Contact: Getting it out of the Eye

This video clip shows how we take the contact out of M's eye.  I would say this is easier to do than inserting the contact; however, at the beginning insertion and removal seemed equally as difficult.  This video clip shows contact removal with 2 people.

M just lies down now and we tell her it's 'contact time'.  Again, we use two people to do this still just because it is easier.  My husband lies her down and pulls up and down on her eye lids.  I can usually get the contact on the first try, however sometimes it rolls upwards if M rolls her eye upwards.  When she does that I have to try again to get it when it is lower in her eye.  The video shows this happening.  I try the first time and the contact is too high in her eye, so I have to wait and try a second time.

It's just a gentle touch on the eye with a thumb and index finger, and a little motion bringing the thumb and finger together to touch and the contact usually comes with it.  It's hard to describe the motion in words.  I wear contacts myself, so I think that helps figuring out how much pressure to use, and finger motion to use.

This is a recent video which means all 3 of us have had over 3 months of daily practice.  At the beginning we had one person kneeling on her pinning her arms down while opening her eye.  The second person just focused on removing the contact.  This took several tries and many minutes, all while M screamed at the top of her lungs.  Look back at this post to see what it was like at the beginning.

M's optometrist had asked if we would mind recording and sharing the video with him so he could share a variety of people's techniques with others dealing or struggling with contact insertion and/or removal.  I thought that was a great idea, and was the inspiration for this post!  We are still working on getting a recording of inserting the contact in M's eye.