24 hours from being blind...

[greg52083]

Early this week I had the scare of my life. To make a long story short, on Saturday I had healthy eyes; however I do wear contacts to correct my vision. When I work up on Sunday morning, I had eye irritation and sensitivity to light. I was not really worried cause I experience this from time to time and not having health insurance (I recently changed airlines and I am still waiting for the health insurance to activate) I was reluctant to see a doctor, figuring it would probably clear up the next day. During that night I woke up several times from the shear pain in my left eye. The next day when I woke up I could only see a hazy images in my eye with extreme sensitivity to light (I literally had to drive with one eye). I proceeded immediately to the doctor and was told I had developed a Corneal Osler. I had never heard of this before; however I discovered it is no joke (I was literally 24 hours from blindness) and this can easily happen to anyone who wears contacts. I learned that as contact lenses wear and dry in your eyes they can get course and scratch micro holes in your cornea, allowing bacteria to enter and grow (Cornea Osler). This condition is so serious that within 48 hour you can be permanently blind. Some people spend days in the hospital receiving constant antibiotics and often need a Cornea transplant due to scaring in your field of vision. Unfortunately, no matter how early you discover the Osler, scaring will occur. I have had to see a corneal specialist every day this week to check my eye. I will have a scare from this and I still do not know how my vision will be affected. My lesson learned, DO NOT PLAY GAMES WITH YOUR EYES.

 

[ex j-41]

Good luck dude.

Reason #34 Why pilots need to make the big $$$
Loss of eyesight equals loss of career.

 

[Northern Lights]

Wow! Hope that it all turns out OK. I have decent vision 20/25 left, and 20/30 right, so for day to day life, I don't wear contacts. For flying, though, I must wear contacts or glasses. My weakness is that I'll get to the hotel exhausted, and pass out on the bed with the contacts still in. I guess that I'll be making sure I take them out as soon as I'm done now.

 

[joeyfly55]

Dude, I hope your eyes are ok now, thanks for the post from all of us who wear contacts! Scary!

 

[txpilot1974]

Thats really scary. Best of luck.

 

[SiuDude]

Good luck man. BTW, it's corneal ulcer.

 

[Jack Mehoff]

hope it works out man. I was getting blood vesels growing over my iris and pupal area do to lack of oxygen to my eyes from over wearing contacts. I don't remember the name for it. That can also cause blindness over time. I have since then had lasik surgey and don't need contacts anymore its awesome!!
Now my vision is 20/10 and 20/15. Its well worth it. I would look into lasik as its better for your eyes in the long term. Good luck on the recovery

 

[Jetscream32]

I had the same thing happen to me when I was instructing. I know the pain you're going through. It even left a microscopic scar on my eye. To this day I take my contacts out EVERY night and at least one day a week I wear my glasses all day. It was so bad when I got the corneal ulcer that the first day after the doctor my eye was so sensitive to light I had all the blinds closed, no lights on in the house and I couldn't even watch tv. It hurt that bad. Just remember to keep 'em out of your eye at night and you'll be fine.

 

[gnx99]

That's scary A year or so ago I switched to 2 weeks disposables, vs. the 6-month standard lenses. They are supposed to be more healthy, although I still clean/disinfect them thoroughly every night

 

[Capt10Matt]

I had the exact same thing happen to my eyes. It only took one night of accidentally sleeping in them and the next day I could barely open my eyes because they were so sensitive to light. Couldn't go to work for at least 2-3 days.

Try those night & day contact lenses. You can literally wear em' for like 24 days or so nonstop (with the occasional clean every so often)...real comfortable too.