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by lisper 1685 days ago
This. I have an extremely strong blink reflex which I cannot overcome. The one time they tried to put contact lenses in my eye it took them 15 minutes to get them in and another half an hour to get them back out. It was one of the most stressful experiences I have ever had. It was over 30 years ago and it still makes me shudder to think about it. There is no way that I can possibly rational-ize my way out of that stress and convince myself that injections or surgery would not be ten times worse.
1 comments

Blink reflex doesn’t really matter. If it’s anything like my Lasik surgery, they insert devices (like Clockwork orange) to make it impossible to blink — who wouldn’t have the urge to blink when something is approaching their eye? It’s an involuntary reflex for self preservation. They also put a ring in my eye that made it impossible for me to move my eye whatsoever regardless of my urge to look away.
Yeah, I get that. The issue is not that it wouldn't work, the issue is that I think it would be more traumatic for me then a normal person, and I base that assessment on the fact that putting contacts in is more traumatic for me than a normal person (like "extremely traumatic" vs "something so non-traumatic that they voluntarily do it to themselves on a regular basis").
I wore contact lenses for 10 years, before getting lasik.

The first time, it took 30 minutes to get them in.

For the first few months, I really struggled. Eventually it got easier, and in a short time I could put them in first time, every time

We're taught from a young age to not put things in our eyes, and it does take time to overcome that. The thought of it might be extremely traumatic now, but if you did it every day, you'd find that disappearing quickly.

> We're taught from a young age to not put things in our eyes, and it does take time to overcome that.

I don't think we're really "taught" this, but is jut part of our innate programming. I never taught my cat anything, and I'm fairly sure if I were to put anything in her eye she would be less than happy about that, even if it doesn't hurt her.

I certainly never recall my mother telling me off for putting things in my eyes.

Thanks, but I've been wearing glasses for 45 years now. I've made my peace with the fact that the contacts thing ain't gonna happen for me.