Better late than never... but I was already thinking about suggesting intraocular pressure and choroid inflammation as favorites. That kind of pain combined with vision getting worse? Honestly, that should be enough reason to jump straight to an urgent head CT. You know, there are some nasty little things that can start growing in or near the brain that cause similar symptoms—pituitary issues right next to the optic nerve and all that stuff.
But hey, what do I know? I just sit here typing on computers all day.
I don't really get it, though. In two or two and a half years of wearing contacts, I never dealt with any infections or anything. My worst case was just my lenses irritating my eyes so much that I had to switch to glasses for two days, and that was it.
Personally, my head usually aches because my prescription is off. And man, does it hurt.
Yeah, you guys beat me to it... I was literally just about to mention how sketchy the whole situation looks, considering this pretty depressed single guy somehow managed to tear his right arm off 🙄
So, what? You’re gonna use that hand to pick up girls now? Like, you start the "hunt" by going, "Hey, excuse me, miss, could you help me out with... I don't even know..." Then she feels bad for you and says she needs to take care of you. She'll nurse you back to health, but once you're all better? Easy, she's gone, because Desanka is Desanka 😁
Honestly, don't even sweat the little suction tool thing. You’re barely gonna use it—maybe just once in a blue moon if your eye gets too watery and you can't grab the lens because your eyelid keeps pulling. Getting those hard contacts in and out is actually super easy once you "get" the technique. It takes like 2 seconds to pop them in, 2 seconds to take them out. Boom. Done.
The only thing that might be a tiny bit annoying at first is if they feel a little less comfy, but since you've already dealt with stuff in your eye before, it shouldn't be a huge deal.
What actually worries me is if my prescription shoots way up despite wearing the lenses. Like, do I just make a one-time life decision and go get laser surgery, or do I just sit there and cry? Or cry and then... what? Especially since your job basically depends on being able to see.
Since I occasionally wash my face with soap, I naturally end up rubbing my eyes during my routine, which just doesn't sit right with my contacts. Sometimes I even take a shower with them in, or go for a swim in the ocean, though diving isn't really on my radar.
Anyway, I don't think I mentioned the weird paradox I've been dealing with over the last few months.
My right eye is pretty heavy on the nearsightedness with some intense astigmatism—somewhere around -3.5 sphere and -1.5 cylinder—so obviously, even with contacts, my vision isn't quite as sharp as my left eye. My glasses have the exact same prescription as my lenses, and everything was totally fine until about a month or two ago. Now, when I look through my glasses with my right eye, my vision is significantly worse than it is with my contacts. I'm not talking about that usual slight advantage contacts give you; I mean it’s drastically worse. Has this happened to anyone else?
On my first day trying to get used to contacts, I wore them for maybe 15 minutes before ripping them out 20 minutes later!
Is it just me, or is this way harder for guys? Like, take morning shaving. If I put my lenses in, I can't wash my face properly, but I definitely need to wash up after I shave. But if I don't put the lenses in first, I can't even see well enough to get a decent shave. And you can't really wash your face beforehand since I use an electric razor. Super convenient, right?
I was out paragliding with a buddy once and my helmet visor popped open—I almost lost my glasses entirely. With contacts, at least I don't have to worry about that. Honestly, that’s basically the only reason I don't go all out with the one sport I actually love.
Oh man, swifteagle18... what comes next in the song?
When things get like that, trying to pop out a RGP lens is basically impossible if you just try the usual eyelid tugging thing. Honestly, you're stuck using that tiny little suction tool and a mirror. I usually just keep mine tucked in my coat pocket.
It was such a moment when I went on that first date with my ex. We're walking around the city and something gets stuck in my eye, so I start blinking like crazy, the lens shifts, and my eyes start watering like mad. I played it off all cool and said—thank God you're a girl, you definitely have one of those little makeup mirrors in your purse, right? She looks at me and goes—I don't have a 👎
Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong here—that irritation from dust is actually kind of a "perk" of RGPs compared to softies. Since soft lenses are more comfortable, you barely feel the irritant scraping against your cornea until it’s already caused damage and led to inflammation. Am I totally off base?
Been rocking semi-permeable contacts for two years now. Honestly, I'm pretty stoked with them. Sometimes they do feel a bit weird on my eyes, though, mostly because my job involves staring at a computer screen all day long.
I spent years wearing photochromic glasses, so bright sunlight is still a massive struggle for me, especially when stepping out of a building. Because of that, I always have to throw on sunglasses whenever I'm outside. Also, cigarette smoke really messes with me when we head to a pub for a few rounds.
Artificial tears are a total lifesaver. I actually have this habit where I drop a little bit onto the lens right after taking it out of the solution—it makes the lens way more comfortable and my vision gets so much clearer.
I can't really deal with them in heavy dust or if I'm walking through crazy strong wind. I even managed to do some welding once, which used to be a huge nightmare when I was wearing glasses.
Sometimes I just totally forget I'm wearing them and rub my eye, and then... well, you know how that goes. It's a mess.
