The 14 Contact Patient

We all have some incredible stories from practice in eye care. One patient who I remember vividly was an 80 year old woman who came to see me as her 4th ophthalmologist in 10 months. She had initially had irritation of her right eye and then developed discharge associated with the irritation. She was exasperated because the discharge had lasted so long and she had already seen so many people. As with all patients who have irritation of their eyes, I looked under her eyelid. I could see that something was irritating her eyelid deep under the upper lid. I probed the area and pulled out an object. Once I examined the object, I found that it was a mess of 14 contact lenses stuck together! The patient then remembered that with her initial irritation, the doctors had placed a contact lens in her eye to decrease the irritation, which is a known treatment. When she returned, they found that the contact lens had “fallen out,” so they placed another in her eye. This cycle continued for a while, which is how she ultimately came to have a mass of contact lenses stuck under her eyelid. I thought it was pretty incredible!