Did I lose my ability to wear glasses

[nicnacbeauty]

I have been pretty much wearing contacts exclusively for two years. At the beginning of the year I went to the doctor and got a pair of glasses to rest my eyes. When I put them on a began to feel dizzy & nauseous, almost like seasickness. I thought I should give it time and tried to wear them for a day. I thought maybe the prescription was too strong and went back to my contacts. I recently went to another eye doctor and got another pair of glasses (different prescription) and the same thing happened. I called the doctor and the optical assistant told me sometimes people are unable to gl back to glasses after contact overuse. Is this the case or is there anything I can do.

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

Unfortunately, you are providing too little information.  I need to know the contact lens prescription, the glasses prescription, were the contact lens, hard, soft, toric, etc.

I have never had a patient who could not go back to glasses after contact lens use.  There are a lot of factors.  You need to discuss this with the doctor.

Dr. O.

[nicnacbeauty]

I'm sorry. It was my first post. My contact lens rx is 6.00 in my left eye & 5.50 in my right eye and although I have an astigmatism, I have not been wearing the toric contacts because I go through contacts fast and they are expensive. I have been wearing soft lenses forever. I will have to find my eyeglasses rx but I definitely cannot see anything without my contacts or eyeglasses. I tried out a pair of eyeglasses last night and I was so nauseous I had to lay down.  I am going to call another doctor today.

[JodieJ]

I'm not an eye care professional, but I know from personal experience that contact lens wear can cause corneal changes (i.e., edema, warping) which make glasses difficult (impossible?) to wear.  The only solution that I'm aware of is to not wear contacts for a period of time (could be weeks or even months).  Your glasses prescription will probably change during this time.  When your corneas have stabilized, you can start wearing contacts again.  You should probably see a corneal specialist.

[nicnacbeauty]

I think you may be right. I am going to try and wear the glasses for at least a week. Do you know any OTC medication I can take to help with the nausea?

Thanks

[JodieJ]

I don't think you should proceed on your own.  It would be much better to be under the care of a corneal specialist, who could assess the changing state of your corneas and make adjustments to your glasses prescription.  (Possibly you could wear a different type/brand of contacts part-time.  And a different glasses prescription might work better.)  Attempting to wear glasses which make you nauseous on a full-time basis just isn't a good plan.  (In your place, I'd be back in my old contacts after less than a day of this.)