Monday, November 15, 2004

Adventures with Contact Lenses - Part I

I got my contacts on Friday.
Saturday, I managed to get them in my eyes in about 20 minutes.
Sunday, I cut the time to about ten minutes.

This morning I was going to get a haircut. I thought, Great! With my contacts I can now see how the haircut is going. I don't have to wait until the end when I get my glasses back to see the new hairstyle surprise. I gave myself half an hour to get my contacts in. The right side went in pretty easily. The fun began with the left side. I could not get the darned thing in. I pulled my top eyelid back, pushed the bottom eyelid down, wedged my eye open with my fingers. Nothing worked!! Meanwhile I was shedding eyelashes like a mangy dog and dropping the contact like it was a hot potato.

Finally, I got it in. Or did I? I closed my right eye to discover that I could not see through my left. The stupid contact was not in. Damn it! Where did it go? I searched all over the bathroom counter. No, it wasn't there. I looked on the floor without success. The trash where I threw the tissue I used to wipe my tears? I emptied out the small basket with an old toothpaste box, some tissues, and old razor blades. Not there. I looked at my eye, was it stuck under my eyelid? I could not see it.

Time was getting away from me and I had to get to my haircut appointment. So I took the right lense out of my eye and put it back in the case. As I did I thought I fel something in my left eye. I decided to probe way back under my top left eyelid, and low and behold, there was the missing contact. No time to fuss with it then, so back in the case it went and off I went (slowly - read the previous post) with bloodshot and teary eyes to get my haircut (which despite my near blindness during the process turned out ok).

Epilogue: After my haircut, I came back and gave the contacts another try. The right one went in easily again, and after a brutal struggle with the left one, I finally got that one in too. I am not sure if I will be able to deal with this everyday, though.

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