Contacts: Who's wearing them under their goggles and who isn't?
At my last eye exam, my dr. sternly lectured me about the evils of swimming with contacts. When your goggles leak, which seems inevitable, the chlorine seeps in the lens, contaminates it and can thereby irritate your cornea.
I wore contacts my whole youth without incident, but now I notice some dry eye and redness. The problem is I don't like most prescription goggles.
What does everyone think? Anyone whacked out an eye?
Until I had Lasiks in '02, I always swam with my contacts (from age 11-26)Never had a problem, and my eye doc knew that I wasn't just a casual swimmer. My eyes tend to be dry anyway, so I always kept some saline solution around to drop into my eyes.
I wear daily disposable lenses, and when I swim at lunch, I swim with them in. Sometimes it works and my eyes feel fine, other times, I have to ditch them because the chlorine has gotten to them. I have a tear duct that is man-made(had surgery in my 20's to repair it), and it does not have a one way valve that natural tear ducts have, so water goes both ways, so very hard to keep it out of the goggles.
I know a lot of kids wear contacts when they swim.
I always wear my 2 week disposable contacts. With out them EVERYTHING is blurry. If one of them moves around my eye at least I can still make out the other swimmers. I swam backstroke a few times and didnt put my goggles on and it really stings when you get the chlorine in there. I havent had any major problems though, just really dry eyes.. I usually carry visine for contacts and drop em in right after I get out of the pool. Maybe check with a lifeguard or someone on the pool staff to see how much chlorine is in the water? Sometimes it seems like theres too much, just a thought.
I have never tried wearing my contacts. I think it's because my eyes are sooo bad that when I wear my goggles there is such an improvement I'm a happy camper.
I've worn my contacts while swimming for as long as I can remember. I've also gotten the lecture...surgery, prescription goggles, etc.
Once in a while I have a major issue and will even lose a lens, but after having to drive home with just 1 eye, I've since kept a set of old lenses in my swim bag (they are about a year old, the prescription isn't too far off, better than nothing).
I replace my lenses every month. Other than the occasional lens disappearing, I haven't had any issues with this.
Thanks for all the input guys. I wish I could wear daily lens -- too blind; they don't make them in my prescription. I think my tough bout of dry eye may have been triggered by wearing them longer than the specified 2 weeks. I'm very careful now. Even though my dr warned me not to, I'm back to wearing my favorite goggles. I just don't like the prescription goggles I've tried and going without them is unacceptable (-7.5 correction)
To BillS: I too had a post-goggle flooding incident that caused me to meekly crawl out of the pool. The referee thought maybe I had decided not to swim the event. I told him that after I dove in and swam about 15 yards in the flooded state, I realized that if I didn't stop I would lose my lens and not be able to drove home! Thank god I was in Lane 1.
i started wearing contacts at age 12, and have worn them to swim since then (so for almost 14 years). i originally started with just normal non-disposable ones, but once my eye doc found out i was swimming with them, he immediately switched me to monthly disposables. and gave me a lecture to never wear them longer than 1 month. which i try to do. and luckily i've not had and serious eye issues, usually just dry/itchy, but that's from my seasonal allergies...
i also swim with some people that wear contacts *only* when they're swimming...
I've been wearing the daily disposables. I only wear them while swimming (I don't think they make trifocal contacts). I will wear them for 3-4 workouts and rinse and store them in fresh solution between uses. My eyedoc recommended this after discussing several different alternatives. Ideally, lasik would be the best solution, but it's not for everyone and I would still need glasses to see up close.
I always swim with my contacts in. My eye doc never lectured me - but advised me to get disposables that way if one fell out I would have a back up set. Your eyes are bound to burn or get redness in them if chlorine touches them, with or without contacts in.
I wear my contacts with my goggles all the time. I never really have problems with water getting in so it just works for me. I did take the time to try about 20-30 different types of goggles before I found the ones that work for me. They happen to be TUSA Snipers. They're the best goggles I've ever used (been swimming for about 28 years). I had single pairs last up to a year.
