Yesterday I went swimming at the health club, and there was a lot of chlorine in the water. Besides making my my eyes hurt, I noticed also that it gave me a temporary case of severe astigmatism, which subsided only after about six hours. I think it was astigmatism, because rather than just one blurry image, I saw several sharp images blurrily superimposed, like a badly printed picture in a newspaper. I probably shouldn’t have been driving, but I did manage to get home. On the other hand, close-up vision wasn’t as adversely affected.
I can only conclude that the chlorine must have temporarily altered the shape of my lens or cornea. If so, how would that have happened?
FTR I had the Lasik procedure about seven years ago. Could it have something to do with that? Since then I’ve always had a small amount of residual astigmatism, but nothing like what I experienced yesterday.
