I have no clue about relationships. (Just ask my wife.
) I do, however wear rigid gas permeable contacts. They have been known to become irritating when I got something in my eye, or even just dried out (more common as I'm getting older).
I am rarely without a small bottle of rewetting drops in my pocket or at least in the car because I know I am usually going to want to counteract the dryness at least once during a typical day. And the drops can be used in a pinch to take the contacts out and put them back in if I have something caught that I can't blink out (eyelashes are the worst).
I would never wait 30 minutes before addressing the irritation. I would never drive 30 minutes to fix it. (If the irritation was bad enough I wouldn't be able to drive period.) If I had to I'd just buy another back of solutions at the closest drug store--I'd always use them eventually.
So I'm not saying he was full of it. All I'm saying is if it had been
me I would never have behaved like that in respose to a true contact situation.