ulcer
in the first two years of running back in high school, i ran in my gold-frame eyeglasses, for they were the only source of correction I had for my nearsighted eyes. rain, snow, fog, mud: i didn't know better, so i didn't mind. my world would change senior year, when my parents sprung for contact lenses (the cost/benefit analysis was a no-brainer, given the amount of times I would break my glasses playing soccer). it would take several months before I would go on a run wearing contacts where I didn't instictively place my finger to my nosebridge every mile to push up sliding spectacles.
my eyes took to contacts very well. TOO well, you might say. my marathon stretches with contacts became legendary, literally wearing the same disposable contacts for 2-3 months at a stretch, never removing them for anything. this was much to the chagrin of my optometrist, who warned me of the risks of depriving my eyes of much-needed oxygen.
two years ago, i decided to use my insurance money to buy a new pair of glasses--my first new pair since middle school. i LOVED wearing my new glasses, and wore them all the time--who knew you didn't have to look like a dweeb in frames? all of a sudden, my time spent in contacts plummeted from 99.9% to sub-50%, much to my optometrist's delight. every day i wore my glasses, i felt like i was adding to the longevity of my eyes.
[...]
after sunday morning's run, my eyes were a little red and itchy. i thought nothing of it--i removed my contacts and went about my day. for the next 24 hours, i felt as if a grain of sand were in my eye--i used half a bottle of saline trying to clear it out to no avail. to make matters worse, i became extemely sensitive to light, with sudden sensations as if i were staring straight into the sun. i got very little sleep last night, and although my eyes felt fine during this morning's run, they regressed soon after and i called an opthamologist.
the doctor didn't need me to finish my story, let alone look at my eye, to make her diagnosis. she did look at my eye of course, but only for five seconds: "yup, that's an ulcer alright."
WHAT? man, that's a scary word. but my glasses, the oxygen... i've been doing GOOD, right? what the hell do you mean by 'ulcer?' as it turns out, for all those consecutive days i would wear my glasses with pride, my contacts were sitting in multi-purpose solution that's only good for 24 hour stretches. after 24 hours my contact case would turn into a petry dish, letting who-knows-what grow inside. an infection has now transferred into my eye, and is nibbling at my cornea. oh, the irony... i thought i was doing everything right.
fortunately i pounced in the first 24 hours, and am putting all sorts of drops and salves in my eye throughout the day. with luck, the growth will die and the cornea will rapidly heal in a few days (it's one of the fastest-healing tissues in the human body... who knew?). in the interim, please don't be disturbed at my bloodshot eye, or freak if i recoil in pain upon seeing you.
clean your contacts, take care of your eyes.
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