I was fascinated to read the story of Irenie Ekkeshis this week.
As a fellow contact lens wearer, I found myself pretty terrified by what she had to say.
In January 2011, she noticed that her eye had started to itch. It wasn’t long before she was in a lot of pain, and her vision became cloudy.
Eventually after a couple of operations, she completely lost the vision in her right eye.
The reason? She had contracted a disease called Acanthamoeba Keratitis. This is a rare condition that can be contracted by cleaning your contact lens with tap water.
There are times when I’ve been out and about, my lens has popped out for whatever reason, so I’ve had to use tap water to help me get my lens back in my eye.
Your eyes can also get a bit itchy if you wear them for a long time, or if you are tired.
There was one extreme example a few years ago when I must have been a bit too forceful taking my lenses out. I had to take the day off work because I couldn’t open one of my eyes, so I spent the day sitting in a darkened room.
That frightened me into making sure that I was always super-careful in what I did with my lenses, and this story is another reminder of just how delicate your eyes are.
There’s a reason why you feel so much pain when something bad happens to your eyes. There are more pain receptors in your eye than anywhere else, which is the body’s way of saying how important your eyes are.
Obviously what Irenie contracted was a very rare disease, but judging by the pain Irenie went through and my own negative eye experiences, I’ll be doing everything I can to look after my eyes properly.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39568781