If you are near sighted do contact lenses distort your near vision?

I am thinking about getting contact lenses. I have terrible far-sight but my near sight is good and when I wear glasses they distort my near vision so bad that I have to take my glasses off when I am stepping off a curb, say or reading. But this is fairly easy to do with glasses, do contacts also do this? If I wear contacts to correct my far vision will it distort my good near vision?
I can't see a thing at a distance, but I can read the tiniest writing on the chart up close. I wear contacts and they do not bother my near vision at all. Neither do my glasses. You wouldn't happen to have bifocals would you? I hear they can cause what you are discribing... if not, I would see a new eye doctor.. because I don't have any of those problems.
When you cannot see far away, you are near-sighted (your near sight is good); when you cannot see close you are far-sighted. Yes, contacts will correct your vision so you can see far things, but you might not be able to see close-up so well. I had lasik surgery done to correct my far vision, but then I needed reading glasses, which was ok with me because I'd rather be able to see far. once, I lost my glasses and spent hours feeling my way around a room trying to find them. That's when I decided to have the surgery.

That's interesting that your glasses do that, since (when I wore glasses) I never had trouble with my near-vision. I can only assume that you have a pretty strong perscription for that to occur.
Consult your opthamologist; I'm fairly certain the same principle that makes contacts work is the same as the one that makes glasses work (essentially acting as an artificial cornea), so it's possible that the same perscription could do the same thing with contacts.

Are you around, or over 40 years of age? This could be presbyopia--a natural part of aging where the lens in the eye starts to harden up and is no longer capable of rack focusing--changing from near to far focus through single vision lenses. When most people first start to experience this, they can no longer read, and usually have to move into bifocal, or progressive eyeglasses, or bifocal or multifocal contact lenses. All of these options for presbyopic eyes have disadvantages, and you should research them or talk to your doctor about what these are if presbyopia is now an issue for you...
However, if you are not at that age, and this is not presbyopia, then you have been given a prescription that is too strong, or you may have astigmatism that was under Rx'd, or mis-Rx'd. All of these are factors that allow for glasses and contacts to give great distance vision, but blurry close vision to the younger eye--and this is an unacceptable situation for healthy younger eyes.
I'm not sure how old your prescription is, but if it's not too old, march back to your doctor and let me them know that this is not working. Most doctors stand behind their exams to this extent. If you are younger than 30-something and have healthy eyes, you should have no problems changing focus from near to far with properly prescribed vision correction lenses of any sort. You may not have the incredible stellar distance vision you have now with over Rx'd spherical ratings--but, with a proper prescription you will have very good distance vision, AND be able to see near and intermediate as well (and you should rarely have to remove your glasses).
I'm not sure how old your prescription is, but if it's not too old, march back to your doctor and let me them know that this is not working. Most doctors stand behind their exams to this extent. If you are younger than 30-something and have healthy eyes, you should have no problems changing focus from near to far with properly prescribed vision correction lenses of any sort. You may not have the incredible stellar distance vision you have now with over Rx'd spherical ratings--but, with a proper prescription you will have very good distance vision, AND be able to see near and intermediate as well (and you should rarely have to remove your glasses).
You really do need to discuss this with a qualified doctor--there could be reasons you have lost the elasticity in your eye's lenses (most notably presbyopia as mentioned), or you may just need a more "tweaked" prescription that will allow you to see both far and near in single vision lenses.
I went through the same thing a few months ago--my first doctor assumed I was presbyopic by my 40-something age and over-shot my eyeglass prescription that made everything near, within 4 feet, very blurry; but a month later when being fitted for contacts by a much more experienced OD, she discovered that I had against-the-rule lenticular astigmatism, and gave me a much different prescription for glasses and contacts that have allowed me to see excellent both near and far with single vision lenses (for at least a few more years until I truly turn presbyopic).