I have worn contact lenses for 16 years. (A little over half of my life!) I have always worn hard gas permeable lenses. I have had such good luck with this type of contact that in all that time I have only had three pair. The first pair I wore from the time I was 14 until I was 22. One drunken night when I was 22, I finally scratched one beyond repair and had to get new ones. The second pair I wore from the time I was 22 until last year. Last fall I decided I needed a new pair because my eyesight had changed enough that I was no longer seeing well. So, last November I went to my first German eye doctor and got a new pair of glasses and a new pair of contacts.
I was afraid that the contact lens people would try to convert me to disposable soft lenses, which I had absolutely no desire to try. Therefore, when I got fitted for my contacts I told them that I wanted to stick with gas permeable lenses because I had had such good luck with them in the past. They agreed with me. In fact, they told me that if you have always worn hard lenses it is better to stick with them.
With my hard lenses, I have also always used one type of care system (X) and have always had very good luck with it. At first I was worried that they wouldn't carry it in here Germany, but I had good fortune and didn't have any problem finding it. My lenses were comfortable, I could see very clearly, and my eyes didn't dry out. However, when I got my new lenses here in Germany the people told me that care system X was evil.
So, in addition to these new lenses, they gave me a different care system (Z). Since we have private insurance, my insurance not only paid for most of my lens costs, but when I got a prescription for the care system, they paid for it too. The eye doctor gave me a prescription and I got a year's supply (12 bottles) of care system Z.
For about 6 months I went about my business with my new contacts and discovered two things about care system Z: First, even though I had supposedly received a year's supply of it, it was obvious it wouldn't last for the entire year. Second, I noticed that with care system Z my eyes were dry and irritated much more frequently than they had ever been.
After considering the situation, I decided that I should go back to care system X. Sure the contact lens people had told me it was evil, but it was made by a different company than care system Z. Since they gave me no explanation of why care system X was evil, I figured this meant that care system X was evil because it was made by company X and that the contact lens people had a deal with company Z for care system Z. I decided that since I had never had any problems with care system X in the past I would just continue to use it. So about two or three months ago, I bought some of care system X and had been using it part of the time. When I used it I noticed my eyes weren't so dry anymore and wearing my lenses was comfortable again.
Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed that my left lens seemed foggy. At first I thought I hadn't cleaned it very well, so I enzymed it and it seemed a little better. However, the fog came back. At this point I ran out of care system X, so I used care system Z again and things improved, except my eyes were constantly red and dry.
Today I went over to my local Optiker (which is not the same as the eye doctor and not the place where I got my contacts) and found out what the problem was. Unbeknownst to me, there are actually two types of gas permeable lenses: those with some sort of coating and those without. In the US, the ones without the coating are the most common and care system X is highly recommended for them. In Germany, however, the most common lenses are the ones with coating and care system X is not recommended for them. (Yes, it is evil!) Coincidentally, my new contacts were the kind with coating. By using care system X with my new lenses, I had, in effect, removed the coating. Without the coating, the lenses were not only irritating my eyes and drying them out, but were more or less ruined. Luckily, since I hadn't been using care system X on them for too long, some of the coating is still there, but now I am afraid that if I wear them they may scratch my cornea or cause some other damage.
Hard gas permeable contact lenses are not cheap and my insurance only pays for a new pair every two or three years, so not only do I need to get a new pair of contacts or wear my glasses (oh the horror!), I have to pay for them myself.
Boy, do I need that job right about now!
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