Corneal Ulcers R Us

It wasn't bad enough for my blogging that I was organizing this little blogging shin-dig which left me little time for actual blogging. Then I had to go and contract an infectious corneal ulcer which has left me fairly incapacitated for days.

What's a corneal ulcer? Well, you can read about it here. Basically, as the doctor I finally saw on Tuesday said, it's an open wound in your eye. Yes, it's as yummy as it sounds.

Right now I'm sitting in a darkened room, working on my laptop with its screen brightness dialed way down. I'm working on the laptop, instead of my desktop, because the desktop is near a window, and because the desktop has this gorgeous huge screen that even at reduced brightness is just too bright for my eyes to take.

I'm working in little 15 minute increments and then resting.

And every 2 hours I have to put drops in my eyes. Drops that sting. Every 2 hours is better than the every 20 mintues I had to administer them back on Tuesday after my initial appointment.

And for the last two nights I've had to wake up every 2 hours to put in those drops that sting.

And what is the lesson? The moral of this story? Do not hang out waiting for large, swollen, red, painful, photo-sensitive eyes to get better on their own. Just suck it up and go to the doctor.

Original, I know.

I'm not feeling particularly brilliant, though, because corneal ulcers suck!

Comments

[Trisha]

What causes something like that anyway?

[Elisa Camahort]

Well, apparently it's common for contact lens wearers to get these, although much less common for someone who wears daily disposables like I do. But the softer lenses are more permeable to help keep them moist, and that can also let bacteria in, i guess. I think it got infected because I already knew my eye was bugging me, and then I put in my contacts for a 15 hours day anyway...which totally exacerbated the problem.

[Trisha]

I thought it might be contact related. I wear ones that I sleep in though, and have not had a problem. Its good to know what to look out for though.

[Sania]

I also had a corneal ulcer in my eye two years back. I still have scars from my ulcer and even after two years, it still irritates my contacts sometimes. When something happens to your eye it's the most annoying thing ever. Whenever I sat in the passenger seat of my car, I would need a black cloth to cover my face AND i would put my head down. I could not stand the brightness. Woah, I just realized this WAS two years ago! Well, we float the same boat (: