Eye to eye

I have this bad habit of falling asleep still wearing my contacts. Bad, I know! It has happened so many times and each time I find myself waking up around 4am realizing I still have them on. Only then, would I take them out then go back to sleep and put them back on like 2 hours after. Not the best thing to do but I have grown dependent on them that I have to wear them a lot. In some days when paranoia kicks in, thats when I contend myself with wearing my glasses to work. I wear disposable soft contact lenses. I have to wear them only for two weeks and I have to replace them after. There have been times that I extended it but not this time since I was told that the kind I have now would harden if its worn past its two weeks time frame. So, I keep a tab on myself to make sure that I change it after two weeks. With that in mind, I should be more cautious of wearing them to sleep but I still have difficulty with it especially the past weeks have been stressful for me. I think I have become a narcoleptic since I pretty much fall asleep as soon as I get home from work with or without contacts. Other than the occasional dryness which goes away right away, I have not experienced anything else that would be of discomfort so I thought I was fine until I saw for myself what happened to my aunt over the weekend.

She wore her contacts after months of not wearing them. She got one that was soaked in solution for some months now rather than getting a new pair. Needless to say she got an infection and was tearing up the whole time. Her eyes were itchy, painful and uncomfortable. She couldn't take them off right away since we were in the middle of the fiesta celebration. So she delayed it which proved to be a not so wise move. By the time she took out her contacts, the left eye has become embedded and hard to take out. She slept on them and the next day (Sunday) she asked if we could take her to the ER since she could barely open her eyes and it was truly painful. At the ER, it was flushed out but the ER doctor felt that he wasn't able to take all of it out so she was referred to an Ophthalmologist. Turned out that the ER doctor was already able to take it out but the rubbing and the fact that it stayed there more than it should caused her to have some abrasions/scratches on her left eye. The scratch was 10mm. Pretty long scratch. I heard the Ophthalmologist say that healing is usually 1mm/day. This meant my aunt needed to rest and treat her eyes for more or less 10 days.

1mm/day!! That scared me. Hers happened just one day and it was already 10mm, so imagine the abuse that I have been doing to my eyes. Horrors! So, now I am really trying so hard to be conscious not to sleep wearing them anymore. Its hard since I still haven't fully recovered from the lack of sleep the previous weeks and this is what is making me fall asleep right away but it would be a small price to pay rather than getting scratches and not being able to function as much as I would want to. Plus, all that medication and follow up with doctors is enough to make me squeamish. Prevention is the key now rather than treatment. Looking at how much trouble my aunt is having should scare me straight and it is.