lawliwa:“I want to share a cautionary tale with you guys. I make light of it, but it’s a very

lawliwa:“I want to share a cautionary tale with you guys. I make light of it, but it’s a very serious issue we don’t really think about until it’s too late. Until this year, I actually really never cared about getting accurate eye colors for my cosplays. I’ve been wearing prescription lenses since around 2003. But this year I decided to start getting some SFX contact lenses. I even got a contact lens sponsorship that I abused. However. I thoroughly regret it now. I suffered a huge injury all because I didn’t get contact lenses from my doctor. In cosplay, it’s very tempting to buy from these SFX contact sellers because it’s convenient and it’s relatively more cost friendly. (I say relatively because the medical bills from this injury have amounted to many times more than the costs I’ve spent on lenses.) After wearing some lenses on Saturday of SDCC, my eye suffered a 90% corneal abrasion. That number is very high and abnormal for just a contact lens. It’s usually from a more violent trauma. At first, the guess was that I was wearing the wrong size. (The diameter isn’t the only important measurement when getting properly fitted lenses.) I saw 4 different doctors and after some time it was determined that it was the quality of the lenses. My lens provided almost no oxygen to my eye, it melded, and when I took out my lens, it took out 90% of my cornea with it. They were concerned that the damage was so severe I might actually go blind from it. It was extremely painful and ugly and just awful. At one point I was trying so hard to force myself not to cry and scream because it hurt so bad but the doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me and that was so frustrating. I couldn’t even open my right eye, because it hurt to squeeze my left eye even the slightest bit. It took over a week and a half to heal the abrasion. Now I’m left with scarring and clouding which is causing blindness. I’m legally blind in my left eye right now which is to say I can “see” but it’s beyond blurry. If I stay this way, it means this eye will never have a prescription that will provide me with any visual accuracy in that eye. I’ve been upgraded to steroids. The clouding has reduced a very low percentage, but I haven’t regained any of my vision. The doctors are hopeful, but it’s not certain I’ll regain my vision. The process takes over a month to heal. Some people have it worse from this injury and lose ALL eyesight. I’m very lucky.So moral of this story? I really hope I motivate at least one cosplayer never to order contact lenses from sources outside of your optometrist or websites that are recommended by/require prescriptions from optometrists. I know colored contacts are so tempting for accuracy, and a fun look, but if they do not come from trusted sources, you are just risking your safety and health for cheap, harmful quality.This photo is from last Thursday and Friday. After a whole week I was finally able to open my eye.Something I didn’t know is that purchasing contact lenses outside of your doctor is actually ILLEGAL in some states. It’s illegal in California. Do some research on your states laws before you buy them too!*** I’m seeing these comments and getting messages with a bunch of incorrect facts.***- Corneal abrasions are NOT rare. Corneal abrasions from contact lenses are the top reason for most corneal abrasions. Not all cases are as extreme as mine. And mine wasn’t even the most extreme case.- Some people said I would’ve felt it immediately and taken my contact lens out. FALSE. I wore my contact lenses for close to 8 hours with out a single sign of pain or discomfort. The injury occurred when I was taking my lenses out.- This was NOT the first time I wore SFX lenses. And this was NOT the first time I wore contact lenses. I’ve been wearing lenses for 10 years.- This was NOT a matter of incorrect sizing, but a matter of QUALITY OF PRODUCT. I was using Pinky Paradise lenses. If you’ve been using Pinky Paradise, good for you. So was I. If you want to continue to use them, good. for. you. I am merely sharing my story as it could happen to ANY ONE even if they’ve been wearing a certain brand for a long time, LIKE ME. I am choosing not to risk quality of product to save a few bucks any more. I don’t even know if I’ll regain vision in my eye so saving $10 and a few doctors visit was NOT worth it to me.”I haven’t seen this around tumblr yet but knowing that pinkyparadise is a popular contact lens provider for the cosplay community, I had to share this here. Please, please be careful when it comes to contact lenses you guys.Source -- source link

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