To ask urgently can you get gas permeable lenses next day?

[drspouse]

Sorry, just here for traffic.
Have lost a lens and I can't see to drive well enough in my glasses.
I can get my current prescription from the optician today and order today if anyone does Sunday orders.
Or I am having an appointment tomorrow (I don't think it's changed much but they said it's out of date). Then if I can find next day delivery it would be here on Tues.
But I can't even find next day delivery for week days!
Heeelp...

My vision is also much worse in glasses and I definitely have the right prescription.

Could you just try dailies for a few days? Opticians should have in stock.

Optom here. Unfortunately, most GP lenses are "made to order" and very specific to each client it's unlikely you will find them in a high street optician or on line. But you can get sample daily/monthly disposables
in most prescriptions. Where I work we keep samples up to +12.00 and -15.00. BUT if you have significant astigmatism they might not suit perfectly.

For the poster who said that the glasses should be better; unfortunately that isn't always true for a number of reasons. If a person has a high minus prescription their glasses will "minify" the image so they actually see things much smaller than they are in reality. Contact lenses don't have the minification effect and of course you will see something clearer if it's bigger.
The other problem is that even the best-engineered spectacle lenses have peripheral distortions and aberrations. If you wear your specs every day, your brain adjusts to these but if, like the OP, you wear your contact lenses every day, you lose tolerance to the aberrations so when you try the glasses after the contact lenses, things look a little strange, even if the specs are correct.
Difficult for us as optometrists because we really don't like people wearing GP lenses all day every day but often the clients feel that they have no choice.
OP, I think your best bet is to see if your optometrist can give you sample dailies or monthlies till your own come in, definitely consider ordering a second pair of GP's as spares and store them dry in case of emergencies and if you were my client I would be advising you to get into the habit of wearing the specs at least in the evenings in order to get used to them because there will always be situations where contacts are not advisable (e.g if you have an eye infection) and at least if you're more used to the glasses, it won't feel so debilitating when you do have to wear them.

I think it is hard for people to understand that lenses and glasses both give you correct but different vision.

Helpful that is a great tip!
I've found my old left lens from before this prescription - cleaned it up, gave it a soak and it's much better than my glasses WHICH ARE THE RIGHT PRESCRIPTION thankyouverymuch.

I do have a very high negative prescription and I also wear varifocal glasses (I have monovision with my GPs). So my glasses are just quite different.

I won't drive in my old lens, I'll get some daily soft lenses ASAP till the GPs arrive. Good tips thanks.

And you are right I should get more used to my glasses. I probably wear them for 20 mins a day plus one evening every month or two, which obviously isn't enough!

I've been wearing specs for 40 years and lenses for 35. The gas permeables were wonderful but I lost tolerance to them after 20 years, optician says it happens . moving to soft lenses also removed the 'bandage' effect on my cornea and my prescription got much worse.

I would still expect decent vision with specs , which is why I question the ops optician saying it can't be done. I now get much better vision with specs but that is because it is varifocals time. However distance with soft lenses is still fine and I add cheap readers for close work.

I don't find driving as easy in glasses either. I find it harder to judge distances probably because I wear contact lenses out of the time.

Actually the other option is to drive with just one lens, I would check with your optician first but actually because of a retinal scar I have in one eye I only ever wear one lens and it makes so little difference to me that I didn't even think to mention it. Brain takes a little bit to get used to it so I would try it for a day if you can before before driving. You just have to turn your head a little bit further to see properly but you get used to doing that quickly. Or with your slightly older prescription in as your other lens you should be find.

Also gp lens are increasingly rare. I can't imagine that any optician will have them in stock

They never had them "in stock". They are made up individually to your prescription. I still wear them. My last new pair took getting on for 3 weeks to be ready. I have several older spare sets.

Vision should be better with glasses. You must have a backup pair of specs

I have never had specs. I have worn gas permeable lenses for 35 years.

i have a high minus prescription (-11 in both eyes) and i hate driving in glasses. I can, but i don't like it as those bits around the edges of my frames make it really hard to look over my shoulder.

I can drive in my glasses but due to the distortion(high minus here with permanent floaters) cannot walk around in them safely.I keep spare old lenses and use them in emergencies as I my vision is better in these than in soft lens.
My dd has had soft contacts since she was 11-12 and the where cost means I am sticking with contacts especially since my glasses prescription costs so much(without frames) and reading glasses.

I have never had specs. I have worn gas permeable lenses for 35 years.

Well that is very foolish. What would you do if you had an eye infection?

I have never had an eye infection but I could easily get by without lenses if I had to whilst it was healing.

I don't drive to work. My sight is good enough to get round the house with no lenses. Most of the time I don't wear lenses at home. I've never had prescription glasses but in the last couple of years I've had to use over the counter reading glasses at work.

My unaided vision is fine for the 10 minute walk to work. Work is mostly reading documents which I can read perfectly well without lenses. Going to a theatre or cinema would be a problem as would reading street signs and maps somewhere I didn't know.

Its nice to hear from other GP wearers as it is becoming increasingly rare. I wear them because they don't do soft lenses in my prescription (-17) but I'm one of only about 4 people my optician deals with who does.

My prescription is not that high (-7 or 8 in one eye and-4 or 5 in the other) but high enough that I can't see at all without glasses (handy for avoiding late night DH spider emergencies) and I can't drive with just one lens.

Monovision is where you have one eye undercorrected (the non dominant one, my weaker eye in my case) and it's a great alternative to pound shop reading glasses.

Agree re things looking odd and the space round the edge in glasses. And re cost! My GPs are £100 or so every two years if my prescription changes. With extra thin lenses, anti glare etc a really good pair of glasses would be at least that.

I'm wearing soft lenses with -10 and -11 and they are rubbish compared to gps.

Right optician says I'm OK to drive in my old lens (wahey!) and I've kept my old lens in really good condition (preens self) so now I've got a bit more used to my old lens I'm pretty happy.

Especially as it's tipping it down and I was going to go to an exercise class later...

New pair ordered and I'll take heed of her tips for storing old lenses as spares.