Contact lenses v. glasses

[julianeb]

Hi, I'm not sure this is the right place for the question but I haven't seen it upon looking around...

I wear gas permeable "hard" contact lenses (not disposable). These limit my wearing time to about 18 hours a day and require cleaning and soaking overnight, and a place to put them in in the morning. The soaking fluid and cleaning fluid would probably need to be packed - it might or might not be available on the trail in one of the larger cities. I would have to take a sink stopper of some kind with me - in the event of sinks with no way to plug it so I don't lose a contact down the sink accidentally.

I'd just switch to glasses, but over the period I am out of contacts, my eyes will change shape to a certain extent and my contacts may not fit or may no longer be the correct prescription. This would not happen if I walk for a week at a time, but if I do the full camino, it's a reality. I do need my glasses at night if I take my lenses out and then want to read or something...but I can do without them if I absolutely have to. But for the walk, my uncorrected vision is 20/400 so I am legally blind without some visual aid. :shock:

I could perhaps switch to disposable contacts but carrying enough of them would add to my pack weight...that's assuming they are even made in my correction (I also have astigmatism) .

Has anyone dealt with contacts on the Camino and if so, how?

 

[Kitsambler]

Right, you are walking in civilization; this is not an extended camping trip. I walked from Le Puy to Cahors in September 2010 and from Cahors to SJPP in September 2011 with those same type of contacts, with no problems whatsoever. Take the travel size of your cleaning and soaking solutions, it will be fine. If you are planning to walk more than 6 weeks, say from Le Puy to Santiago, you might want to include another travel-size set in the resupply box you send to Poste Resante at SJPP.

There is a sink with running water in the bathroom of every lodging. Really, you should have no trouble.

 

[catherinemccoy]

I don't wear contact lenses but as soon as I saw the title of this post I thought, "there is no way I'd wear contact lenses on the Camino". Why? Because of the availability of soap. I know you're going to take your own soap too, but there were so many times during the day that I would enter washrooms and there was rarely soap. It made me wish that I had taken a little bottle of hand sanitizer. I'm sure there would be other arguments from die-hard contact lens wearers.... I guess it just depends how sterile you need your lens environment to be.

 

[mmm042]

I have contacts and desperately need them (20/900 vision without!). I had no problem traveling with them and using solution and finding clean environments. I also carry a few little packs of sanitizing wipes just in case. Oh, and I've run out of solution and found some in the pharmacy -- but only the general saline, and not the "Clear Care" uber-strong type that I need for my lens cleaning. But it was O.K. to use regular saline for a few weeks. Anyway, you should be fine.

Melanie

 

[julianeb]

Thanks for the responses! I could actually carry a small bar of soap but I have done without sanitation, and while not optimal, it's workable for short periods of time. The gas-perm lenses are sturdier than soft lenses and do not need to be rinsed with solution, but with water, so that would lighten the pack quite a bit. I am used to wearing them 18 hours a day but I can't sleep in them. And they need to be cleaned, soaked and then rinsed before putting them in again. Well, just one little detail to think about.

 

[Josefine]

I use disposble contacts, the weight is low and I always bring too many just in case I want to put fresh ones in the evening. Never had any problems in 3 Caminos.
Josefine

 

[FatmaG]

I am a "gas permeable contact lenses wearer" as well...
And my fears on my caminos were more due to the "flying dust" as it is - you know what I mean - really painful to get little particles into the eye which scrub between the eye and the lense.

So, I decided for soft lenses (monthly use, not daily) for astigmatic - adapted to my eye.
Beside the soaking fluid for soft ones are easier to find - even in smaller quantities.
No problems with particles annoying you.
These are the advantages.

The inconvenient : Despite specially adapted soft lenses, my vision is not as good as with my usual lenses, and this annoyed me a lot. Yes, your eyes adapt quite quickly to the new situation, but my view was often still a bit blurred...

But theoretically, finding soft lenses which correct your view as good as hard ones, this would be the perfect solution...

Have a "buen camino" and a good 2012

 

[renegadepilgrim]

The only issue I had with contacts was running out of solution a few days before the end of my Camino and paying almost TWICE what I normally do for small bottle of solution.

I wear soft contacts that you replace monthly, but take out nightly. Worked like a charm and I even had a few extra pairs just in case. Weight and space was minimal.

 

[WanderingChristian]

I personally don't wear contact lenses, I prefer glasses. There's something about deliberately sticking something in my eye on a daily basis that doesn't sit well. Plus, I have a habit of misplacing things. My eyesight is okay without my glasses, but I wouldn't want to go for too long without wearing them. The main issue that I can see (pun intended ) would be what happens if someone were to knock over the little case that contacts set in overnight. At least glasses are relatively easy to locate if they fall on the ground. I'm planning on taking my regular glasses, prescription shades, backups of both, keepers, repair kit and a copy of my glasses script. Thankfully eyeglasses are so much lighter nowadays compared to my first pair (which were actually glass if memory serves me). I know carrying backup pairs plus a maintenance kit seems like extra weight, but I'd rather that than waiting in an unknown city while a new set are made. The last time I checked, glasses made in an hour is something uniquely American (they don't tell you the hour is for the most common glasses).

Buen Camino and De Colores!
8) WanderingChristian :arrow:

 

[breakintheclouds]

I once read a travelogue called Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Richard and Nicholas Crane. They cycled to a distant point over the Himalayas and, at the start of the book, describe the incredible, minutely obsessive weight-saving techniques they went through to shed every last gramme from their luggage (anybody who wants to travel lightweight should scan this book just to see how far you can go if you're keen enough to save weight - almost everything they carried had holes drilled in it).

Anyway, their solution to vision was to take hard contact lenses and sterilize them simply by sucking them for a minute each morning. It certainly meant no carrying lens fluid and apparently sterilized them sufficiently, as saliva is fairly antiseptic.

My own, slightly less obsessive, weight-saving tip from hiking and camping with contact lenses is to use the mirror on my compass for putting my lenses in and out. I carry a compass anyway, and prefer the type with a mirror, so when I realized this meant I didn't need to pack an extra little mirror for my lenses that was a happy day indeed. A mirror sighting compass like this, which is the one I carry, is fully featured and weighs only 23g http://silva.se/products/outdoor/ranger-sl

 

[FatmaG]

Not bad, the mirror-compass-tip... Thanks!

About the saliva and hard lenses, yes it works - I always tested this when my product was not on reach. But for a whole month, I would be reluctant personally... some product cleaner might be usefull from time to time.

But I will definitely have a look at this book.