obviously not my eye

My first experience with contact lenses was not so pleasant. I went to my ophthalmologist on Thursday evening, very eager to try my contact lenses on for the very first time. I got the daily disposables because my doctor said they are the safest and easiest to use. It took about 30 minutes for me to insert the lense into my right eye. I’m not used to sticking stuff in my eye so it was quite an experience to get that sucker in. Once I got the first lense in, it took about one minute for me to insert the lense into my left eye.

SUCCESS! I could see so well. My vision was even better than 20/20 said the doctor. Then came the hard part (at least for me), removing the contact lense. I could not get a good grip for the life of me! I even had someone help it and I would grab the lense but it would suction back onto my eye! Finally, the doctor sat in front of me and I was able to remove it and put it back it. Life was great. I was told to keep the contact lenses in for 4 hours my first day, 6 the next day, 8 the day after and so on…

Come 10:30pm it was time to remove my contact lenses for the first time at home. This is where things turn a took for the worst. After poking at my eyes for about 45 minutes, I knew something was wrong. The pain in my left eye felt like razor blades. After a lot of huffing and puffing and even more whining, I was able to take out the right contact lense. Still, the left one was stuck. The same thing kept happening, I would grab the lense but it would suction back onto my eye. My eye was bright red at that point. I was ready to give up and sleep with the contact in but my friend Brandy was able to remove the lense from my eye after a few tries.

At that point I was drained! My eyes were burning and stinging and watery. I knew something was seriously wrong when after closing my eyes for a minute or two, upon opening everything looked cloudy. Needless to say, I woke up in the morning with yellow crust in my eye lashes around my left eye and cloudy gooey stuff in the eye. I called my doctor and they said to come in right away.

Too bad I had to pass a certification for training that morning. I had to wait a few hours and then go to the doctor. When I got there, the doctor put yellow drops in my eye that would make it glow in the dark. He took a look at my eye through whatever that big thing is that you have to put your chin on and….

I gave myself a corneal abrasion. Good job Jane! He told me not to get discouraged about lenses. I am not the first and certainly not the last person to do what I did. I have a follow-up visit in a week and a half to start this all over again.

I’m really excited to go back and try again even though I had a scary few days. You only get one set of eyes for life ya know!