Friday Foto: Corneal Ulcer

Some time last year, I woke up with a feeling that something was in my right eye.  I checked in the mirror and didn't see anything, so I went about my morning ritual, including putting in my contact lenses. Ed note: I cannot believe I missed the typos earlier... The first sentence read "Some time last year, I work up with a feeling that someone was in my right eye." Hahahah. I'm an idiot.

I've worn contacts since I was 15 (glasses since 13) and never had an issue, but that morning, when I put a contact in my right eye, it hurt like a mother!  Still, I hate the way I look in glasses, so because of my vanity, I told myself to suck it up and left the contact in.

Throughout my drive to work though, I kept blinking because the irritation didn't go away.  At a red light, I inspected my right eye closer and saw a teeny, tiny white speck on my iris (the brown part of my eye).  Rubbing it away didn't work, and I began to worry. As soon as I got to work, I removed the contact from my right eye... I still needed to keep the contact in my left eye because I am pretty much BLIND without them.

I don't know if you wear contacts, but wearing only ONE is super difficult.  My spacial awareness was all off and staring at my computer with two different visions was starting to make me dizzy.  So, I decided to make myself a patch to cover my right eye:

I'm obviously not very happy in this picture...

Cute, right? Ha... I thought it would be funny to draw an eye on the patch, but as you can see, my placement was all sorts of wrong. 

Long story short, I went to an optometrist who told me I had a corneal ulcer in my right eye, due to bacteria from my contacts.  Basically the bacteria from my dirty contacts ate away at the first few layers of my eye.  Yuck. So I WARN all you contact wearing folks, be sure to clean your contacts AND contact case every night.  Also, don't try to wear them longer than what's recommended.  I had 2-week disposables that I would sometimes wear for a MONTH before throwing out.  Stupid.  Having an ulcer was probably one of the WORST experiences in my life.  I had to put drops in every 30 minutes (even throughout the night) for 2 weeks straight!

Thank goodness my loving husband gifted me with LASIK/PR-K surgery for Valentine's Day this year.  It's a whole new world waking up with 20/15 vision.  I love not having to worry about taking my contacts out every night before going to bed or ruining my glasses after falling asleep with them on.

Do you have a horror story about contacts?