Stress, tension, posture, how I sleep. This summer I swapped my pillow for the priciest orthopedic one out there (think something like $233, some Tempur-Pedic stuff). Still getting hit with headaches, though. Then there’s the vision issue... I bounce between glasses and contacts, but even when the prescription is identical, wearing the glasses sometimes triggers a headache. Plus, I spend way too many hours hunched over my computer staring at the screen.
Sometimes I’ll wake up around 5 AM with this dull ache in my head and just drift back to sleep. That’s basically the definition of a bad day. By the time I actually drag myself up around 7, I can barely move my head on the pillow, let alone deal with turning on a light or hearing a loud noise. It’s like the entire right side of my head—my neck, behind the ear, the base of my skull, and all the way up to my forehead—is just throbbing. If I don't grab some Advil first thing in the morning (yeah, it's weak, mostly just helps with circulation and minor aches), nothing works. Not Voltaren, not Tylenol, nothing strong. At that point, I might as well just show up at my doctor's door begging for an injection.
So that's it... you're just lying there in agony, face-down in a pillow, rubbing Voltaren cream or some icy gel into your neck. Once the pain eases up a bit, you try using a massager, and things finally start feeling okay around 3 PM. By then, you can actually manage a cup of tea or a slice of toast, because if you try anything earlier, everything just comes flying back up before it even hits your stomach.
I’ve been through it all: CT scans, EEGs, cervical spine imaging, seeing ENT specialists, ophthalmologists, orthopedists, neurologists, and even a psychiatrist (who honestly wanted to keep me inpatient indefinitely 😁). The diagnosis? Apparently, I’ve got a narrow nasal sinus, a deviated septum, blah blah blah... which supposedly restricts airflow and messes with my equilibrium (though I've never had balance issues, they still love to blame it). They also said poor posture and a slight deformity in my neck cause muscle tension that restricts blood flow through my carotid arteries. And that’s supposed to be it?
The cure? Move more, exercise, go live on a ranch herding sheep in the mountains. Yeah... totally doable.
This whole mess has been going on for about 10 years, since I was 18. Like I said, the most effective thing is just taking an Advil 500mg as soon as I feel it coming on. I try to hold out as long as possible without touching any meds, and usually, I can manage, but man, I can handle a pretty high level of pain. I don't know how people with lower pain tolerances even cope.
There are those eye drops meant for moisturizing. They’re a lifesaver, especially if you wear contacts. I think they run about $10 (Alcoa) per bottle.
But seriously, I don't get it—your eyes are stinging, your vision is blurry, you can barely even blink without pain, and yet here you are, sitting in front of a computer typing on a forum?
I'm not even questioning if what you wrote is legit (someone else will tackle that), I'm just wondering about the logic here. Like, wouldn't you rather just stare at a green wall or something instead of absolutely murdering your eyes with a monitor?
Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party here. Sounds like it might be conjunctivitis... there are a bunch of different kinds out there, and they can actually get pretty nasty if you don't deal with them right away! So yeah, definitely go see a doctor. And please, use your own towel only—don't share. Maybe try some chamomile rinses or whatever, blah blah blah...
Also, maybe try to stay away from the computer screen for a few days!
Ingrown nails, man... I finally dealt with mine about four years ago. Honestly, the fact that I put up with it for almost two FULL years before my GP basically forced me to see a surgeon just proves I’m a total masochist. The guy noticed I was walking all weird during a "routine checkup." Man... I can't even tell you how much I struggled. The pain, the embarrassment, how much it messed with my walk and my job... honestly, all that was way worse than the actual surgery and recovery.
I earned my ingrown nail wearing combat boots, and I "finished it off" by wearing pointy sneakers. It varies from person to person, but in my experience, no podiatrist in the world could have fixed this. I spent forever trying to DIY it—cutting the edges myself, trying to push the skin back and stuff... but the nail was buried like 4mm deep, which is a massive amount!
They took me into this small room, everything was sterile, they draped me in sheets, and there was the surgeon plus two assistants... they disinfected everything with iodine (that yellow-brown stuff) and gave me the local anesthetic. If I remember right, they hit between my first and second toe, plus vertically and sideways near the big toe. The doc slightly overestimated the numbing effect, so I actually felt that first scalpel cut... nothing crazy, though. A few seconds later, I couldn't feel a thing. He made two lengthwise cuts along the nail, gently sliced through the skin, used some forceps to pull out the extra bit, and then cut into the nail root so it wouldn't grow back like this again.
He explained that it's caused by shoes, how you trim them, and just genetics. He told me you're supposed to cut toenails straight across, not in a curve!
I had to go back for three dressing changes every two days. After a week, I was walking in clogs without too much trouble. By the following week, I was back at work.
I'm telling you, it's totally worth getting it done instead of just suffering through all the misery and pain of an ingrown nail.
Praxiten? Yeah, no thanks... pass! What’s next, a literal electric chair? I was just asking where the line is—you know, that point where you’d actually consider taking something to take the edge off. I feel like sometimes you just spiral so hard into those thought loops that you can't exactly think your way out of it without a little outside help.
