any contact lense experts available please?

[mckenzie]

I am on day two of my five day trial with contact lenses from Spec Savers. I don't know my prescription but I am short sighted and I have astigmatism in both eyes. I have two questions please.

Can I put the one day disposal in monday morning to go running in the take them out for 10 mins to have a shower and put them back in again (I'd put them in the solution that they came in which I can keep covered while I go running)?

When I have my glasses on, i can also see things close up (ie, read to send a text massage, read a menu etc) but with the contacts in I can't see the writing. Is this normal?

TIA

Sorry, no expert, just a long time contact lense wearer.

Think you can take them out for a shower (although I do leave mine in now.) and then put them back in.

I too have astigmatism and am short sighted. I am pissed off because without my lenses I can see ok close up, but with them in I find reading blurry. Optician said couldn't be helped

I tend to take them out at home in the evenings and put specs back on.

I wear lenses and also have astigmatism in both eyes. I don't wear dailies so can't answer the first question but you should definitely be able to read text messages etc.

Re the shower though, I keep my lenses in if I'm showering and I'm already wearing them, just make sure your eyes are closed when shampoo is involved.

I'm sure an optician would say use a new pair, but in practice you can get away with putting back in, yres. Altho for all the faffing, its easier to shower with them in! IME, its really hard to run in contacts till you get used to it; it feels weird to be running but not feel your glasses. Also, I used to find that any exercise that caused me to sweat made me rub my face and I'd rub the contacts loose, or they would literally drop out with the jiggling about of aerobics etc, so I went back to glasses for exercise.

you shouldn't really take daily lenses in and out for stuff

the daily lenses, by definition, are more fragile and are meant to get put in and stay in all day until you discard them

shower with them in, you will get used to it

I can't answer the astigmatism question, sorry, but you should be able to do everything

are the lenses "torics" ie. take account of your astigmatism, or just standard ?

thanks for the replies. I wonder if they have got the prescription a tad wrong. I remember the lady telling me that one eye was actually better than my previous prescription (which i presume she was able to deduce by my current glasses) but certainly with my glasses on, reading text is fine but now, I cannot read text at all. Weird huh? I'm due to go back on Friday for the check up to see how I've got on with these trial ones so I'll find out more then but it's interesting to hear your taker on it. Thank you.

Keep them in for showering etc. Just blink a lot!

As for the astigmatism, I have it too but not badly enough to need toric lenses, i.e. my dailies compensate for the short-sightedness and the astigmatism. Bit of a "pick & mix", I also can't read very small text, or I can read it better without lenses. Toric lenses are more expensive so I see it as a "six of one" thing.

So I guess it depends how short-sighted you are & how bad the astigmatism is.

My trial lenses are Toric. And they say -1.25 on the top line and underneath they say -0.75 x 180, whatever that means!

So I think based on Readinginsteadnow's comment, I wont run with them tomorrow as I won't be near home and also I'll be with a crowd of others but wait until later in the week when I'm more used to them and running by myself.