I wear disposable contact lenses. They’re great because they come in little sealed containers — effectively, I have a years’ supply of contact lenses on hand most of the time, and it’s easy to pack extras in a pocket, your bugout bag, car SHTF kit, etc. — and just rotate ’em out over the year. Good stuff.
However, I’m not wearing ’em for the next few days. I’d popped open a fresh pair and inserted one in my left eye this morning, then accidentally dropped the other one in the sink. No problem, the sink was dry, and I just did what I usually do in those situations — pick it up, inspect for foreign debris, and spray off with saline. Then I put it in my eye. INSTANT BLINDING PAIN. I could barely pry open my eyelids, which were reacting by involuntarily clamping shut. Got the contact out and began splashing water in my eye. That helped, and I noticed with my other eye that the water was foaming as it hit the surface of the sink. Uh oh. There must have been some residue left from when we cleaned the sink last week using Dow Bathroom Cleaner With Foaming Bubble Action. I wiped the sink clean as best I could, then filled the basin and submerged my eye for twenty seconds or so. Felt much better. Then I irrigated with more saline and got myself to the eye doc.
Turns out I’d burned off the outer surface of my right eyeball. If you imagine that the surface is ten layers thick, I vaporized the outer twenty percent. He was able to see the exact burn area with some new kewl dye drops. It should heal completely within 24-48 hours, but I’m on antibiotics now ’cause your eye is very susceptible to infection when there’s a break in the surface. No loss of vision, so I’m a very lucky fellow indeed.
(Pic above is not of my eye, but that’s about how it looked and felt.)
I stopped wearing contacts years ago after I got a fleck of rust caught under one when I was working on the exhaust on my car.
Right now my eyes are watering just thinking about having the surface of my corneas chewed away. Eeessh.
So that’s what eye-bleach really does! Never have been able to wear contacts, can’t get over the feeling.
Really, what is so wrong with just wearing glasses? Eyes, ears, hands: The three single-most important things to your survival you own.
I’m a glasses man after watching the thrash the gudwife had to go though all the time with hers. Lasik eye correction is the REAL answer here, though. No specs, no contacts, young eyes again.
Have you been playing at the Aperture Laboratories Enrichment Center lately? You sure seem to be taking a lot of abuse as of late. Perhaps She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed needs to keep a closer watch on thee. (snicker)
WTF. Talk about false advertising. Or a total BEAT-UP. So the pic is not your eye.
I tried contacts for about two weeks years ago. They ended up going in the garbage after I got hydraulic fluid in between the lens and my eye.
Glasses or Lasik.
Hopefully you will recover that eye … but you may not be able to have future corrective laser surgery on it.
Expect lots of phantom dry eye pain as you may have lost the surface pain nerves.
Years ago a woman I knew (who worked in the blueprint room) nearly lost her sight because of ammonia fumes getting trapped in her soft contacts.
Keep a CLOSE watch on your progress!
Merle