The British Medical Journal (BMJ) tells the cautionary tale of a UK woman who clearly forgot that a key rule of wearing contacts involves taking them out of your eyes when you're done with them. The
patient was found with a build-up of 27 forgotten lenses in her eye that resembled a "blueish mass." How endearing.
Source: GIPHY
The 67-year-old patient was in for a preliminary check-up ahead of a scheduled cataract surgery when the contacts were discovered. Specialist trainee ophthalmologist Rupal Morjaria said that the operating team initially found
17 individual contact lenses that had formed one giant lump in the woman's eye. Upon further inspection,
another 10 lenses were found as well.
"It was such a large mass. All the 17 contact lenses were stuck together," Morjaria said in an interview with Optometry Today. "We were really surprised that the patient didn't notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there."
That's perhaps the wildest part of this story -- the
patient didn't even notice the build-up of lenses. She had felt some dryness and irritation over the years, but she just chalked it up to old age. Thankfully, she managed to avoid serious infection from the dozens of lost contacts, and she reported feeling a lot more comfortable in the weeks following their removal.
The patient had been wearing monthly disposable contact lenses for 35 years. However, she ordered her refills online and did not go to the optometrist for a check-up in the years since switching to contacts. This issue, which would have prevented such an alarming build-up of lost contacts, is a growing concern among eye doctors in the digital age and it is what prompted Morjaria and her team to publish this case in BMJ.
"In this day and age, when it is so easy to purchase contact lenses online, people become lax about having regular check ups," Morjaria said. "Contact lenses are used all the time, but if they are not appropriately monitored we see people with serious eye infections that can cause them to lose their sight."
So, if you take anything away from this story, it's that you should regularly get your eyes checked out by a professional. And, by all all means, remember to double check your eyes every morning for lost contacts -- that is, if you can still muscle up the courage to wear those newfangled eyeball contraptions after reading this story.
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