Newbie..After swimming I have developed dry eyes and cannot wear contacts :(

[SamTheMan1984]

Hi everyone,

I’m new and feeling incredibly frustrated at the moment with my sudden onset dry eyes and inability to tolerate contacts lenses.

I’m a recently turned 34 year old guy who had been wearing Acuvue Oasys contact lenses almost full time for over 13 years without any issues at all…They were so comfortable I would often forget I even had them in! Sometimes I even used to sleep in them.

In January this year I started swimming in a chlorinated pool every 2-3 days. The first time I swam I carelessly kept my contacts in and some water got under my goggles. A few hours later when I was at home my eyes began to hurt and I took my contacts out immediately. I realised that I should never have swam in them in the first place, and from that point on wards I always took my contacts out before swimming.

However since that day, whenever I went swimming again my eyes would always start to hurt when I reinserted my contacts afterwards. This seemed to happen whether I inserted them immediately afterwards, hours or even days later. It didn’t seem to matter..pain and discomfort would follow.

I have not been swimming at all in well over a month; yet, the same problem persists whenever I try to wear contact lenses… Pain and discomfort after about 30 minutes that gradually gets worse.. It’s almost like a feeling of pressure that builds up the longer I wear them, but there seems to be no redness or visible irritation.

The other day I had my eyes thoroughly examined by my optometrist (a new one) who informed me that my eyes are in good health but that they are very dry and that they must have been this way for a long time.. I’m not sure if this correct as as I said earlier, this problem only started a couple of months ago and I have never experienced any dry eye symptoms before.. I have never even had to use lubrication/dry eye drops before as my contacts were always comfortable enough as they were. I have also tried using a number of different brands and types of contacts including daily lenses and a number of different lubrication drops but nothing seems to help at all.

I feel as if somehow the chemicals in the pool have damaged my eyes as it just doesn't make sense to me how I could to go from wearing contacts very regularly to suddenly not being able to wear them for even an hour for no apparent reason.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what has happened and if this problem can somehow be rectified? Or am I stuck with it now? The thought of never wearing contacts again is a bit depressing as I am so used to them and do not like how I look in glasses.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[pythonidler]

Welcome to the forum.

I used to wear contact lenses for a long time as well. I wore them virtually all day, every day starting in 2001. I had to stop wearing them 9 months after I got dry eye (my first symptoms were in September 2012), after an ophthalmologist told me that they were contributing to my dry eye.

It's possible your contact lenses are what caused your dry eye. This is because wearing a contact lens reduces your blinking rate, and not blinking frequently enough can lead to a type of dry eye known as meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). Contact lens wear can be especially dangerous when paired with a career that involves heavy computer use, since computer use also reduces your blinking rate.

Right now, the best thing you can do is find a great dry eye specialist to figure out if you actually have MGD or not. Since dry eye is progressive, it gets irreversibly worse the longer you wait to treat it. Thus, it's best to act as aggressively as possible and assume the worst until a doctor can diagnose you. I'd suggest reading some of a paper I wrote for this forum, called "What you need to know about computer-induced dry eye" (link is in my sig). Even though computers may not have caused your dry eye (and for now we really don't know what did), a lot of information in it is still relevant. You should read the sections "Lessons Learned", "The Tear System", "The Two Main Types of Dry Eye", "Finding a Doctor", and "At the Doctor's Office". It's a lot to read, but I promise it's all very important.

Let us know how your appointments go!

[Guest]

I wore contacts from 1996 to 2001, I abused them in the sense that I was young, didn't clean them well, slept in them, etc. then one day I just started rejecting them, I believe looking back now, I had gotten dry eye. But once I removed the contacts, I was lucky enough, because I had youth on my side (16-21yo), that I was asymptomatic.

Fast forward, I'm 37, I pushed down a garbage can, got dust in my eyes, got an abrasion and boom...extremely symptomatic dry eye.

So every doctor that I have seen said, an abrasion alone wouldn't do this, you had to have been having problems before this. At first I was like, nope, eyes were perfect. But upon further reflection I remembered my contact rejection years back, then I thought, I've been photophobic for years, cannot be in a car without tint or go outside without sunglasses. I also remembered right before this happened, a few months or so, late at night after staring at my phone all day, I would get just a slight burning, I'd close my eyes and let some tears build, then hop back on my phone. It had become so normal I didn't realize I was having issues. Plus the issues were very minor.

So if I were you, I'd try to think, have I just been so used to my mild dry eyes, that I didn't notice these signs of dry eye before the chlorine got to them? I believe something as simple as chlorine in a pool could have been the tipping point for you sadly.

I hope you find some answers and relief...contacts are just horrible for our eyes as well. My wife has dry eye and starbursts at night just from wearing contacts for 20 years. They disrupt the tear film and are a foreign body. Wish I had more info as a kid...but such is life.

Much love!

let me also add...python finder is always right lol...you really need to find a doctor that understands dry eye. It took me 4 doctors before anyone even mentioned MGD and lid hygiene. Then another 2 doctors before I got a meibography, serum drops, etc. just better overall care...it takes time but don't spin your wheels with a doctor that dismisses you or doesn't address your problem from top to bottom.