Life can be, well, difficult for us contact lens wearers. Case in point: The time I waddled into the Mamamia morning editorial meeting, extremely flustered and half-blind.
I’d been doing my makeup, and while I was curling my eyelashes, my left contact lens popped out. Despite a very thorough search, it was nowhere to be found. I spent the next 45 minutes deciding whether it was feasible to work the next seven hours with a makeshift eye patch. It was not, and I had to explain to my manager that I needed to leave and work from home that day because I couldn’t see.
Team Mamamia confess… the things we do when we’re home alone:
A month later, that rogue contact could very well still be somewhere on my desk, along with my diminished professional competence.
Those little rubber lenses, while optically revolutionary, come with their unexpected challenges that people with perfect vision simply won’t understand.
We spoke to women about their own specific contact lens struggles. From getting contacts stuck behind your eye, to the unfortunate moments where they just… pop out, these are the very real problems we contact lens-wearers face.
- “When they pop out randomly on your cheek and you have to use your own spit to re-lubricate and put it back in… gritty!” Donna
- “I had my contacts in for sport and one of my eyes was really irritated and itchy. When I rubbed it, half of one contact came out torn and I couldn’t find the other so I had to play with half vision. The other piece only came out the next day.” Bea
- “When your lens goes around the back of your eyeball and you have to try to manoeuvre it out.” Angela
- “Having one tear and disappear behind your eyeball and having no one around me understand how FRIGGING annoying it is. I was rubbing it all day, trying to get it out.” Lucy
- “Today I was in the middle of teaching a ballet class and my contact flipped around to the back of my eyelid! I had to hold a wink for a good five minutes before I could duck to the bathroom to rectify the situation.” Kaitlin
- “Getting water behind them in the shower while you’re trying to shave or wash your hair. Also when they dislodge while you’re rubbing your eyes and they then end up hiding somewhere behind your eyelid…” Alice
- “My nails can’t be too long or I can’t actually get the contact out without gouging my own eyes out.” Rachael
- “When you do your makeup before remembering to put them in. Next minute – panda eyes, streaks in foundation and mascara stinging.” Evangeline
- “When you have to take them out at the end of a big night and you drunkenly poke yourself in the eye so many times you end up with a puffy red eye.” Caitlyn
- “Having to squint and work out if it’s blurry because you’re drunk or blurry because it’s out.” Rachael
- “When you drunkenly try and take one out for 10 mins before realising it’s already out.” Keren
- “When you turn 40 and your short sighted vision starts to go the other way so the optometrist suggests reading glasses over the top of your contact lenses … double the trouble.” Marie
- “One time I fell asleep with them in and woke up thinking it was a miracle because I could now see.” Fleur
- “I took mine out once and popped them in a glass of water as I forgot my lens case and fluid. Unfortunately my boyfriend at the time drank them and I was basically blind the rest of the weekend away (my prescription was minus 9). Lucky I wasn’t driving!” Amanda
- “Thinking you’re wearing the daily disposable ones and throwing them away at the end of the day only to remember too they were a fresh pair of fortnightlies…” Emily
Are you a fellow contact lens wearer who can relate? Tell us your worst experience in a comment below.
Top Comments
My vision is very good so I've never worn contacts...but this only strengthens my resolve to just stick to glasses, should I ever need them! Even the idea of putting contacts in makes me cringe a bit but these stories were so much worse.
I felt very much the same back when my vision was perfect.
I would love to stick to glasses everyday, but they just aren't practical. Try going for a run or being in any kind of rain, it's so annoying.
Many down sides, like you can’t just buy cute sunglasses from anywhere you want, you have to pay for pricey prescription ones. And the weird thing about contacts, I have such a huge eyeball phobia, they gross me out completely and I can’t watch someone else putting them in - but I had no trouble doing it myself! Seriously thinking about getting contacts again now.
I persisted with contact lens due to practical and vanity reasons. And I’ve had many of the disasters happen on this list. Admittedly these things tended to happen when I first started wearing them and was getting used to them. I rarely have these problems nowadays.
PS Not a fan of the super thin daily ones that tear and get lost easily. I use the monthly wear ones but take them out and clean them nightly.
I can definitely understand that. I'm just not sure I could get over the cringe in order to try them out. We'll see what happens if I ever do need a prescription, I guess!
“When they pop out randomly on your cheek and you have to use your own spit to re-lubricate and put it back in…”
HELL NO!! There are a lot of bacteria in saliva. Instead grab yourself some lubricating eye drops for contact lens wearers to avoid a nasty eye infection.