First I would like to wish everyone a Happy 2015 and hope it brings happiness, health and blessings.

This past three weeks have been a gamut of emotions. December 17th was a typical day of work then I decided I needed to do some last minute errands. I ended up staying out a little later than anticipated so when I came home I was unable to clean my contacts as I always do and stored them in another case. I thought for a moment about using a new case but thought it would be fine for just 1 night.

I woke up and put my contacts in the next morning. Everything seemed fine. I arrived at work and noticed that there was a film on my left eye. I attributed it to my contact so I removed the contact and cleaned it. I went through the day but that film never left. Why I did not remove the contact is beyond me but it is a decision I would come to regret. When I left work I went outside and it looked like fog had rolled in the city. I was afraid to ask anyone if it was fog. Thinking back I now realize I knew something was wrong.

Finally made it home and took Kibbles out. Everything still looked hazy so I decided to take out my contacts. I took the left out first and felt a burning sharp pain in the eye. I looked and realized my left eye was blurred. I could not make out any features just shapes. My right eye was still ok until 30 minutes later when I noticed the blur beginning. I immediately called my eye doctor and she told me to come right away. I of course decided I needed to drive myself until I went out on the road. The headlights appeared as prisms and the colors prevented me from seeing. Thankfully, my guardian angel was there to guide me back home.

Now I was frightened as my worst fear was this would now be my vision. I knocked on my neighbor’s door but they were not home. My next thing was to call my son and luckily they were out but came and drove me to the eye doctor. The diagnosis was corneal erosion. I somehow mixed up my contact solution and put hydrogen peroxide in my eye. The result of this mistake was taking the first layer of the cornea off. The good news was hopefully it would heal.

I finally regained my vision 4 days later. It has involved antibiotic drops, eye ointment and eye drops as well as multiple visits to my eye doctor (in fact I have another one tomorrow). Everything seems to be progressing nicely and the corneal tissue has regrown.

I consider myself blessed and fortunate. I have subsequently talked to people who have had permanent partial vision loss. It still bothers me to be on a computer for a long period of time but that too can be a blessing. I still am not permitted to use my contacts so I have to wear my glasses but that is a little price to pay for what could have been.

I have now separated all the solutions so that mistake can never be made again. The old contacts and cases have been tossed.  I learned a valuable lesson and will be more careful in the future.