Only Human

Ryan Soucie’s Story

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So, long story short...

While Ryan Soucie was in the bathroom putting on my 'eyes'

Ryan Soucie made the mistake of

using five week old contacts lenses

My Advice to You is

replace your contacts every 3 weeks...at a maximum

Here's the whole story

There's nothing quite like the pain of putting in or taking out five week old contacts. Imagine replacing your solution with lemon juice. Roommates will laugh as they watch you wriggle in agony while you perform an awkward dance that mirrors a 3-year old's temper tantrum.

I was trying to stretch my dollar by wearing each pair of contacts an extra couple of weeks, which would double the life of the box. But after one night of trying to peel the lil' piece of silicone from my cornea, it was already too late. Ya see, soft contact lenses have a recommended life of two weeks. This is because the lenses, which were once porous, start to deteriorate after a while, closing the tiny holes as they become saturated with mucus and the like. So despite my skeptics of my optometrist trying to scam me outta money, I learned the hard way that the lenses really are only good for a 2-3 week use.

Sadly this is not the first time I've been through this. I have almost completely lost my vision due to overuse of contacts, as well as sleeping in them. Corneal neovascularization (yeah, big word) is the excessive ingrowth of blood vessels from the limbal vascular plexus into the cornea, caused by a low reception of oxygen, which is generally not received from the bloodstream, but through the air. I have had this condition twice before, and unfortunately, it is fairly common. Treatment involves frequently taking dilators and ridiculously potent eye drops, so strong it burns for at least 20 minutes or so.

For anyone interested in getting lasik surgery, especially if you've had infections like I've had, you may not be eligible, due to excessive scarring and the heightened sensitivity of your cornea. That said, you might be stuck wearing contacts and glasses for life! Extended use may not affect you the first couple of times, but after making it a routine, you'll get burned in the end.

So let your eyes breathe! Your eyes are worth putting up the cash, even if you don't really have it. You only have one pair after all; take care of them.