What You Should Do When You Have A Problem: What To Do Right Away
 

When your contacts find you literally crying for help, here's what to do:

● Remove the lens. If you try to tough it out and leave an uncomfortable lens in your eye, it will increase the irritation and may lead to infection. If a lens feels uncomfortable, remove it.

● Rinse, clean and (maybe) reinsert. If you pop a dirty lens back in your eye, you may not get rid of the irritant, and you could end up with an infection. So make sure that you clean it with a sterile saline solution. Remember, bacteria live in 'clean' water and distilled water is not sterile water. Use commercially prepared and an approved contact lens solution or sterile saline solution.

● Make sure your lenses are in correctly. An inverted soft lens (inserted with the convex curve against your eye) will feel uncomfortable. Soft contact lenses are made to feel very comfortable on the eye. You know that you have it in wrong if your eye feels really uncomfortable. Take it out and check it.

● Right lens, right eye? If your lenses feel okay but your vision is blurry, check that the left lens is in the left eye and the right lens is in the right eye.

● If your vision is still blurry, take out your lenses. Protein deposits can film up your lenses, making it seem like you're looking through a smeary windshield. Once protein deposits settle on your lenses, cleaning won't help. You'll need a new pair. This process of accumulation may take months or years, depending on how meticulous you are, among other factors. Those who have seasonal allergies will build up deposits more quickly. It also happens to those who aren't as meticulous with their lens-cleaning.

● Look for specks. Eyelashes, bits of makeup, grit, sand and, yes, even bugs can get in your eyes, causing contact lens discomfort. To get them out, remove your lens, rinse your eye and lens with a sterile saline solution and reinsert the lens.

● Refresh with artificial tears. They'll remoisten your eye and help flush out debris that you can't see.

● If it still hurts, take it out again. If you continue to wear a lens that hurts, you might scratch your cornea, the eye's front window. Cuts and scratches are painful. And they can develop into a secondary infection, causing scarring and resulting in a very hazy window. The eye should feel comfortable without the lens, and if it doesn't, don't reinsert the lens.

● If the pain or discomfort doesn't subside within 30 minutes, make an appointment right away so that you can rule out serious conditions like corneal infections. It's a good idea to always carry a pair of glasses and your lens case for just these types of situations.