[kat_kat_1212]

Sometimes things up close go blurry but than they come back, and my eyes feel strained sometimes when I look at far things, and sometimes far things go a bit blurry. Am I farsighted or nearsighted? And when I get an eye appointment, will I be able to get contacts?

[tickle]

Kinds of hard to diagnose you here, kat. Your best bet is an appt. with an optometrist and go from there.

[joypulv]

Nearsighted = can't see near, farsighted = can't see far. They are related to the length of the eye front to back.
You can have problems seeing both near and far, and at mid range distances too, about 20" to 6' or so. That's when people get bifocals or trifocals.
Astigmatism can make things blurry too, or distorted. It's related to irregular curvature of the surface of the eye.
Your sight can change under strain, tiredness, getting older, or just day to day (my astigmatism changes a lot).
Contact lenses are good, but my sister tells me that soft lenses aren't much help for astigmatism. I haven't worn them since the days of hard lenses only.

[ChihuahuaMomma]

I agree that you need to be diagnosed by an Optometrist to decide whether you can wear contacts for your correction.

I disagree that soft lenses aren't much help for an astigmatism. There are many lenses specially designed for those with a vast range of astigmatisms, and they can work great. Some don't like them, and some are uncorrectable to 20/20. So it's all on perspective and experience. And that's why MOST Optomterists will do a trial week for contact lenses, and make adjustments later if necessary.

If you are having trouble for near and far there are bifocal contacts available and also you can do near in one eye and far in the other, it takes a while to adjust to but in my experience people enjoy it once they're brain and eyes have adjusted.

[contact_lenses]

You got them reversed. Nearsighted = you can see near, farsighted =.can see near far

[joypulv]

Oops, I did reverse