Personally, I still don't feel like I need that kind of stuff. I just need a way to decompress. So, I did my thing: grabbed my dog, packed my camera gear, and headed out for a long walk through the woods for maybe two or three hours. It cleared my head, quieted the noise, and helped me see what was actually bothering me. Honestly, it worked like a charm, just like it always does.
It hit me pretty hard for a few days, then things finally "settled down." Honestly, I’m worried you guys have already put me in the box labeled "disorder" or "dysfunction." I spend a lot of time on the radio, and normally, my brain feels like a scene from *The Wolf of Wall Street*—just an endless flood of data. That "gift" can be pretty heavy sometimes. It isn't depression or anxiety or anything like that; it's more like you just run yourself ragged trying to find a way to actually relax.
Whatever... it passed. My go-to songs don't really cut it anymore because I've been playing them for years. My hobbies don't help either since I've been doing them forever. It just reached this fucking point where I got totally burnt out on being alone, on my own little pleasures, listening to music, my hobbies... everything just hit me at once and sent me spinning into a higher gear. Anyway... any kind of medication is still a big question mark for me.
Yeah, yeah... I get it. But honestly, I can't just shake off all this stress and the mess it creates. One option would be to just take out all the idiots—my boss, annoying users, everyone around me—then deal with my exes and any future dates, and finally head to prison with a totally clear conscience. Another choice? Move to some ranch in Montana to herd sheep. Or maybe join some Buddhist mission out in the mountains to hang out with llamas or yaks or whatever else just spits on you and chews cud.
Since none of those sound particularly great, I guess I'll just have to settle for calming my own brain down, which is something I usually manage to do eventually. Still, having something to unwind with might help me actually sleep without dreaming about damn computers, lines of code, or command prompts, only for the dream to glitch into seeing dead friends or old flames. Then I wake up feeling like death and bitter as hell. Just rinse and repeat, day after day.
So, what's your limit for finding some peace of mind?
You’re exhausted, you hit the sack, but then you just lie there staring at the ceiling for two hours trying to drift off. Then you wake up feeling like garbage, totally cranky at work. It feels like I'm fighting twice as many battles every single day as I actually should be. Just constant irritation and living on edge.
Where do we draw the line? Like, when is it time to just chill out and grab something like Perseus or whatever? When do you just give in and use a little chemistry to settle down, especially when your brain gets stuck in one of those loops it just can't shake?
It’s pretty much the same thing. If you messed up, you’re beating yourself up over it; if you didn't, you're still beating yourself up because of what someone else did.
Between being lazy and my job, my daily exercise basically consists of getting in and out of my car. Maybe I'll walk a kilometer if I absolutely have to, but that’s about it. 😢 My head is constantly throbbing because my neck muscles and tendons are just totally locked up. I’ve been telling myself I’ll go get a professional massage for like three years now... honestly, it's kind of embarrassing. 😢
Anyway. The best massages are actually the ones I give my wife. The damn thing usually ends up going in a different direction, but... let's just say we both really enjoy the massage. 👍
Reading through all these replies, I figured I’d jump in and share my two cents too...
So, if you're walking around in shoes with rubber soles—especially during those dry winters when you're wearing synthetic fabrics—you're basically building up a massive charge compared to everything else around you. That potential difference is what we call electric voltage, and it can hit a few kilovolts even if the current is super low. It's mostly just annoying and irritating, nothing to panic about, really. I honestly have no clue how it affects people with medical implants, pacemakers, or electronic cochlear implants, though.
Static charge is a total nightmare when it comes to electronics. Like, if you touch an audio cable or plug something into a PC port, you can fry the hardware instantly. In my line of work—electronics and IT—we use specific anti-static mats and desk surfaces, grounding wrist straps (like when working on CMOS soldering), anti-static sprays, and stuff like that to stay safe.
If you want to protect yourself from those annoying little shocks, you could try using a keychain tool designed specifically to bleed off the charge. Or, if you're feeling particularly nerdy and into DIY projects, you could wire up a series circuit with a block capacitor and a multi-megaohm resistor.
I know it sounds like a lot of technical jargon, but that’s pretty much the whole story.
I think I’ve finally mapped out my musical taste. It’s not like I have idols or anything, I don't really follow anyone blindly. But Mark Knopfler? He's the one I'm most drawn to. Still, I’m not trying to go out and hunt down every single one of his albums, just like I wouldn't bother grabbing everything Hendrix ever put out. Same goes for Clapton or B.B. King. I tend to hang out within a certain lane, but I love wandering off and picking up stuff on a whim—taking little trips into the classics, jazz, pure instrumentalists, and all that. Collecting feels a bit snobby or overcomplicated to me. At least, that's how I see it.
The only thing I’m obsessive about—and yeah, call me crazy—is that a CD has to be an original. I can't stand those burned discs. So tacky! If I happen to find a burned copy and it actually sounds good, I’ll scramble everywhere just to track down the original. I know, it's a sickness.😢