Contact Lenses and Bloodshot Eyes

[HGibson10]

Hello,
I wear contact lenses. I have been wearing them for about 7 months. For about the first 4 - 5 months I took them out every night and used the solution for cleaning them. After that, I gat a little more lazy about it, but I still would take them out a few times a week and clean them. Recently I have been taking them out less. I know that I shouldn't leave them in as long as I do, and I'm going to go back to the way I started with them. But, recently just in the day or two my eyes got pretty bloodshot so I took my contacts out and have had them out for about a day now, and have been putting some eye drops in my eyes. The drops are just refreshing drops, just for when your eyes are dry. My eyes are still bloodshot, after a day. They have gotten progressively better, but not that much better. The redness is pretty normal bloodshot eyes. But, I did notice around the colored part of the eye that there is redness around the border of the colored to white. And, I couldn't tell if I saw a small, really small bump on a part of the redness or not. But, they dont really hurt or itch to much. I dont have any discharge either. I was just wondering what this all might be.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Hello HGibson. Your eyes are telling you to shape up and start taking care of your precious eyes by wearing and cleaning your contact lens properly. In the past two weeks in my practice I've seen two young people with this careless attitude towards safe and proper contact lens wearing procedures. Both have developed infected ulcers on the cornea which will leave scars and cause a permanent damage to their vision.

Each year in the US, hundreds of eyes are permanently damaged some even go blind from improper contact lens wearing habits and careless cleaning. Don't think it can't happen to you-it can.

Probably the biggest mistake we see is wearing disposable contact lens longer than the recommended replacement interval. There's a reason that you're told to change lens weekly, or every two weeks or even daily (it varies with the type of contact lens). If the contacts are worn longer than recommended the contacts can become stiff, warped, develop rough edges, become coated in protein and most serious get infested with bacteria or fungus.  Sleeping in contacts that are not approved for extended wear is another no-no. Swimming and showering with contacts is another source of contamination.

If you're not willing to take care of your contacts and safeguard your eyes you're better off giving them up and going back to glasses.

JCH MD

[HGibson10]

Thanks,
What you said, about taking better care of them is exactly what I am going to do, I don't wear a pair longer than i should though, I mean past their expiration date you could call it i guess. Today, when I woke up they are not nearly as red as before. Still a bit red but, better. I can still notice at least in my left eye, what looks like a little lump on the border of the white part of the eye and the colored area around the pupil. I'm not sure what that could me, mayb just me just thinking i see something not there. Also, just curious about something else. I used to use the Complete Moisture Plus contact solution that was recalled because of a possibility of contamination from a factory in China. But, mine says made in Spain. Just wondering about your thoughts on that, by the way the contamination had to do with Acanthamoeba keratitis.

[John C Hagan]

First when we talk about replacing contact lens we're not just saying don't use a contact after it's expiration date. What we're saying is if you are suppose to remove and replace them each 7 days (or each 14 days, or every day) then take them out, throw them away and put in a new one.

That thing you notice on the white of your eye may be a pingueculum which can develop in contact wearers due to irritatin.

Do not use any of the recalled contact lens solutions no matter where they were made. Know also that some of the problem of these fungus infections are due to swimming with contact lens in, perhaps even to using tap water on the contacts.

JCH MD