Suddenly cannot tolerate contact lenses after 15 years.... Why?!

[chocolatecremeegg]

Have been wearing contact lenses since I was 18. A few weeks ago my eyes became red and sore with a sort of burning sensation. I stopped wearing my lenses and took medicated eye drops. Eyes cleared up so after a few days started wearing the lenses again but the same thing happened- eyes became sore and were so red I couldn't go out in public without wearing sunglasses. Left the lenses out for a week and tried to wear them for an hour yesterday, but you guessed it the same thing happened again... Have now accepted defeated and bought a pair of glasses and have booked an appointment with my optician to check my eyes, though I'm pretty sure it's the contact lense they're rebelling against and not an infection. Why oh why after 15 years can I not wear the lenses. Never had a single problem with them before, so bloody annoying!

This thread reminded me to try out my new silicone free lenses.

After an initial confusion (due to the fact that I don't know my droit from my gauche) they are fine.

The silicone ones made my eyes itch immediately.

So maybe check if you have developed a silicone allergy.

Could well be an allergy common this time of year with pollen, even if you don't have any other symptoms.
Dailies tend to help as the allergen is not on the lens for so long.
Obviously all will be revealed at you're apointment

I have had this problem and it got to the point where I was wearing glasses most of the time and I really hate glasses. Anyway, I went to a new optician and it turned out that my daily disposibles were causing the problems. Since then I've been using some new ones which are toric ones for astigmatism and they seem to fit so much better but I have also tried the true eye ones and they were also much better. Since changing lenses I can wear them 7 days a week and they're fantastically comfortable.