“Call me vain if you want, but glasses just don’t fit my image since I started my senior year of college.
Confession #1: I Rinse My Contacts with Water
“Friday was my roommate’s birthday, but we decided to get started early by going to our favorite hot spot’s Thirsty Thursday Night where we downed far too many pitchers of beer. While all this time with my bros’ was awesome, I noticed that my eyes started to dry out from the smoky bar atmosphere.
Since I needed to be on point for the next round of darts-seriously, we had next month’s rent riding on this-I ran to the bathroom and rinsed my lenses with water. I know, I know, my eye doctor would flip out, but I’ve done it thousands of times, and other than a little redness, nothing terrible had happened. At least, until now.”
Confession #2: I Reuse Solution
“Once I got home, I did manage to at least take my lenses out and give them a good cleaning. To be honest, it was more like another quick rinse under the faucet before I put them in their solution.
Now, here’s another thing I have to confess. I live on a student budget, and that means that I sometimes have to cut corners. Between pizza binges, bar tabs, and date nights, I sometimes skimp on.
I live on a student budget, and that means that I sometimes have to cut corners. Between pizza binges, bar tabs, and date nights, I sometimes skimp on. Between pizza binges, bar tabs, and date nights, I sometimes skimp on solutions.
So late Friday night…alright, the wee hours of Saturday morning…I did my usual top-off of the solution to what was left in the contact case. As I did, I silently congratulated myself on being so frugal. Now, I wish I’d thought about the true cost of that mistake.”
Confession #3: I Slept In My Lenses
“Saturday night, we all headed over to my buddy Jason’s apartment where we partied clear into Monday morning.
Thank goodness it was a three-day weekend. Since I was too drunk to drive on Saturday night, taking out my lenses was the last thing on my mind. I just passed out and fell into a deep sleep with my contacts still in.
On Monday and Tuesday, I had a ton of studying to catch up and some classes on so I kept my contacts in all the way until Wednesday…..”
Thursday Brought Consequences
“Usually, all I have to worry about after a party weekend is a hangover that some rest and greasy food can fix.
Unfortunately, Thursday showed me that my sloppy eye care habits could finally catch up to me. I woke up that morning all excited about this hot dinner date I had planned that evening with a girl I’d met over the weekend. But, my eyes were red and painful. I knew I’d done something horribly wrong.”
“Needless to say, I canceled my date and made an emergency visit to my eye doctor. Luckily he didn’t shame me too harshly. He asked me about my contact lens habits, and I had to confess.
He turned things into a real positive for me. He said he sees common eye infections like this far too often from contact lens wearers, and recommended that I consider having LASIK surgery to get out of wearing contact lenses ever again, and avoid a repeat infection.”