What are your eyes like when you wake in the morning?

[donna]

As some of you know I am waiting to fitted with my lenses, one of the things I am wondering about is what do you do on a morning? Do you put the lens in as soon as you get up? My eyes often feel dry and sore when I wake up, could be connected to hayfever not sure.
Would putting drops in before bed help? I am also trying to drink more water and cut down considerably on the amount of tea I used to drink. I am just not sure how I would manage to get a lens in while my eyes feel like this.
One last thing, were you off work while you got used to your lens and got a good fitting one? And if so how long were you off for?
Thanks

[Matthew_]

My eyes are usually gloopy in the morning. It normally takes about 30 minutes before I can open the left eye properly because of the light sensitivity. Wild horses couldn't get lenses in my eyes at that point. Of course it would be difficult for any horse, wild or otherwise to manage a little contact lens with hooves...
I think your ideas ref cutting down on caffeine and upping water consumption is wise. I generally don't drink coffee in the afternoon so that the caffeine is out of my system by the eveing. I am yet to cut it out altogether but I enjoy it too much. Drinking lots of fluids helps enourmously. I also use hayfever drops in my eyes through the day in addition to my normal anti-histamine tablet. I also use visco-tears in eyes over night and lots of systane during the day. I suppose its a bit of a regime but it really helps. I am relatively new to lenses too and I found the winter wasn't a problem at all. But summer is a different story it seems. The visco tears really help with the soreness first thing in the morning for me but you will need to experiment a bit. I think visco-tears might not work for everyone. I still find that I won't put my lenses in until just before I leave the house, to give my eyes a chance to get ready.

[Matthew_]

About work... I didn't take any time off. I found that the main need for lenses would be driving and since I cycle to work, this wasn't an issue. I usually put the lenses in once I got to work and built up from half an hour to about 8 hours. I was lucky, it was winter and I got up to 8 hours pretty quickly, not the case for everyone. I never really got beyond 8 though because summer happened and before I knew it I was back to half an hour. Using the regime above, I am back to 8 again and next summer I will be better prepared.
Basically, if you are not off work now with your eye sight, I wouldn't think you would need to take time off unless you wanted to. I should think if your employer is half decent he/she would allow a little bit of lee way to get used to the lenses at work rather than have you off work altogether, that makes sense even from a purely output based point of view. Of course if you have leave left over and want to use it for that purpose...
I did struggle with my PC at work without the lenses but I got my employer to enhance now so I am not dependent on my lenses for office work. This allows me to allocate lens time to other outdoor work, where I need good eyesight.
Hope this helps.

[Anne B]

Hi Donna,

my eyes are always really sore and sticky in the mornings. I use Olopatadine(opatanol) drops which i think you said you had beed prescribed in another post! i find these drops excellent and belive me i have tried loads of eye drops I put these drops in as soon as i wake up and after about half a hour my eyes have settled down. I don't wear lenses so i can't really help with that.
Hope all goes well when you get your lenses

anne

[Eddie S]

Hi Donna,

I tend to leave my eyes to wake up first before putting the lenses in. In fact, I wait for my brain to switch on before I attempt anything like that!

Some of us here (I do when my eyes are espcially dry) put eye drops in when we first get up to lubricate our eyes and doing this means you often have to wait at least 15/20 minutes before you can put your lenses in. Otherwise you just get cloudy vision.

It can also depend on the contact lens solutions you use. With my old solutions (i'm on a different type now) I had to leave the lenses to disinfect overnight and then put them in a different 'neutralising' solution in the morning to get rid of the horrible bleachy stuff - forget to do that and woah you knew it! - The neutralising bit took a minimum of 20 minutes, best at 30 minutes.

I find putting my lenses in after my morning shower the best time - i'm more awake, i've had to 'use' my eyes a lot to look around by the time i'm putting them in and i've washed any crumbly bits (which you'll probably get more of because of the lenses) away.

I too have cut down on caffiene like Matthew and grudingly moved to Tea as my hot drink during the day. I love my coffee but I find days without it better.

Don't worry though - you'll get used to it and find a routine that is right for you and that fits around your life. After that it just becomes second nature and you stop worrying about it.

Have a hug!

Ed

[donna]

Matthew that made me laugh, the bit about the horses
I tried the new eye drops for the first time today and they are fab! My eyes felt better very quickly , I need to practise using drops though! It was running down my arm, all over my face and everywhere! i did finally manage to get a drop in each eye
thanks for the replys and the hug xx

[Sweet]

Donna,

Hey there! I wait until I have woken up to put lenses in and have a shower to wash my eyes. The warm water really helps!

I use Systane morning and night and wait ten minutes before I put my lenses in. I find that it really helps in making my eye more moistened.

Hoping that lenses work well for you! Love and hugs!

[GarethB]

I generally put my lenses in after I have had a shower/wash.

Soap in the yes is bad enough, but under a lens.

I also use lubricating eye drops so give those 10 - 15 minutes to work so usually up for about 30 mins before putting my lenses in.

It my employers idea that I should take time off to get used to lenses. Mainly because we did not know if I would be able to continues working in the lab so they needed time to think of alternative jobs with eqivelent responsibility for me to do.

In the end I had nearly 4 months away from work and re-landscaped the whole garden and did some minor preservation work on my car.

Since then only eye related time off was an alergic reation to my lenses or hospital visits.

[donna]

I had better make sure we dont sleep in ever! i will have to get organised now This lens lark is gonna take some getting used to! i am so glad you lot are all here!

[mike scott]

hi donna

i wont repeat anything that hasalready been said as it is all excellent advice.

i find that using lubricating eyedrops makes wearing the lens far more comfortable especially in warmer weather as heat does tend to dry the eyes out which makes the lens feel more abrasive on the cornea as you have less fluid to cushion them , so in that regard make sure you always have plenty to drink, this unfortunately might mean more frequent visits to the loo but hey , your eyes will feel more comfy

mike