I have worn contacts for over 20 years with little to on problems. The only contacts I have ever used were the Bausch and Lomb SoftToric 66 for Astigmatism.
I am 38 years old now, and now I can't wear them anymore due to discomfort. I'm very active and want to continue to wear contacts. I have tried Acuvue Oasys and Biofinity and both came back uncomfortable.
Any help what to do?!?! I'm now wearing glasses and they are a pain in the neck. I have a LASIK appointment soon, but I don't know if I want to do that...I just want to wear contacts and have them comfortable. Please advise. Will be trying DAILIES soon, and my fingers are crossed for them to work!
Unfortunately it sometimes takes a few tries to find lenses that are comfortable, but there are many choices out there these days such as one day disposables. One question is why they aren't comfortable, whether there is some eye problem causing it that can be addressed. If it is due to dry eyes then there are various treatments they can try these days (which I haven't had need to look into so I can't comment, and the most appropriate treatment depends on the details since there are multiple causes for dry eyes), or if its due to allergies (which often caused me issues with contacts, which I wore for around 30 years) there are topical drops for that as well. I do gather with both conditions it can also take more than one try to find the best treatment.
There are also alternatives to regular contact lens wear like Orthokeratology (ortho-k) which involves wearing special contact lenses while you sleep which reshape your eyes temporarily so during the day you don't need to wear correction. That may involve wearing contacts fewer hours per day and when you are sleeping so you aren't aware of them, but of course that requires enough comfort that it doesn't interfere with sleep or cause problems with your eyes. I haven't looked into the details to know how effective it is.
I don't know how bad your vision is. In addition to laser surgery, for those who aren't candidates, for instance if they are too myopic, there is also the option now of a lens inserted in your eye, an ICL (sometimes expanded as "Implantable Collamer Lens" and sometimes "Implantable Contact Lens" also known as a "phakic IOL". IOL means IntraOcular Lens, a lens placed inside the eye. Usually IOL meant an artificial lens used to replace your natural lens in cataract surgery, "phakic" means its a lens used with someone who still has their natural lens. Different surgeons seem to have different takes on what the best option is and the comparative safety of those approaches, so multiple opinions are useful if you consider that sort of thing. Overall they seem to be considered safe, but as with all surgeries there are risks ( e.g. there was a recent paper showing an increased risk with an ICL of things like earlier cataracts) and a tiny percentage have problems so its best to be informed because *someone* winds up being the "statistic", but then life isn't entirely safe and even wearing contact lenses can lead a certain tiny minority to get sight threatening infections even if they are overall so safe that people don't worry. Its best to focus on the statistics, since you can't get a good idea of safety from posts on the net since even if the risks were 1 in a million of issues.. its likely the people with issues would be posting about it and those with great results wouldn't.
If you do consider laser surgery, I'd suggest researching options since new techniques appear all the time, like SMILE and various variations on lasik dealing with wavefront analysis and corneal topography. The best option will depend on the details of your eyes. Some surgeons just stick with what the laser they invested lots of money in will provide without the need to upgrade, so it may be good to get more than one opinion as well as researching on the net.
In my case I just wore contacts up until I had early cataracts and surgery for that got rid of the need for distance correction (since it replaced the natural lenses with artificial lenses selected to give good distance vision, though issues with near vision with the current lens technology mean lens replacement isn't yet a good option for younger people who still have good enough near vision and haven't hit presbyopia yet).
I have heard about the implantable lense and nighttime lenses, but I was told, they would wear off late afternoon if I put them early on the morning.
I just want to be able to have comfortable eyes and see again in contacts. I have an appointment tomorrow, I'll be a little more thorough with my questions....I'll see what kind of tests she can do on my eyes to see if there may be an underlying problem, or if it's just dry eyes, or the chemistry in my eyes are just changing.......with glasses on now, the irritation is getting better.....please keep the discussion going. Thanks!