Contact Lens and scratched corneas

I haven't been online much this week. Because I finally got my eyes lasered. Not with Lasik, the standard one where a flap of the cornea is lifted. I had ASL - Advanced Surface Laser, which was very quick, and used the laser on the surface of the eye. I had it done on Friday, spent most of Fri, Sat and Sun in bed, and was finally allowed to drive on Wednesday. Today, Thursday, it is still only around 90% fxed, but apparently takes a while for the surface of the eye to recover.

The point of this post was the shock the doctor expressed at the condition of my eyes. Twenty years ago, when I first got soft contact lenses, I wore them all the time, for long hours, and yes, at university, did fall asleep wearing them once or twice. But at one point, they hurt so much, I had to stop wearing them - I could barely open my eyes, extremely sensitive to light, and watering incredibly. I had scratched the surface of the eye so badly, I had to stop wearing them for years.

And now, twenty years later, apparently the blood vessels were still so enlarged they had almost gone through the cornea. Or something like that. If that had happened, I could have gone blind. And my corneas were so thin there was no way I could have had standard Lasik.

I mentioned it to two friends, and they both knew of other people who had had this problem. Sure they were over 40, so contact lens technology wasn't all that great back then, but there should have been more warnings made to us younguns about the potential damage to our eyes from contact lenses. Bacteria, scratches, abrasions - please be aware of the need for care with your eyes.

I think I'll go to bed early and rest my eyes again.

cheers
Chris