They couldn’t believe her eyes.
Doctors discovered 27 missing contact lenses in the eye of a 67-year-old woman, who went in for cataract surgery. She wasn’t experiencing any pain, just dry eyes and poorer vision in the affected eye.
“None of us have ever seen this before,” Rupal Morjaria, specialist trainee ophthalmologist, told Optometry Today.
Seventeen of the monthly disposable contact lenses were stuck together by mucus and the surgeons found 10 more loose lenses — all in the deep upper eyelid of the woman’s right eye.
“She had harbored these contact lenses in her eye for an unknown length of time,” Morjaria said. “If (contact lenses) are not appropriately monitored we see people with serious eye infections that can cause them to lose their sight.”
The report on the surgery, posted in the BMJ, said that the woman’s deep set eyes may have been why the lenses got lost and why she didn’t notice.
The case dates back to November, but doctors came forward in hopes of raising public awareness for safe contact usage. The Association of Optometrists recommends never reusing daily contacts, wearing them for more than 16 hous per day, or sleeping with them in. And always wash your hands before inserting the lenses.
If there is any doubt about the feel of your eyes or lenses, take them out.
One more thing: Always make — and keep — eye care appointments. The patient in question did not see her eye doctor regularly in 35 years.