I had kept my contacts in for a few days (as I was told I could do), but when I removed them last night before bed, it felt as if I removed a whole layer of my right eye.

The lens came out with no problem, but it was painful within a minute or so, and stayed that way through the night – to the point where I woke up a few times.

Now, I am sitting at my desk, and it feels as if I have some serious grit in the eye that won’t go away.

What have I done? 🙁

Sounds like you might have scratched your eye – phone your opticians. They’ll probably squeeze you in as an emergency appointment to check it over

Agreed with that.

Years ago I tried contacts and ended up getting an ulcer on my eye (this was when contacts were in their infancy and I had soft ones that I could allegedly leave in all the time).

Don’t leave it or it could get worse.

Be careful. Bro in law recently got and ulcerated iris from his contacts. Likened it to red hot needles in the eye

+1 for seeing someone. Sounds like a corneal abrasion. Need to see someone with a slit lamp who’ll be able to look at it for you – optician or eye casualty.

Could be a Corneal Abrasion or Corneal Ulcer?

When I was in Costa Rica, ended up with a case of conjunctivitis which irritated a Corneal Abrasion (caused by leaving lenses in too long), leading to a Corneal Ulcer and an eye that would churn out masses of gunk to the extent I’d have to prise it open when I woke up~ my first view in the morning was tendrils of eye snot through a cloudy haze.

Went to a hospital to get it seen to and ended up with eye drops I had to take every hour for 48 hours, including through the night… as I was in a shared dorm in a hostel at the time, I arranged to stay on the couch, so as not to disturb my fellow backpackers.

Trust me, you don’t want a case of heavy eye snot, though it is pretty funny looking back…

Saxonrider as stated above,could be any of those things or a couple of others. Firstly DO NOT PPUT ANY MORE CONTACT LENSES IN UNTIL IT HAS BEEN CHECKED OUT!!!.

Secondly depending where you are in the country it could be a trip to an eye hospitals A&E or a trip to an oticians via the PEARS scheme (where most acute referral work is done at the opticians, its a free service and the opticians probably has better equiptment than the hospital anyway).

What part of the country are you from? if shropshire i can provide you with a few names and numbers of practices registerred on the pears scheme.

Where are you?
Who is your optician?
If you’re near Oxford I can get you seen.

Had the above years ago when living in the US (didn’t have access to an optician). Left my gas permeable lenses in too long (i.e. got pissed and forgot to take them out) – like someone was sticking needles in my eyes, not fun.
Got them lasered 13 years ago – sorted.

I had something similar. Grit I think got behind my lens and even with the lens out, it was really painful esp to light. Optician referred me to eye ward at Hereford and 4 visits later I was signed off although there was a small scar thankfully not noticeable now.

So get yourself checked out. As I was repeatedly told, you only get one pair of eyes!

Thanks for your concern everyone. I am in Cardiff, so can’t avail myself of your kind offers of assistance, but have made an appointment with my opticians for 17:45 today, and will get it taken care of immediately.

I went to my GP, she referred me to my regular optician. I had got a big chunk of something in my eye a few days earlier, got it out, worn contacts as normal then started having nasty pain. Problem was I was away from home so had to drive home, and I had no glasses. Not fun.

Turns out it is a corneal ulcer. It seems the fact that my eyes are naturally as dry as sand means that I shouldn’t wear them to sleep in as much as I do. So it’s antibiotic drops and no contacts for me for a few days.

Yeah that’s what I had.

I wouldn’t sleep in them at all now.
Get another check before wearing them again as well.

Dry eyes here too. Was wearing the really expensive lenses that you are meant to be able to leave in and sleep in for 30 days.

I don’t think I ever left them in overnight, was also eager to get them out as soon as I got home from work c.9-10hrs.

Tired, uncomfortable eyes ain’t fun, given up with contacts now. My eyes do have signs of ‘over wear’ although I was only told this during a couple of laser surgery appointments. Not told during contact lens checkups. Main sign is the blood vessels grow further over the eye to improve supply where the contact lens sits I think.

Moorfields in London – if you are ever in the big smoke.

I use the extended wear ones and I do sleep in them all the time. The optician tells me off for not removing them once a week, then tells me my eyes are great and the ulcer healed almost completely. I do try to remember to take them out of course.

Main sign is the blood vessels grow further over the eye to improve supply where the contact lens sits I think

Neovascularisation