Alright, where are all my fellow contact wearers at?! I’ve been wearing two-week disposables since the 6th grade, baby! (I’ve worn glasses since 2nd grade.) I think all of us contact-wearers can relate to what happened to Hoda Kotb on last Thursday’s episode of TODAY, and if you can’t, then please tell me your secret! During the “Hoda & Jenna” hour, Hoda caused a bit of a distraction when she revealed that one of her lenses was stuck up in her eye. At one point, she even asked viewers to Tweet at her some helpful tips. Her co-host Jenna Bush Hager, who has clearly never worn contacts, got very excitable over the whole incident. I’m guessing Hoda does the daily disposables because at one point, she confesses that she doesn’t remember if she took the lens out the night before.
All eyes were on Hoda Kotb during the Feb. 1 episode of TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, but not for the usual reasons. Hoda got a contact lens stuck in her eye while she was hosting the show.
“I think I have a contact stuck in my eye, way up here,” Hoda said, while pointing to her left eye. “I don’t think I took it out last night and I can’t find it.”
“Is this a medical emergency?” Jenna Bush Hager said.
“It feels like it’s in there,” Hoda continued. “I’m not kidding. I was going to go to the eye doctor, but I didn’t have time.”
Hoda then asked for help on what to do. “Maybe people have tricks to how to get it out, because I’m sure people have had contacts that have rolled up. How do I get it out? I’ve tried,” she said before asking anyone who knows how to post their tips on X.
After a commercial break, Jenna joked about the matter.
“We have breaking news: Hoda has now lost all eyesight because her other contact fell out,” she said before Hoda said she had two contacts stuck in the same eye. Hoda then tried one piece of advice she heard by pulling her eyelid and looking down into a mirror.
“Oh, wait,” she exclaimed.
“Oh, my God! It came out!” Jenna said.
Hoda then pulled out the contact, while everyone on the set cheered. During a commercial break, when someone was brought in to help, Hoda put in new contacts.
“She can see!” Jenna cheered. “It feels like there’s been a solve. We have a medical professional.”
Hoda then confirmed what the issue was. “Oh, my God! I had two lenses in!” she said. “I knew it was in there.”
And Jenna couldn’t let the moment pass without making a joke.
“Is she going to be OK? I’m her emergency contact,” she said.
I have no idea how she forgot to take her contact out at night, but otherwise, I can absolutely relate to this. I’m so relieved for Hoda that she was able to get it out! As she kept describing what she was feeling, I honestly felt everything she was saying right along with her. I’ve been there, and it’s so uncomfortable and annoying! I’ve also had moments where I didn’t realize that my contact actually had fallen out and I kept massaging the top of my eye to bring it down before realizing all I was doing was irritating it. The worst is when it happens while you’re washing your face in the shower and you have to futz around and figure out if you can just get it back into place without having it fall out of your eye into the steamy abyss. And, just out of curiosity, does anyone else find that your eyes get very dry and are extra strained while wearing your contacts during the timeframe that coincides with your cycle? In recent years, I seem to have more problems with my vision and my eyes getting dry on very predictable days of the month. It feels like nature’s way of forcing me to wear my glasses or risk a really bad headache.
Hoda thinks she has a contact stuck in her eye 😳 If you have any tips on how to get it out, let @hodakotb know 👇 pic.twitter.com/Um7BBlQtQ0
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) February 1, 2024
Here’s a longer version where Hoda got the contact out!
Photos via social media and screenshots from YouTube/E! Online
I’ve actually pinched my eyeball trying to get a contact that had fallen out off of my eye! I was a lazy contact wearer, wore them too long without taking them out, until my doctor demanded I do dailies, which bugged me. I wear glasses now because my eyes were getting too dry. And that’s fine, they obscure my eye bags LOL
I tried to wear contacts in my 20’s, it was gruesome to my eyes. It was very difficult for me to put them on, my eyes are small and sensitive to light. After a few days, I just stopped. Then, in my 30’s now, I wanted to try again. Got new contacts. I didn’t have much difficulty putting them on this time, but my eyes got very dry. I found some moisturizer for eyes, compatible with contacts. Again, after a few days, I stopped the contacts and kept the moisturizer. It isn’t for me, I guess. If I am not working or watching some kind of screen, I don’t usually use my glasses. I just made peace with the fact that I am not gonna see everything in HD and that’s ok. My vision isn’t that poor, I just can’t see far away clearly.
