Tuesday, October 6, 2009

More Pix and My Baby Sister

Well, I added some more pictures of Lincoln to the facebook album "Just Can't Get Enough" (link on the right-hand side). And I would like to point out that Tyler took the following picture, and I love it. Lincoln loves watching Playhouse Disney in the morning while we're getting ready, but Mickey Mouse Clubhouse absolutely mesmerizes him. It is beyond cute.


And now a warning. I've been pretty bad about my contact lens maintenance for as long as I've had contacts, lo these last 10 years or so. I would wear one until it either broke or irritated my eye, regardless of how long I was supposed to wear it. If that meant wearing them for 3 or 4 or 5 months, whatever. The worst I had ever heard of happening to someone was getting an infection and having to use eye drops and wear glasses for a few weeks. Since I don't mind my glasses too much and I have decent insurance, I just figured I would deal with that if it happened. But that changed a few weeks ago. My baby sister (ok, she's 22, but whatever) thought she had pink eye, and when she went in (only 2 days after the symptoms started!), she found out she had a corneal ulcer. It was so infected that the scar tissue will leave her eye permanently damaged. She is still on antibiotics and once the infection has run its course, she'll have to wear a hard contact lense for 6 months (to reshape the eye) and then get a cornea transplant if she ever wants vision correctable to 20/20 again. My baby sister! She barely wore her contacts one month past when she was supposed to throw them away. She wasn't any worse than I was about reusing the solution in her case. But her doctor said it was caused by her contact lenses and that he's seen this many times. Obviously, I went home that night and changed cases and contacts. And I've been much better in the week since. I don't think this happened just because of her contact lense care because if that was all, I would have gotten this years ago. But I do think it's worth remembering that a lot worse can happen than just wearing your glasses for a few weeks and putting in eye drops, just in case any of you are as bad as I used to be. Jamie blogged about this here, and she includes a picture of her eye that they took at the doctor's office. So remember, take care of your contacts!

3 comments:

Mr and Mrs Smith and Co said...

Wow... Kinda scary. I was that bad. So bad when I went in for my "free" lasik consult, they told me I needed to take better care of my eyes, or I wouldn't be a good candidate for the surgery. I just got the surgery earlier (and I love it. With 3 kids, not having to find glasses in the middle of the night is fab), but I understand the need to be careful.

Leslie@leserleeslovesandhobbies said...

I have a friend that just had a cornea implant. Not because of contact lenses, but hers was a genetic degenerative condition. Misshapen corneas.

Kelli @ WhimsiKel said...

Emily, I am so jealous about the lasik! We both want it, so hopefully we can get it done in the next few years (though Tyler's eyes are bad enough he needs the more expensive one). And Les, how's your friend handling the transplant? Any words of advice you could pass on?