Ow!

Some of the material in this post may not be appropriate for all readers, especially those that are squeamish about eyes.

Last night, I threw out a piece of my eye into the garbage. Seriously. When I woke up this morning, I knew that something was not right with my right eye. It felt like there was an object on my eye. I couldn't seem to flush it out with water. I could see a strange shadow on the surface of my eye. I figured that I ripped my contact lens when I removed it last night and that a fragment was left on my eye. However, it was not coming off. That's when I decided that I better see a professional. What the doctor told me is that what was causing the pain wasn't something on my eye, but instead, the lack of the surface skin on my eye. This skin came off with my contact lens. Apparently, this is a known problem with single-use soft contact lenses - they stick onto the eye really well, making them very comfortable to wear, but they can stick so well that when removed they can rip off the eye surface!

The skin on my eye will regenerate within 24 hours. To prevent the constant scrubbing of the owie by my eyelid, I have a protective breathing contact lens in and I am applying eyedrops throughout today and tomorrow. On Monday, I will have my eye re-examined, but there isn't much concern at the eye clinic that this is a serious injury - just one that causes a dull bothersome itchiness, makes my eye look very bloodshot, and is disabling some of my sight this weekend.