one contact. my son had a cornea ulcer that was really bad, back in june

[seabeyond]

he has not been allowed to wear contacts since. it is healing, but as of yesterday, the scar is there and doctor wants 6 more months without contacts so the scar can heal some more. my son is..... devastated. vanity of course, he is 13. but also because of sports. the sports goggles we have don't fit well under the helmet. we were brainstorming and my oldest came up with wearing just one, in the eye that was not hurt. he tried it yesterday and said it is fine as long as he does not think about it.

his eyes are -4.75

i really don't know anything about eye issue and gonna do research.

my husband was given a really weak contact for one eye and one that fit his requirement -3.25, in his dominant eye so he could see distance, yet read, also.

i thought it a clever idea for the time he was playing football and baseball. he is doing both this fall. but, i am curious about going thru his day with just one contact. when he comes home he has to pull it out and put on his glasses. but his day goes from 7am to 5pm.

so, has anyone had experiences with this?

[dkf]

1. Don't they do something like that with LASIK?

I'm pretty sure my boss has one eye corrected for distance and one for reading.

[Aerows]

2. I've worn contacts for an eternity

My eyes are WAY worse than your son's - mine are a -7.5. I've managed before with just one, but his depth perception is going to be a little off. They frequently prescribe two different strengths per eye, so what would be the difference here?

[City Lights]

3. My daughter wore one lens when she had conjunctivitis.

I think she went about a week or so wearing just one, and she managed fine. One eye is -5.75; the other -6.00. Not sure which eye was infected. I think it's a great idea as long as your son can see well enough to hit/catch a ball. Not sure how he'll fare doing it for six months though, but IMO, it's worth a shot. Good luck!

[Fumesucker]

4. I've been like that all my life..

Rather nearsighted in one eye and slightly farsighted in the other.

A moderate loss in depth perception is really the worst part of it, I can drive or ride a motorcycle fine without my glasses, even pass the eye test for a drivers license.

If your son has already adjusted to it, I don't think there will be any problem.

[obxhead]

5. I've done that with eye infections.

The problem is loss of some depth perception. I've done it due to infections and not having backup glasses or because I lost a contact at the beach or something. It's not a huge deal, but it's not ideal either. It leads to headaches especially when reading. After a week you have a natural squint developing in the eye without the contact. I can't imagine what 6 months would do.

Is the eye he can still wear the contact in his dominant eye? If so the impact is lessened. If not, it just takes a bit longer to adjust to etc.

Now, you might want to discuss this with his doctor. At that age his eyes are still developing and it could cause a worsening of his vision in the eye without a contact. One of the reasons I got contacts was to help stabilize my vision. I remember the vanity at that age, but he'll really regret a further degradation of vision later in life because of a few four eyes jokes or discomfort during sports.

fwiw my eyes are in the -6.75 range. At that age I was in the -5 range. Got an eye infection at 28 when I actually had backup glasses and never put the contacts in again.

[hlthe2b]

6. It is called monovision and is not an uncommon approach...

used most commonly to accommodate the loss in close vision that naturally occurs with age (under-correcting one eye for distance in order to preserve close vision as long as possible). Thus one has one eye corrected to 20/20 for distance and the other slightly under-corrected. One gets used to using the fully corrected eye for distance.

Yes, the same approach is sometimes done with contact lenses as well as with Lasik surgery. Is it a solution for your son? Best ask the ophthalmologist. He may have trouble adjusting since with sports one really needs distance vision. Some people just can't adjust and have headaches.

Normally corneas heal pretty quickly, so if there is still residual scarring there may be other concerns. I would strongly suggest talking to the eye doctor in detail. That bad a corneal abrasion was certainly very common with the old hard contacts of my youth, but with today's better technology, there may be other factors at play.

Good luck.

[LiberalLoner]

7. Yes, I used to wear contacts and back then if you lost one, you waited a week for

a replacement to come in (I was -7.25 so mine had to be ordered.) For me, my depth perception was off when I was wearing one contact only. I wouldn't have felt comfortable driving and if I had played sports I probably wouldn't have been as good at catching the ball.

Some people report headaches with wearing only one contact. I didn't have headaches, but I have heard of some people getting them. That's all I know, basically. Hope his corneal ulcer heals completely! I had one of those back when I used to wear hard contact lenses as a teen. Left a scar for a couple of years actually.

[Dappleganger]

8. Never a problem here...

I have worn one quite often. I have bifocal contact lenses where each side is completely different from the other. Takes a little bit to get used to but not long.

[Staph]

9. I have the monovision contacts that several have mentioned.

One thing they have not mentioned that may be of importance to a teenager -- you can't watch a 3D movie with one contact. That is, your brain can't process the 3D images properly if you can only focus on the screen with one eye. If he and his friends want to go to a 3D movie, he'll have to wear the dreaded glasses!

[racaulk]

10. I had a corneal ulcer once, in the last couple of years or so.

It seems that mine was not nearly as bad as your son's and my nearsightedness isn't as bad as his (the magnifications for my lenses are -3.25 and -3.75). I was prescribed a couple of different eye drops from my optometrist, and after taking those daily, the ulcer healed in about three weeks.

Based on what you say in your OP, it appears that I may have gotten off easy. But I do know this -- corneal ulcers HURT!!! x(

I hope your son's eye heals quickly and that he's able to play his sports again soon. Good vibes.

:pals:

[seabeyond]

11. it was scary bad....

late saturday night, was red and complaining of pain. woke us up twice during night and then when sun hit at 6 we were all up. called doctor sunday morning and he had us putting int he drops we needed (had them at home, luckily) on the hour. went to doctor on monday and had the drop hourly, thru night and a cream ten minutes after drop.

it was a ... can blind you... corneal ulcer.

all new to me

just thankful we called doctor sunday. you know how you dont like to bother people, .... so we were lucky in that.

[seabeyond]

12. thanks all... appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge.

hubby knows the doctor, adn will call to make sure it is ok, but thanks....