rob79

I know this is long, but trust me, it's worth reading if you make a habit out of sleeping with extended wear contacts in...

I started wearing contacts when I was 12 (for sports), full time when I was probably about 16. I wore them everyday, from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed, until I was about 25. During that time, I'd only experienced a couple of minor eye infections (which were entirely my fault, basically not taking care of my lenses properly once in a while, or wearing the 1 month disposables for 2-3 months when I was a poor student). At 25, I switched to "extended wear" contacts. I still took them out almost every night, but I loved the fact that I could leave them in when I was camping or ended up staying over at someone house for the night unplanned (ie. without the case/solution). To sum it up, after wearing them for a week straight once (they say you can wear them for up to 30 days, so that's not pushing some kind of limit) on a camping trip, I came down with SEVERE bacterial conjunctivitis. It's totally gross, and embarrassing, but I'll share what that's like as a warning to you and others.

Basically, it's like thick phlegm/snot that builds up in the corners of your eyes (tear ducts), but mine was so bad that I could literally peel it off the edges of my eye lids (where girls wear eyeliner) in big long strands. Here is a picture in case I didn't adequately convey that (WARNING: DO NOT LOOK AT THAT IF YOU ARE EATING OR EVEN SLIGHTLY SQUEAMISH ABOUT THAT KIND OF THING). Of course I immediately went to see my eye doctor, and he gave my some antibiotics, and drops, but it still took like a week to clear up. During that week, I couldn't wear my contacts at all, and my eyes felt like they were full of sand all the time. There were a couple of mornings where it was so bad, I couldn't open my eyes because they were "glued" shut, and I'd have to put a warm damp face cloth over both eyes to "loosen" the discharge before I could open them up. Totally disgusting, totally painful, totally embarrassing in every way imaginable. Anyway, after it cleared up, I threw in a fresh pair of contacts and after 2-3 hours my eyes were burning so bad I couldn't keep them in any longer and threw them away. I haven't been able to wear contacts since (I've tried multiple types/brands). So now, at 32, I wear glasses until I can get lasik.

tl;dr: Extended wear contacts are insanely risky to wear and should be avoided at all costs whenever possible.

I'm sure you're busy answering newer questions, but I've heard that the only difference between generic/name brand is that the name brands are more expensive to account for R&D costs whereas generics only have to account for manufacturing costs (since they are using expired patents, etc). In the end they are all held to the same standards by the "powers that be". Do you know if this is true?

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