There are two groups of people that were put on this earth to make
their optometrist go insane. ;)  Those two groups are "habitually
undercorrected hyperopes" and "habitually overcorrected myopes".  As
you would think, these are two sides of the same coin.

When you look at something far away, and your eyes are used to being a
little overcorrected, your eye naturally accomodates a little bit to
cancel the extra power in the contact.  If you are young enough, this
little accomodation is pretty harmless and actually makes things look
smaller, darker and more defined than what a "normal" emmetropic eye
would see.

So...if you are under 45 years old, I would probably have left you
overcorrected until you get old enough to lose your ability to
accomodate that extra .50D.  If you are over 45ish you should try
really hard to get used to the lesser power.

The little vertigo that you get from wearing less power suggests that
you might have a little muscle imbalance that doesn't show up until you
stop overcorrecting yourself.
When you are wearing extra strong contacts, you pull the lens in the
eye to cancel the extra prescription, but that little pull also causes
the eyes to turn in towards each other.
If the natural, relaxed position of your eyes is to be a little
"wall-eyed" (exophoric) you are cancelling that exophoria when your
eyes pull in to cancel the strong contact.

When you put on your glasses, even if they are weaker than your
contacts, you look down and in through a portion of the lens when you
read that acts like a little pair of base-in prisms that helps relax
your exophoria.  Thats why long term contact lens wearers often like
reading in the evening with their glasses on more than with their
contacts.

This ain't brain surgery, and we are not talking about you having the
"wrong" prescription.  If you visit your doctor and complain you have a
"wrong" Rx he has every reason to become defensive and think you are
just a nutcase.  BUT, if you enter the exam room with this little bit
of knowledge and talk to him about finding the COMFORTABLE RX he will
be more open to listening to your needs.

While I don't have any physical symptoms, my experience is similar:  the
trial lenses are really good, but the lenses (same exact prescription,
no errors) in the ordered multi-pack vary considerably -- in different
ways -- from the good trial lenses and from each other.  Apparently this
is so rare that everybody involved has never heard of such a thing.  I
guess I'm just lucky.

Any chance that your lenses are Cooper or one of their subsidiaries?
Cooper wouldn't answer either my email or snail mail.

Do the trial lenses still feel OK?

I'm bothered by the difference between the trial lenses and the ones
that were ordered.  Apparently there are two of us now...

My guy ordered me one more pair of lenses and gave up.  I hope there's
some new technology when I can't wear the good ones any more.

Just a few thoughts:

One suggestion would be to ask if he'd mind giving you another pair of
trial lenses in the same power again as a way of double checking.

It's possible, though not that likely, that your own lenses are from a
'bad batch' (it has happened).

I must admit that my first 'gut feeling' was that you had previously
been over-minused and just had to get used to the lesser powered lenses
(as another poster suggested).

Another possibility I suppose is that the second pair of trials which
you were happy with were in fact -375 rather than -350 as the
optometrist believed - mistake on the optometrist's part?

Having said all of this, a difference of 0.25 shouldn't make that much
difference except for the clarity of distance vision - vision around the
room and close up should be pretty much the same either way. What brand
of contacts are they?

As I said, just a few thoughts!

Let us know how you go on the 20th.

Dom