Well Im glad Im not the only one. I cant do contacts, just liek I cant do fake lashes.
My eyes even struggle with just mascara for a few hours.
I cant ge tused to it… and i really tried. :/
I dont ant to wear glasses either.
I even tried lasering my eyes bt they went back to being uneven afterwards– so oh well, I see blurry and thats that lol
@teehee, there are dozens of us, people with sensitive eyes. lol. People always recommend me the laser, but I can’t do it honestly. I am very scared with something going wrong with my eyes later on. If I want to see, I just put on my glasses.
I’m not a candidate for Lasik! I’ve done two consultations over the years and gotten the same response from both doctors.
I’m with you Rosie. I’ve been wearing contacts since the 6th grade too but waaaaay back then they weren’t disposable, you were supposed to wear them for an entire year!
I had a contact situation a few years ago that was so bad I thought damn am I going to have to go to the ER?!? Luckily my youngest wasn’t squeamish and fished the torn pieces out of my eye.
Love contacts but when they go wrong it’s a disaster 😬
I actually had to go to the emergency room for a similar situation! I was on my way to work when I walked out to my loaner car (had just traded in my old one & didn’t have the new one yet), opened the door, and smacked myself in the eyeball with the upper corner of the car door. Ouch! And it bled! My eyeball bled! So I drove myself to the emergency room (just down the street & around the corner, thank goodness), where the doc there checked my eyeball & fished out the torn pieces of contact lens. That was so nervewracking!
omg to both of you!! I’ve worn contacts that were ripped before (I know, I know) but I don’t think I’ve had one rip while in my eye itself. Yikes!!
Daily contacts are the way to go! My eyes are way less dry.
This has happened to me where one took a trip up north. I put in drops then look down in the mirror. It’s so annoying and painful! And you can scratch your cornea fetching it. And for the love of Beyoncé, wash your hands before fishing it out!
I used to do monthly disposables until I seriously irritated my corneas a few years ago. Once I was able to wear contacts again, my eye doctor switched me to daily disposables and told me to never, ever, EVER keep them in while showering or swimming because of the risk of infection from the water interacting with the lens.
Ouch. I’ve never slept in my contacts, but I have had a few slip out of place. If they don’t slide back with a gentle nudge or two, rewetting drops usually help. I wear toric lenses though, so perhaps they’re more inclined to stay where they’re meant to be.
Once during tax season I put both contacts in the same eye, everything was very blurry until I realized what I did!
I’ve done that before, and it’s bewildering! It’s not like normal blurry vision, and it took me waaaay too long to finally figure out what I had done.
Same! I’ve also had what Hoda experienced a lot of times but I sort it all out before going out. The worst mishap I’ve had is cutting jalapenos in the kitchen and touching an eye. 0/10 I do not recommend.
F**k the notion of not taking them out at night though, your eyes need oxygen and the contacts can get suction cupped to your eye.
I once wore the same contacts for 6+ months and always forgot to take them out. They were the two week kind. What happens is painful. Over time, oxygen can’t reach your cornea because of the contact… so the cornea splits open a little. Am I alone in thinking that’s one of the most painful feelings?
Never had that happen but it sounds excruciating!
I struggled to learn how to use contacts when I was in my 20s – never really liked them. Then after I had babies, something must have changed with my eyes because I could no longer get them in, no matter how I tried. Oh well – I like glasses better anyway except for the fact that I don’t have much of a nose bridge, so they keep sliding down my face.
I have done this! I’ve been wearing dailies for awhile now, but I used to wear the kind you had to clean yourself & then soak overnight in a solution. What a drag. Those are the ones that would roll up in my eye some how, so I’ve done that–thought I had a contact out but I thought I dropped it & of course can’t see it because I have my contacts out!, but really it must’ve rolled up, & then I put in a second contact to see the next morning, then over time that gets really irritated. Yep, Koda, been there!
Gotta say, though, the one time I thought this had happened again, & I just kept rubbing my eye because it was bugging me, turned out to be the day before I got hit with shingles on that side of my head & face. Koda’s lucky is was JUST a lost contact problem.
The getting the contact out of the eye part, is the reason that I do not wear contacts.