( Steph Lloyd )

I got contacts last year in Korea. If you remember, I wasn’t so sure about their methods and pretty sure my contacts weren’t exactly right for me. They were cheap though and I figured that since I saw better with them than without them, I’d wear them. It was so nice to finally have my glasses off my face. I didn’t buy any to bring home to the States though because I figured it’d be much easier to get some that were perfect for me.

If only…

This whole getting contacts thing has been WAY more of an ordeal here than it was in Korea. I went in for an eye exam nearly a month ago. They tested me and gave me a set of soft contacts to wear. They were a lot thinner than the ones I had had in Korea, so I thought they were pretty cool. I walked out the door and nearly tripped because I got all googily eyed. I turned around and made sure that they were made for eyes with astigmatism. They said that they were and that I should be fine. Okay. So we left and I ended up getting a huge headache from them. They actually made me feel kinda nauseous and dizzy too. One eye could see fairly well but the other was all messed up. I tried wearing them to work the next day but had huge issues. They were irritating all day long and I had a hard time seeing the monitor that was right in front of my face. I was really nervous about making a mistake because I couldn’t see. I had to check and double check every click I made because God knows taking down a live game because I selected the wrong line would have been ridiculous.

I called the doctor’s office the next day and told them something wasn’t quite right with my prescription and/or contacts. They told me to come in within a month to be re-tested. We made it back over there about a week later. I had a new doctor check my eyes. She took more time with me and ended up telling me that my prescription wasn’t bad but that she’d “fine tune” it for me. She gave me a different set of contacts, which were thicker, and brought me back into the exam room to test my eyes. I couldn’t see anything at first but after about 20 minutes they got a little bit better. The eye that could see all right before was now the bad one and the former bad one was better. They were sliding all over my eyeballs too, so my eyesight kept going from good to bad. The doctor told me that because of the correction I needed, hard lenses would be best for me. She said they’d be uncomfortable for two weeks but after that they’d be way better than the soft ones. I agreed that I’d try them because I was really tired of going back and forth and even more tired of wearing my glasses every day.

The hard lenses came in and Matt and I went out to pick them up. It was weird because the two times before, a tech watched as I put the contacts in and made sure that all was well. This time I had to ask to go put them in and no one was there for me. I asked a tech in the room if I needed to use solution or just stick them in. They felt really weird and my first reflex was to get them the heck out of my eyes. Seriously. I knew they wouldn’t come out like the soft ones though so I just waited for my eyes to stop freaking out then asked the tech how to get them out. She told me how and I tried it once but could barely get the sucker out. Since we were out car shopping (finally!) I decided to just take them out once we got home.

We left there and drove across the parking lot to eat at Panera Bread. Halfway through lunch Matt asked how my eyes felt. I told him that the one eye was still really irritating but the other was much better. Wait. Blink, blink. I couldn’t feel the contact in my right eye. Matt looked and couldn’t see it. Wonderful. I totally popped the sucker out without knowing it. I really don’t know how I did, since I couldn’t get it out when we were still at the eye doctor, but I somehow managed.

We finished eating and then went back to the doctor’s office. The first girl thought I was a complete moron but the second one was really nice. She was surprised that no one had helped me while I was there. She told me that there was a warranty on the contacts and that she could just re-order the right contact at no charge. I was so bummed out though. This has been like a three week ordeal. I just want a pair of contacts!

I find it amusing that this whole process has made the one in Korea seem so easy. I wish the doctor here would have had a giant three ring binder of contacts and just picked a set. Haha!