Woman warns of parasite
Temuka woman Rona Nolan is urging people not to make the same mistake she did after being infected by an eye-eating parasite that could leave her blind.
For the past five to six weeks Nolan has been suffering from agonising pain in her right eye caused by a parasite she came into contact with after using water to clean her contact lenses.
‘‘Early on, I had days where I’d be waking up in tears from pain, and frustration,’’ Nolan said.
The parasite, known as acanthamoeba keratitis, is commonly found in water, but only causes harm when water gets trapped beneath a contact lens.
While Nolan did have cleaning solution and knew about eye hygiene, she said she had been ‘‘blase about it’’ in the past. ‘‘A lot of times I just used water.’’
She said she first sought medical help a week after the pain in her eye began.
Initially diagnosed and treated for conjunctivitis, Nolan said it wasn’t until she was referred to a specialist that the parasite was detected after she had her eye scraped for testing.
Since then she has been using two kinds of eye drops to try to kill it, alternating between the two every 30 minutes, and while the weeping had finally lessened yesterday, the pain was still excruciating.
Because the eye drops also stung, it was hard to tell whether the pain was from them, or the parasite, she said.
To add to her worry, there is a risk of blindness from the damage the parasite has caused, which will be checked after the worst of the pain settles down.
‘‘He’s [specialist] not happy with how it’s progressing . . . [the parasite] pretty much had three weeks to feed before it’s been treated,’’ Nolan said.
‘‘I’m just hoping that it gets out of there, and my eye’s alright, because that could affect everything.
‘‘But I’ve still got sight in my one eye, and there’s some people who don’t.’’
Nolan has vouched to only use solution to clean the lens she is still wearing in her left eye and said once her right eye had cleared up she would be looking at investing in a pair of glasses instead.
Her advice to people with contact lenses was to wash their hands, and to make sure they only used solution to wash lenses.