Blink. Blink. Blinkblinkblink.
I'm trying out a new kind of extended-
wear contact lenses. The annoying thing about contact lenses isn't so much wearing
them, it's putting them in and taking them out, especially when, like me, you're
generally in a tearing hurry to get out in the morning and to get into bed at
night. So lenses you only have to change out once a week are kind of the Holy
Grail for contact-wearers: no surgery, no nightly and mdaily cleaning, and you can
see all the time -- but this applies if and ONLY if they're comfortable all week.
I tend to assume that extended-wear lenses are bad for the eyes, since that's what
every optometrist I'd seen for years had told me, but things seem to have changed.
The last eye doctor I went to did have me try some extended-wear lenses, but he
pushed them so hard I figured he was getting a kickback from the manufacturer. I
tried that kind, but didn't find them as comfortable as my usual Accuvues. This
doctor didn't mention these new lenses until I asked a relevant question, and it's
been a couple of years so I figured I'd try these. They're supposedly much better
for the eyes because they let enormously more oxygen get to the cornea than older
types.
This doctor was careful to warn me that some people just
couldn't wear or didn't like these lenses. He examined me after I'd worn them a
little while and told me one problem might be that apparently I don't blink fully
-- my eyelids don't quite touch on each blink. Have you ever tried to change the
way you blink? I mean, every time? So now I am trying to achieve a "full blink"
(his words) without looking like some kind of raving blinky freak.