Hi Everyone,
I went on a mini vacation Columbus day weekend which ended up being ruined by an an unknown culprit at the time. I got a room at my favorite Bed and Breakfast and that evening I noticed that my right eye was very teary. I thought my allergy sinus problem had flared up but unfortunately I did not bring my eyeglasses with me so I was stuck wearing my contacts. The entire trip was ruined as my eye got irritated and would not stop tearing. I didn't believe I had pink eye because tearing was the only symptom.
Anyway,as soon as I got home on the 14th,I took my lenses out thinking things would get better but the problem had persisted for over a week. I finally went to my optometrist and he said it looks like I have a scratch on my cornea. He prescribed antibiotic eye drops and an ointment that I was supposed to put in my eye before I went to bed. A full week had gone by and there was no improvement,in fact things had gotten much worse including visual distortion and hyper-sensitivity to sunlight et al. My optometrist told me I need to see a corneal specialist right away which is what I did yesterday.It was discovered that my right cornea is being attacked by an organism called Acanthameoba. This happens to some contact lens wearers and this organism shows up occassionally in hot tub users. I haven't been in a hot tub in over a year and a half so I knew that couldn't be it. What is really awful is the eye drops that I now have to use need to be administered every hour,24 hours a day. Which means that when I would normally be sleeping I have to wake up every hour to put the eye drops in. Just thought I would share this with you and warn you not to ignore any symptoms as my situation could have gotten much worse if I had waited to get treatment.

Hey Cuz, havent seen you posting for awhile and was wondering what you had been up to.
As for the eye issue I had heard of that before, since hubby is an optometrist, but thought it was usually caused by wearers not cleaning their lenses daily or wearing them to sleep.

Hey Cuz,
I guess it's a little more involved than that,including lens wearers who shower with with their lenses in. I have been almost paranoid about lens care but I guess all it takes is one wrong move and you're infected! Having to wake up every hour to put the drops in has been brutal!

Well at least you can check on the election results all not since I expect we may have to wait until the morning to know for sure who is POTUS.
Take care. Hope you dont have to go to work on so little sleep. Do you have a hottie there who can wake you up every hour.

Well,I intend to sneak in as much napping as possible.I really am not a night owl at all!
Of course if Sarah Palin ends up in the White House,I might as well stick a fork in my eye!

I don't think we have to wait until the morning. I am going to bed, knowing that Obama is it!

Thanks for the heads up about CLs. I have been wearing them for about a month. Love not wearing glasses all the time, but will be careful now about keeping them clean.

I thought I should let you guys know that it turns out this infection is extremely rare and it would be quite a longshot for you to be infected. It's almost as if your immune system has to be predisposed because two different people can be exposed to the same parasite but most likely only one would be infected. The treatment has been going on for 3 months and most likely will go on for at least another 3 months as the amoeba can lay dormant and re-emerge again in the form of a cyst. I have to take 3 different kinds of eye drops, 2 of which are not FDA approved and therefore I cannot get a prescription co-pay rate. I have to order those non-FDA approved eyedrops via the internet. Brolene must be ordered from a pharmacy in New Zealand and C-PHMB which is basically an eye detergent must be ordered from California (it cost $88!)
I also have to take a prescription steroid eyedrop. Leave it to me to get infected with something so rare! This infection has already resulted in a 20% vision loss and the Cornea Specialist is trying to make sure that is the extent of it.

Thank God I finally got custom LASIK two months ago!

I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune. Did the treatment work?