Thursday, July 14, 2011

I Never Take Out My Contacts!

About five years ago, I went to my last eye doctor appointment. I recieved a 6 month supply of contact lenses.

Flash forward five years and.....

Today I used my last right eye lense and my second-to-last left eye. Yes, you are reading this correctly. That six pack of lenses are still active.

I never remove my lenses. Never. In fact, I forget I even wear contacts. The last time I put new ones in was probably over a year ago. I have no idea! A co-worker was telling me how I was ruining my eyes and it scared me so much that I took them out two months later.

When I removed them today, I was so out of practice that it took an hour just to get those new suckers in. Once they were in, my eyes began to burn and for the next 3 hours my right eye was crying profusely. Now I am forced to wear glasses. It brings back elementary school where I was called "four-eyes" and told I "talk funny". Things I try not to remember or at least pretend never happened.

Yikes!

However, my eye still hurts. Anyone know what damage I have done to my legally blind eyes? Will I have to wear glasses for the rest of my life? Am I going to go real blind?

On the positive side (assuming these contacts will be used accordingly) I will have saved approximately 2200 dollars just on lenses alone! With that kind of savings, I do say I deserve a shopping spree. Maybe something to go with these fabulous glasses?

UPDATE: I have seen a lot of people get linked to this post, so here is what has since happened. After going to the doctor, he found cysts covering my eyes.I had to take medication to get rid of them. I got in the bad habit again, and went back to the doctor. He explained that if your eyes hurt when you take out your contacts that means you need to give your eyes a break because they start to become dependent on the contacts and can't handle air or anything. I try to take out mine every other month! It is a start!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey! i found this post randomly by searching for "i never take my contacts out" in google. i went to the eye doctor yesterday after not taking my contacts out in a LONG time... and basically my corneas were swollen due to lack of oxygen to them because of my contacts. and blood vessels had grown into my corneas that weren't supposed to be there. yes, you can imagine the lecture i got from my eye doctor about taking my contacts out. i'm NEVER allowed to sleep in contacts again and i have to wear glasses for 2 weeks. blah. but no permanent damage... unless i keep doing what i was doing before. my advice is to take them out! just thought i'd leave you a little post about it. :) -kathleen

Heather Jones said...

Hey thanks so much for your comment! I will be for sure going to the doctor. That was really good to know.