My eyes aren't good

Eek.  You know how when you order your contacts and they say '2 week contacts' and you think to yourself psh... you must be crazy if you think I'm only wearing these for 2 weeks - they were expensive as hell!!  How will they ever know?  Well... they know...

I have astigmatism in both of my eyes and TERRIBLE vision - I'm saying like negatives it's so bad.  It's hard for me to go without my contacts because my glasses have the outer edges where they aren't covered with the lens so it's weird for me.  My contacts run about $400-500 every 6 months -- yes that's right.  Ridiculous.  It is cheaper for me to go without using the insurance and go via 1800-contacts without insurance.  Nutso.

So I've always used m contacts for double the time... and lately I feel like it may be even longer.  When they hurt - I take them out.  I know I know - it's terrible.  But honestly - it's like the last thing I want to spend my money on... until 2 Fridays ago.

I went to my eye Dr for annual exam - I at least keep up with that.  I have this fear of something being wrong with my eyes because they are so bad and they are stretched so tight from the astigmatism I'm petrified of scratches or something that forces me into wearing my glasses for months (or years).  It was a new Dr. and he was awesome.  Young, great, easy to talk to - it was a good experience.  The last thing I asked him before he did his final test was... can you really tell how frequently I change my contacts?  His response... let's see.

He does his last test and says - let's take a picture of this.  And then he shows me the damage I have done to my eyes.  And taught me soooo much about my eyes and contacts.

Here's what I learned and this is why I have no vowed to wear my glasses more, contacts less, and change every 2 weeks no matter what.  Remember - this is what I got out of our convo - I'm by no means a Dr. so if this isn't all true just go with me - it convinced me and that's all I needed know

• contacts have little holes in them that allow air in because your eyes need air 
• after 2 weeks (on my lenses, some are longer some shorter) the holes are covered
• your eyes still need air and they are pretty much gasping for air so the blood vessels in the back of your eyes start creeping into your corneas
• your corneas should not have any blood vessels in them
• my corneas have a lot of blood vessels starting to creep in - some are longer than others showing this has gone on for an extended period of time
• if I wanted Lasik right now - couldn't get it
• it IS repairable ... his guess is if I continue with contacts every 2 weeks as frequently as I wear them it will take 3 YEARS to correct!
• if I wore glasses every day it would take a year

So... my solution is contacts 2 weeks - glasses 1 week.  I feel like that is a good compromise.  I'm curious - if I put in my contacts but wear them every other day does that extend the time?  Like is the 2 weeks only for the actual 14 days they are IN your eyes?  Hmmm

I'm serious about correcting this.  So -- $800-1000 a year -- here I come.