I woke up this morning and went to put in a new set of contacts. I wear disposables for about a week at a time. As usual, I washed my hands, put saline solution in the right contact, and put it in. Then I did the left one. The right one felt a little funny, so I put in some more drops and waited for the eye to get used to the lens. I showered, and it still felt a little funny. The eye had gotten kind of red, and I thought maybe I’d put the contact in inside-out, so I took it out. It had been in there for maybe 15 minutes.
I looked closely at my right eye. It looked like there was some sort of junk or goop in it. No, wait…the white of my eye has turned into jelly! It’s all jellified and wrinkly and and swollen! Aagh! It’s pretty horrifying, and quite scary.
To sum up, I called my mom and she took me to the eye doctor while DangerDad watched the girls. I had an allergic reaction to some unknown substance, which has caused the swelling. I’m supposed to take Benadryl and stay home. It ought to go down in a few hours.
Meanwhile, my eye is still swollen and freaky. I’m much more calm now. But I can’t drive, of course, and we’re going to have a very boring day. We were going to go swimming with a bunch of friends. Now I have two energetic kids stuck in the house, and it’s supposed to get up to 104 today (and everyone is feeling icky from the sudden heat wave and strong, hot wind; 3 days ago it was 70-80). Yick.
So, has anyone else had a sudden horrifying eye-swelling? Please tell me your experience.
Oh that really sucks! I had an eye irritation, I thought was from stuff on my contact lens. My eye and lower lid got all red, puffy and gooey :eek: So I used an eyewash to get rid of the goo and made cool compress with a washcloth and called in sick that day. After a day or two it developed into a stye -ick!! couldnt wear my contacts for nearly a week.
I feel ya on the heat, same story here in Vegas Hot! Hot! Hot! :::sizzle:::
Well, my eye didn’t swell, but I also developed an eye allergy that was diagnosed about a year ago. The white of my left eye got blood red and extremely painful. I thought it was pink eye but the medicines only calmed it down slightly and it would be back the second I stopped the medication. I had to see a specialist after about 3months of looking like a freak. It turned out I am allergic to myself - or rather, my cornea is allergic to the bacteria that live on my eyelashes. So now I have to use a topical antibiotic every night before bed and scrub my eyelids regularly. Sigh. I too wear disposable contacts, but often slept in them before the incident, which they think might have caused it. So count yourself lucky - it could be worse.
I didn’t have swelling in my eye but I had soreness and sharp pains in my left one a few months ago. I got shingles, which affected my eye. Fortunately, I got to a doctor before it got bad and there was no lasting damage. I think I’d rather lose the use of my legs than my eyesight.
OK, so the swelling went down. At about 5.30, I thought I’d try a new contact lens–the doctor said I could hafter a couple of hours. No dice; it started swelling again. So I took the lens out, and have decided to wear glasses for a couple of days. My glasses are no longer the right prescription, so I can’t see too well, but at least I can see at all.
I spent the whole day being tired. My two daughters were bored stiff–I kept getting sleepy, and couldn’t wait for naptime so I could really zonk out.
How positively sucky, dangermom. One morning the summer I was fifteen, I woke up and my right eye was swollen shut. Mom started scrambling for our family doctor’s number, since the eye-doctor is an hour + away, but in the five minutes it took her to find it, the swelling was gone, never to return again. Very strange. I panicked a little, expecting to have to choose a career in super-villainry, so I could wear a mask for the rest of my life.
Also, the thread immediately above this one is currently “I want to know what you look like – Post your photo!” Yes, I did giggle when I read the thread titles one after the other.
I had a boss who accidentally put the cleaning solution in her eyes instead of the saline solution you use to moisten the contacts (I guess…I don’t wear them).
She was freaking out for a couple days. But fully recovered.
I caught a fish hook in the eye and had half my eyelid ripped off. Does that count?
I have used my contact cleaner as eye drops. It actually didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.
I have been sprayed in the eyes with hair spray. It took about 30 minutes of continual flushing before my eye stopped being sticky.
I have had pink eye in both eyes at the same time. Thankfully only once.
I get at least 3 styes a year each lasting about 2 weeks.
I have had a very sharp pencil point stuck in my eye (the point broke off). Imagine a very large eyelash stuck where you can’t get it.
I have been stabbed in the eye with a fork. I had fork imprints in my eye for a very long time.
Eep. The cleaning solution is usually some sort of enzyme, designed to soften and dissolve the deposits on the lens. It’s essentially meat tenderizer, I’ve been told…
I wore contacts for several years but finally my eyes just wouldn’t put up with them for more than about three hours without drying out and hurting, so I got glasses a few months ago. My eyes are now happier than they’ve been in years.
I hope your eyes settle down, whether you do contacts or not. Few things are worse than an irritated eye in my experience. There’s something that just disturbs me about the whole idea.
My brother caught pinkeye in college. He was highly embarassed. He did get to miss classes for a day or two, though.
I once slept in a friend’s dorm room (many years ago :D), and woke in the middle of the night feeling the need to moisten my contacts. I reached into my pack for my wetting drops, but I pulled out the Liquid Paper instead…
I rather brilliantly managed to rub the dust of crushed habañero peppers into my eye once. (Next time I’ll just irrigate with a friendly bath of rubbing alcohol or something).
I used to wear hard contact lenses. Whenever I fell asleep in them for very long, I’d wake up with them embedded in my eyeball. Then I’d have to slide my fingernail under the edge to pry them out, leaving a neat round mark for an hour or so. Like little cookie cutters, they were.
