Eye exam & stuff I bought!

[annathepiper]

Got my eyes checked this afternoon, since I was overdue for an exam, and that went pretty well. The doctor said I have a bit of a stigmatism going on, which doesn't surprise me; my older brother has the same issue with his eyes, so it seems to run in the family. The weird and different part of the whole experience was my telling the contact lens guy on their staff about how my eyes have been watering and itching a lot lately--which, he said, has been a common complaint for them the last few months, so apparently it's not just me--and getting a new solution to try to see if that helps alleviate the problem any. This solution is based on hydrogen peroxide.

You read that correctly. They want me to soak my lenses in hydrogren peroxide.

Apparently what makes this safe is that you use a special container that holds your lenses in little baskets, and at the bottom of the container is a doohickey made out of titanium. This is supposed to chemically react with the hydrogen peroxide for about six hours, at the end of which you'll have a basic saline solution and your lenses will be really, really clean. The idea is supposed to be giving your lenses an even better cleaning than you can get from most commercial solutions, especially the multi-purpose ones that are laden with a lot of different chemicals. I'm dubious, but I'll give it a shot, and be extra special careful to rinse the things seven ways from Sunday before I actually put them in my eyes.

In the meantime, I have been glommed by a Bookstore and CD Store Accident. I went into the University Bookstore after my exam, since it was nearby, and picked up a copy of Elizabeth Peters' latest, Guardian of the Horizon, as well as T.F. Banks' The Thief Taker. framlingem and kieri, I did in fact look at the shelves of Bernard Cornwell books, but as near as I can tell the first book of the Sharpe series in chronological order is Sharpe's Tigers, yes? The only edition they had of that was a trade paperback, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to shell out 14 bucks for that. But it's still on the queue to consider. :)

Also, of interest to the Carbon Leaf fans on my Friends list, I have now acquired a second CL album for my collection: Indian Summer. Just ripped it to the iPod as I've typed this, and I look forward to giving it a listen!

Miles today: 2.5 (usual bus stop mile + extra for eye exam)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 69.23
Miles to Rivendell: 388.77

Comments

[hederahelix.livejournal.com]

I use AOSept, which is the older of the hydrogen peroxide-based cleaning systems, and it works very well. I've used it for so long that the last thing I used to disinfect my lenses before that were the little heating units that you used to have to plug in, way back in the day. (Why, yes, I have been wearing soft contacts since about 1984, whyever do you ask?) I still wear non-disposable daily wear, and if my Rx doesn't change, the AOSept system works well enough that I can wear the same pair of contacts for years before I need to change them.

I have never, ever had a problem with my lenses feeling icky and stinging after using a hydrogen-peroxide based cleaner unless:

1)You don't change the case with the metal encased basket as often as they tell you. Maybe I've got the equivalent of cast iron eyes so I don't notice as soon as I should, but my clue that it's time to change the case, since I usually lose the little sticker that tells me my three months are up, is when my contacts feel less than perfect in the morning. Then i belatedly realize I've been using the same case for five months and, whoops, it's time to change.

2)You don't give them the full 6 hours to soak that AOSept requires. Badness will occur if you try to take them out in, say, 5.5 hours and put them in your eyes.

3)You rinse them off afterwards with multi-purpose solution rather than pure saline. I picked up the wrong bottle once, late at night, and I did notice the next morning that my eyes weren't entirely happy about this development.

4)Well, okay, this hasn't happened to me, but the little instructions that come with mine say that you're not supposed to leave the lenses in the case with the hydrogen perxoid solution for more than 24 hours. The saline that the hydrogen peroxide turns into doesn't have any preservatives, so I guess you're supposed to swap the hydrogen-peroxide-turned-saline for saline from a bottle if you're going to leave them in there for more than 24 hours.

I actually don't generally follow that advice, and I've never had problems, but if you're being hypervigilant, you may want to.

Other than that, hands down, the consensus seems to be that the hydrogen peroxide systems are the best at cleaning lenses. (My uncle the eye doc and my friend the optician both say so.) Most people who wear disposable lenses don't need to use these cleaners because by the time the contacts build up the nasties, they throw them away.::shrugs:: or so people tell me.

[annathepiper]

Here's the thing--I do wear disposables. I have a brand that lets me keep the same pair for about a month, and then I have to swap out to the next pair. I also take them out every night anyway, just because I was advised that that's less wear and tear on the lenses or some such, and also because I like to give my eyes a break from having the lenses right against them as I'm sleeping.

So you'd think that I wouldn't have as much in the way of buildup problems... but then again, it's been a nasty season for allergens in the air and whatever else, so who knows? This may help.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with this stuff, though! Much appreciated. :)