swimming and vision (medical question)

I went swimming in a public pool the other day for a couple hours. Afterwards, my vision was blurry for maybe 7 hours, until I went to sleep. It was bad enough that I couldn’t read anything without holding it up to 4-6" from my face, and distant things were a bit blurry as well. I was pretty concerned, but when I woke up the next morning, everything was fine.

The next day, I went swimming at the same pool again and the same thing happened afterwards, this time for maybe 5 hours after which it seemed to clear up quickly.

Vision wasn’t hazy; it was out of focus. I was able to see things up close (say 3" away) with no problems.

This was all three days ago and everything seems fine since then.

The water wasn’t terribly hot or cold and I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary in it. My eyes weren’t blood shot and didn’t sting when I got out. Also, my sons swam with me both times, and neither of them seemed to have any problems.

My understanding of myopia is that it’s caused by the eyeball being too long (or the lens is too strong), so therefore, becoming more nearsighted means the eye would have to temprarily get longer or the lens get thicker, both of which seem unlikely, and it would seem I’d have pain if they did, say if my eyes swelled up with fluid or something.

Not sure if it’s relevant, but I’m fairly nearsighted for as long as I can remember, wear around 7 diopter glasses all the time. I’ve been noticing closeup vision slipping the past 6 months or so, but I believe that’s pretty normal.

Any ideas of what caused this?

Thanks.

Obligatory IANAD, YMMV.

I’m very nearsighted. I’ve had a milder version of this – slightly blurry vision for an hour or so, after swimming in a heavily chlorinated pool.

Also, how old are you? My ophthamologist says that as we grow older it takes longer for the focusing muscles to recover after doing close work for a long time, or in some other way straining your eyes.

On the other hand, IIRC it’s unusual for our eyes to become more nearsighted after about 20 or so. Usually when we’re over 35 or 40 we start to become more farsighted (presbyopia).

Probably wouldn’t hurt to make a non-emergency appointment with your eye doctor to have the increasing myopia checked out, and while you’re there ask him/her about the pool thing.