This has happened the last 3 rides I’ve been on, including 15 miles into the Honu.
I’ve worn contacts for 15 years, ridden bikes for 4 years and for some reason my right contact keeps falling out.
I’ve recently started taking a whole slew of meds for alergies (this is the first year I’ve had to deal with seasonal allergies). I’m on allegra and flonase every day and now taking Zantac for 10 days due to a severeb allergic reaction to Mango sap/oil/pollen.
Anyone else had a problem like this? Is it time for LASIK?
Are you taking a decongestant? They dehydrate the sinuses and the eyes. Many antihistimines do so as well. My guess is that your lenses are drying out. Sunglasses and drops should help. Use the drops before riding and see if that helps. Also, as stated above, different contacts have different properties.
I had Lasik. I wore contacts for 18 years. My presciption was in the -8.5/9.0 area. It took a year for me to fully appreciate Lasik. For me, it worked great. I no longer have to wear glasses in alleregy season, can play water polo, caan get up in the middle of the night to pee w/out glasses, etc. I did have side effects during the first year - mostly at night.
I went to a cornea specialist - the Dr. they would send you to if your first Dr. made a mistake. He explained that the more correction you need the more side effects you will experience. Over time the side effects physically diminish and you also learn to simply ignore them.
(Odd question -what is your profession? My Dr. said that his least satisfied patients were engineers because they expected perfection.)
So, I had a good result but I think its too much of a big decision to tell others to go through with it.
Also, go to your eye doctor and get checked for keratoconus. This is irregularities or thinning of the cornia. One in 2000 get this via genetics and there are others affected because of eye injuries or, in the case of my wife, hard contacts.
Man, I would have given the opposite response. My contacts come out/fold up/ give me problems on the bike when I am sweating profusely. My eyes are too lubricated and one wipe of my eyes to get the sweat off and the contact is ready to pop out.
Swimming is the opposite, because of the chemicals in the pool, my contacts are so stuck to my eyes, there is no way they would come out.
When my contacts are dry, they aren’t coming out, they are stuck to my eyeball. Like I said, sweat in my eyes is my biggest issue, and I am not going to stop riding so I don’t sweat
I used to have horrible problems with my contacts slipping out on the run. Mentioned it to the doc and she recommended that I switch to Accuvue 2s. I did and haven’t had the problem since.
Dang, that would suck. In 25 years of wearing contact lenses I have never had one fall out. Hope you figure it out. You should inquire if your lenses are different somehow. Sometimes the same brand/model will change their production methods, resulting a lens with different properties. Would at least explain why, but not necessarily how to fix.
The drugs will cause your eyes to change, either become dry, or over-lubed, or even change in shape. So your contacts may not fit as well anymore. If you think you will be on these meds for a while, go get your eyes checked.
I talked to an optometrist today, who said I should wait to see what happens when I’m done taking the Zantac (which for me is being used as an anti-histamene) and to use eye drops until then (3 more days). If it doesn’t help they will switch contacts for me.
I am looking into PRK…anyone know the downtime for this? I figure I’ll plan on it for this winter after IM Florida. I’m not a good candidate for Lasik or I would have had it done a few years ago.
Just some thoughts and guesses without examining your eyes:
If you are developing allergies little bumps (follicles) can form on the inner surface of your eyelids. These can “grab” the CL and pull it of the cornea when you blink.
The meds could be drying your eyes out and causing the CL to become more “sticky” or the extra tear volume that you are producing in response to the dryness could be causing the CL to “float around” on the extra fluid. CL then goes off the cornea (decenters) and you blink it out.
CL may be the culprit but not likely. Changing the CL without changing the underlying cause is likely to be of limited benefit.
You might try to use some artificial tears prior to riding and rinsing your eyes out occasionally with cool water (not while riding please) when you are exposed to the allergens to limit their exposure to your eyes.
Give it a shot and I hope it works. Consider wavefront-guided PRK if you are not a LASIK candidate (even if you were) for a more permanent solution. Remember that I haven’t examined your eyes so take these thoughts with a grain or two of salt.
