“Eye” Have a Horror Story | Teen Ink

“Eye” Have a Horror Story MAG

By Anonymous

     This is a real-life horror story, butwithout monsters or creepy murders. About two months ago, I got thescare of my life when I was hospitalized with a cornea ulcer. What theheck is that? you ask, and that’s a good question.

Yourcornea is the top layer of your eye, a thin, smooth, transparent filmthat reflects light into your pupil allowing you to see. An ulcer issimilar to a blister, and is usually caused by bacteria. So, in short, acornea ulcer is a blister on the surface of your eye. Not only does thatsound disgusting, it looks gross, too. When I went to the hospital, Ihad no vision in my left eye and needed two types of eye drops every 30minutes.

By now you’re probably thinking, Wow, that soundsserious. You probably need to do something really stupid to get aninfection like that. Well, don’t be so sure. It is more commonthan you think and is caused by bacteria infiltrating the eye.People who wear soft contact lenses will love to know that inadequatecare of your lenses will help this bacteria build up, which is probablyhow I got it.

See, normally when bacteria enters your eye, tearswill form and your eye will flush it out. But if you’re wearingcontacts, it can be absorbed by the lens and stay in your eye to wreakits havoc.

As you can see, getting a cornea ulcer is possible,and trust me, it’s not fun. I spent four days in the hospitalbeing monitored, receiving drops twice an hour and getting no sleep atall. Once home, I had to see a doctor every day for the next two weeks.My drops were reduced to hourly, but I still didn’t sleep.Eventually my drops were decreased, but there was still little progress.

Two weeks after my hospitalization, I had about 20/200 vision(meaning I could only see that big letter “E” on the chart).The problem was that the blister had popped and left tissue covering thesurface of my eye. So, I had it surgically removed. I hope youdidn’t eat right before reading this. After that, I beganrecovering quickly. Now, two weeks after surgery, my vision is about20/60.

I haven’t been able to play sports for a month, andI’m just returning to work. Although I’m well on the road to recovery, it doesn’t mean my eye will be okay. Because ofthe infection, my cornea, which should be smooth, is bumpy. It may becorrectable with a hard contact lens, but notice I said, “maybe.” If it’s not, then I’ll have to have a corneatransplant. I don’t know about you, but this is definitely a lotscarier than any horror movie I’ve ever seen.

So, kids,clean those contacts, and realize this could happen to you.Early signs include a yellow-green discharge, loss of vision, a whiteblister-like mass covering the surface of your eye and sensitivity tolight.

So, next time you let some silly horror movie scare you,imagine what it’s like being 16 and going to a hospital at one inthe morning because you could lose your sight. Scary, huh?



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This article has 4 comments.


i love this so much!

Sparaxis GOLD said...
on Dec. 10 2016 at 2:29 pm
Sparaxis GOLD, Saint Marys, Georgia
13 articles 1 photo 307 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If you keep on picking on me, I'll mess up again. This time, on PURPOSE."

Horrifying.

on Jun. 16 2009 at 9:10 pm
practicerandomkindness, Rindge, New Hampshire
0 articles 0 photos 46 comments
I too, can sort of sympathize. If I take my glasses off, everything over 6-8 inches away becomes unrecognizable. Great article!

Jay333 said...
on Apr. 19 2009 at 3:35 pm
Good writing. I can sympothise sort of, first off my sight is so bad that without my glasses everything becomes a blurred hairy sea that progessively worsens ever year. As if that wasn't bad enough now I have a permanent visual distortion caused by cat scratch disease.(belive it or not Bartonella aka cat scratch fever and instead of attacking my lymph nodes it went for the optic nerves!) Even though Bartonella resolves on its own it branded me with its mark in my right eye. Its kind of a cresent moon shape that use to block every thing I tried to do. It annoyed me so much. It would even change colors of things, for instance make white light appear purple...over the years I've grown accustom to it. Its gotten to the point that if I want to see how it affects the appearance of anything I acctually have to try to find it. You can imagine how horrifying it was to wake up one morning seeing a lare spot with little tiny ones sparkling like broken glass all around.