer for themselves. I do not know your exact prescription but some prescription and indeed some patients can not be satisfactorily corrected with contact lenses and if that is the case you need to be told,not fobbed off. Honesty even if disappointing is always best. If you can give me a clue which part of the country you are in I may be able to recommend.
Oh by the way I have over 40 years experience in the independent sector of the profession.

I have Bausch & Lomb PureVision Toric lenses, they are extended wear ones, I can sleep in them. £15 a month without solutions from Specsavers.

@dodor1 thank you, I’m -2.75 in one eye and -3.0 in the other, I’m in the Bristol/Bath area of the southwest

I have a similar level of short sightedness plus astigmatism and presbyopia.
From 30 plus years of wearing contact lenses, I can say that despite the advertising, you will probably not see as clearly with soft contact lenses as with glasses. RGP (Hard) lenses will give brilliant clarity but with some problems. First finding an optician who still knows how to fit them when the received wisdom is that soft is better. Second that you will need to increase your wearing time gradually over a week or two until you can wear them all waking hours. Another couple of weeks to get over the initial scratchiness and forget you are wearing them. You will ideally need to wear them nearly every day for them to stay comfortable and they are prone to catching dust etc between the lens nd eye which is painful and necessitates removing and cleaning lenses wherever you happen to be. Hope this helps

Thanks, @biwi and @ExpletiveDelighted, I'm due my next contact lens check up in September, I think I'll ask about it. My near vision is actually really good without correction, so assume they'll just try a lower power in one eye. I'm 3 and 3.75 with astigmatism in both eyes, so not too bad.

Meant -3 and -3.75.

Thanks Mary, I’ll ask about them!

It's the amount and angle of the astigmatism that causes the problem also if it is corneal astigmatism. I will have look Monday or Tuesday and get back to you. You may also need motivation (if you can cope) or a reading correction.

Find an independent optician with a special interest in contact lenses. I was told my eyes were too dry for lenses at high street opticians but managed to find some eventually after trials of different ones by the independent. The prescription is likely correct but the type of lense wrong.

I'm almost exactly your prescription: -3, -2.75, and -1 astigmatism in each eye in different directions. Certainly you should get near perfect vision with correct lenses!

I used to use Bausch & Lomb PureVision Toric lenses, the leave-in-overnight ones, and they were pretty good. Now I use Ortho-K lenses, which are hard ones you wear at night that reshape your corneas. I went in to ask about lasering, and they pointed me in this direction since lasering has a risk of being crap and Ortho-K is totally reversible - just don't wear them and your eyes revert back to normal. I get near-perfect vision without anything in/on my eyes most days. Occasionally I'll have a bad night - usually I slept on my face - and not be well corrected out of one eye or another, but it's not really any worse than a bad contacts day.

I'm -10 in both eyes and see much better in contacts. Have you got them in the right eyes? Sorry if that's a stupid question.

I'm surprised they let you leave wearing them if you couldn't see.

and the other (vague) possibility is you may be sensitive to the cleaning fluid, which happened to me and made things generally slightly blurry. Preservative free sorted it out

Thanks everyone, I think it’s a case of finding a better optician then as they didn’t even check the latest pair just handed over the boxes and sent me on my way. I’ll find a local independent optician and ask for their advice as definitely in the right eyes and the right way up (I’ve been trying all different combinations driving myself crazy!)

@BIWI @Wombleish I have varifocal contact lenses, absolute miracle, -6 in the middle, +2.5 round the edge but you can't tell at all, just perfect vision

This sounds a bit like me, my eyes are -3.25 and -3.75 with astigmatism. I mentioned to my optician that in my contact lenses things close to me could be blurry and she said that if my prescription was changed to help with this then things further away would then be blurry. Surely I should be able to see both?

Get them to check the prisms

I've been with boots for the last 14 years and they can be seriously incompetent at times, really bad customer service. I'm only still with them because I have a simple prescription and can't be bothered with the hassle of swapping. If I was having problems with my eyes and they are not helping, I would try a different opticians if I were you

I'm VERY short sighted -5.25 -5 and i can see fine with contacts in. But they do take time to get used to.

Also switch opticians. They dont sound all that good tbh

I was a contact lens practitioner for years with both vision express and specsavers. Your lens prescription is clearly incorrect. You require toric lenses and I suggest you go to another optician fir an eye test and contact lens check and trial different brands . I get my lenses online from lenstore it's cheaper and u get regular eye tests and contact lens checks for free with vision express.
Remember contact lenses will not give you the same clarity as glasses but it will be 99 percent there and what you are experiencing isn't normal. It could also be that the diameter or base curve of the lens is too small and therefore restricting your vision rather than it being an issue with your prescription.

@crazycatgal "things close to me could be blurry and she said that if my prescription was changed to help with this then things further away would then be blurry. Surely I should be able to see both?"

If you're 40+ then you're heading towards having eyes where you indeed don't get the choice - unless you count varifocals. They change shape, the lens gets stiffer, the muscles get weaker - and you go progressively long-sighted. Depressingly normal aging experience.

If you're younger than that, then you may need a better optician!

Hi @31weeksgone. What type of astigmatism do you have ?? I'm short sighted (-7 & -7.5) & started wearing glassess from age 7......I'm 52 now. I started wearing contacts when I was 18....tried all types (dailies, extended wear, soft, gas permeable). About 4 years ago I was diagnosed with Keratoconus. This was picked up by my (independent) optician as my prescription kept changing everytime I went back for a re-fit. Since then I've had cornea grafts in both eyes & now can not wear glasses at all. Currently I wear special scleral contacts that you have to fill with saline before inserting into the eye. My eyesight is nowhere near perfect but I can see clearly well enough to drive. No way should your vision be blury, even just after you put your lenses in. Never had that before in my life. I would get a 2nd opinion......and from an independent optician rather than a chain where they can spend a bit more time sorting out what the problem is.

Just to add I have more eye tests, eye pressure tests & back of the eye tests than I've had hot dinners. After the graft surgery I was going fir check-ups about every 2-4 weeks for up to 2 years. Now it's about every 2-3 months. Its important you get them checked out properly.

@Wombleish ,@BIWI , I'm 70 , prescription about -9 , astigmatism , had monovision lenses for many years. Sorry to have to tell you that I've needed reading glasses on top for the last 5 or so years. I do hate glasses.