contact lenses...

Does anyone carry spare contacts ( in their factory shipped packages) in their edc? Any wear problems? Do they leak, go bad?

TRO

I only use contacts occasionally, for snowboarding and windsurfing. I use daily disposable for windsurfing (I can toss them when they get soaked in lake water), weekly for other uses. I often keep a spare pair of contacts in my day pack. I wouldn't expect to use them in a survival situation though, since my hands would probably not be clean enough. If my eyes were worse than they are (20/50 or so), I would probably put a spare pair of glasses in my emergency kit.

Anyways, the factory packaging seems quite durable, I haven't had one leak yet. The plastic storage cases also seem to keep quite well. I've pulled out a pair that's been soaking in cleaning solution for a year and used them with just a quick rinse in saline.

I used to carry spare glasses with sun screen clip on lenses and a neck coard attached. Contract are too hard to mess with in a survival situation. Cold shaking hands, dirty hands, lack of a mirror if needed, lack of wetting solution, diirt in the eyes, etc.
I, in my contact wearing days, preferred extra glasses.

My ex-wife does. She carries an fresh un-opened pair everwhere she goes. They work great for her, but lately there has been a problem with product defects, i.e., back lenses when she opens the packs. It's up to 1 lense per dozen pair. And no, I don't know what medel they are other than B&L.

Daily contact lens wearer here. I sorta do both...i normally care the extra pair, but as most state for survival glasses are my best back up................i personally like some of the transistions lenses (not tried them yet myself) the idea on one pair that equals rx and rx sun seem like a great idea for backup.

Having had the procedure several years ago when i was 35, if you're a candidate, I'd highly recommend laser eye surgery. I was legally blind without my glasses before the surgery, and now have 20/20 vision. I can vouch that the procedure was painless, and I haven't had any complications, i.e. infection, "haloes", etc. I paid over $3,000 at the time, which I would have spent on glasses and contacts for 5 years. It's nice to be able to travel without packing all of the lens-cleaning solutions and spare glasses.

I talked to my eye doctor about this last year. Keep in mind, he RESELLS this, so I would have thought it was in his interest to accentuate the positive.

He was very careful to warn me about side effects. All the things JoeGreen described. In certain cases, the procedure fails. All these side effects are reduced in both frequency and intensity from five years ago, but they're still fairly common.

My decision was to stick to contacts, keep a spare sealed pair of contacts and keep some glasses in my bag.

If you get the extended-wear variety, you won't need to fiddle with them at all in a survival situation. I spent 6 days on the appalachian trail this spring, and wore my contacts continuously throughout. You should take them out once a week overnight, but since I keep eyedrops, the case and a couple antibacterial wipes in my EDC that isn't a problem.

I figure in an accident or disaster emergency in my (urban) area, I could go one week without worrying about my contacts at all. Longer if I push it, and one night with them out would reset the timer. By then if I'm not in safety, then my other preparations start running out anyway.

Anywy, not to say that this is the best way. But surgery is not without its risks. Glasses get lost, break, etc. You get better peripheral vision from contacts.

I keep a pack of spare contacts, as well as a spare pair of glasses, in my kit.

Don't know about contacts going bad, but just to play it safe I rotate out the contacts every six months when I rotate out other things that time and/or heat could affect. They've never gone bad after six months, although a few years in the trunk of the car might not be good for them.

I use both glasses and extended wear contact. In an survival situation, I’d toss the contacts after a weeks use due to cleanliness issues. I prefer glasses that offer good eye protection.

Being able to function after a disaster was one of the factors (though not the major factor) in my deciding for lasik. No complications and 20/15 vision from my original 20/400. Imagine getting spashed in the face with New Orleans flood water, removing your contact lenses and being legally blind.

I did Lasik in 1997, when I was riding raunchy horses and got tired of sweat running into contacts or glasses getting dislodged when I needed to have both hands. I corrected to 20/15 in one eye, and the other eye optimized to a viewing distance of 3 feet (it's nice to bee able to see your food). It was great. No side effects at all. (I.E., rings aroung light point sources, dry-eye syndrom, etc.).

Now, 8 years on, I'm back to about 20/100. There is a 10 year 'warranty', but I don't know about doing it again, even though it would be free. I'm 48, and I think the odds of a good outcome decrease with age.

Good point -- carry both. I even save my old glasses as back-ups. Slightly out ot focus is better than totally fuzzy.

tro