I’ve worn contacts for the better half of my life and only recently discovered that the disposable contact packs can be clipped back to back for easy access to a right and left lens each time! I may be a bit overly excited about this but this was a wonderful discovery for me as I have two different prescriptions and more importantly, when I used to pack these contacts when I traveled, they were constantly getting punctured and leaking! The cover on the contact case is apparently made of some type of foil which makes it easy to puncture with a sharp object. Ironically, they were getting punctured by my other strips of contact packs. Puncture no more as I have now figured out the solution to what those funny looking edges are on the back of the contact packs! You put the packs back to back and voila, you have a complete set of 5 contacts for both eyes!
I SEE how that works now! Get it? I SEE?
A few friends and I went on a trip recently and realized what a nuisance it was traveling with contacts. If you suffer from vision impairment like most people I know, traveling can be a bit burdensome. Here is a list of paraphernalia that must be packed:
1. Glasses & glasses case (even if you wear contacts, these are the back up to the contacts)
2. Daily contacts (if you wear dailies, you need to remember to pack enough for each day you are gone and maybe a few extras for “just in case” moments).
3. Non-daily contacts or hard contacts (you’ll need to bring your solution, and for some types of contacts this requires multiple bottles of solutions, and don’t forget the case! I have found it easier to purchase everything in travel sizes and leave it in my travel toiletry case. There have been times where I forgot something and the sundry shop at the hotel can charge
whatever they please for desperate patrons!
4. Eye drops, because we know those long nights can cause your eyes to become so dry you want to rip them out
I also have the whole contacts/glasses wearing during flights down. I always wear glasses during a flight. Because the air gets so dry that I can barely open my eyelids AND if you plan to snooze a little on a long flight, wearing your contacts while you sleep is a huge no-no! Rather than deal with removing the lenses while on flight, I just keep my glasses on and put on my contacts right before we’re about to land.
Sometimes I take a late midnight flight and I’ll remove my contacts right before we board and switch to glasses during the flight, that way I can see and make my way to the correct gate.
For short flights, less than 5 hours, I may leave my contacts on but will have to have eye drops with me in case it gets super dry.
Having said all this I was pretty envious of my friend who recently had the LASIK procedure (laser vision correction for your eyes) and didn’t have to give a second thought to all the preparation required for us vision impaired folks whilst traveling. They were able to get up and go! Even when we didn’t various excursions, like swimming in the ocean, they didn’t have to think twice about their contacts or glasses. After a long night out, they didn’t have to worry about taking out their contacts, cleaning them and setting them in their solution for the night before going to bed – they just came back to the hotel room and crashed.
Envy.
In my most recent experience, the water source became a questionable substance. With hard contacts you rinse your contacts with regular tap water, but what if you were traveling through third world countries and the water was well… questionable??
All in all, after these past few trips I think I’ll give LASIK a go! But before I do, I’ll have to do my due diligence in researching this procedure and selecting the right center and doctor to perform surgery on my eyes!
Stay tuned…
