Two Good Reasons You Need to Update Your Spare Pair of Glasses
Maybe you just re-ordered another year’s worth of contact lenses but didn’t stop and think about updating those spare eyeglasses. I understand: you wear your contact lenses every day.
Perhaps you even wear extended wear lenses and the only time your glasses are even necessary are on that rare occasion when you get up at night for a drink of water. Even then, last year’s prescription allows you to see well enough to stumble into the kitchen, find the cabinet, and fill a glass.
I get it. It doesn’t “feel” like you really need a spare pair of updated eyeglasses. But, here are two reasons that struck very close to home for me as to why you might:
Reason 1: You are not immune to infections.
Then there was the day that my oldest child came home from school with pink eye. Of course, I thought it was his allergies and wiped away the gunk from his eyes thirty times before realizing that I was touching conjunctivitis. Needless to say, the next morning I too woke up with his “allergies” and my eyes were nasty looking for a solid five days. Even though I was able to start on eye drops to clear them up right away, the doctor told me I had to wait until all signs of redness and infection were completely gone for 24 hours before I could wear my contacts again. In other words, I had a full day that I was free to work and carry-on as usual yet I could not wear my contacts. So, what did I do? I wore my outdated frame and my old prescription. It was a very bad day. Driving was hard, working was hard…And, I felt self-conscious all day because of how my frames looked.
In other words, you can’t be sure you will never need eyeglasses. So, be prepared!
Reason 2: Eyes like to breathe.
Chances are you can wear your contact lenses all the time and be just fine. But, my optometrist likes to talk to me about something called “letting my eyes breathe.” What he means by that is taking a day off –even from my extended wear contact lenses– to give my eyes a rest from the lenses. If you’ve never tried it, it’s great for your eye health. You don’t have to go without lenses for a long period of time, but just giving them a break for a day or even taking them out after work and letting your eyes have a long overnight rest can feel refreshing. You’ll need a spare pair of eyeglasses in your current prescription (that you aren’t embarrassed to wear) in order to ever make this happen!
