I don’t wish to alarm anyone, but as my eye starts to heal from a severe eye infection I think it’s important to share some advice from my unpleasant experience.
Never swim in the sea or a swimming pool while wearing contact lenses and never wash your face with tap water while your contact lenses are in. It may not have been one of these things that led to my infection, which was originally diagnosed over the phone by NHS Direct and confirmed at the chemist as Conjunctivitis and drops given, but it is highly likely to have been. When the condition didn’t improve and just got worse, I thankfully called in at my local doctors during my lunch hour – to be sent to hospital straight away.
Since then I have visited the hospital three times and am extremely happy to report that my eye is getting better. It was not a parasite, as they first thought, but rather a bacterial infection. I have a scar, but I still have my eye.
I am so grateful that the infection is gone, but it would have been better not to have had it in the first place. I am now wearing my glasses and will take greater care in the future if and when I return to contact lenses.
It’s not until you spend a few hours in an eye clinic that you discover how common contact lens-related eye infections are. It pays to be aware of this. I have worn lenses for years and never had a problem before – hopefully I won’t again. I will certainly be more vigilant in their use though and would ask any contact lens wearer to do the same. Eye infections are no fun.