Irritation in eye after wearing contact

[megan514]

Over the past few years, I'll occasionally have eye irritations when I wear my contacts.  It usually occurs in the fall, but it's not limited to this time of year completely.  The contact will usually cause discomfort in the eye and the whites of the eye will turn almost fully red with a high sensitivity to light.  I went to my optometrist in 2005 who was pretty useless in helping me determine the cause, telling me it was allergies.  I then went to an allergist who told me I wasn't allergic to anything. I stopped wearing my contacts and the problem cleared a few days later and I went back to my contacts.

A couple weeks ago, I started noticing discomfort again, limited to the left eye.  One day I accidentally took a nap with them in and by the time I awoke, all you could see in my left eye was red.  I took the contact out immediately and went two weeks without wearing my contacts.  Last night, feeling like they were back to normal, I put my contacts in again and to my dismay, the left eye still reacted badly and is still red and uncomfortable today.

Is there something that could be causing this?  I am not a fan of wearing my glasses but my options are forcing me to do it right now.  I'm considering visiting an ophthalmologist, but would appreciate any insight as well.

I'm a 28 year old female, average height/weight, living in NYC.

Thanks!
Megan

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

I've said here many times everyone wearing contacts lens needs to be under the care of an optometrist or an ophthalmologist. you are no exception. Get in to see one or the other

JCH MD

[megan514]

Dr. Hagan,

I am under the care of an optometrist and he thought my problems were due to allergies, which, upon further testing, I found out was not the case.  I am still under the care of an optometrist as I agree that it's important given I wear contacts.  But my issue is that he and another optometrist I've met with were not giving me any clear answers as to why my one eye was reacting so badly to my contact lenses.  I was just hoping someone might have more information to offer for what could be going on.

Thanks.

Megan

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

98% of the time the cause is the contacts: either not fitting the eye, CTL being damaged or the person has lost the ability to wear contacts. Only about 2% is 'other caues"

About 10% of our lasik surgery is because the person stops being able to wear their contacts.

JCH MD