A Texas woman who was left blind in her right eye is urging others not to make the same mistake she made with contact lenses.
Brooklyn McCasland, 23, began experiencing the “worst pain she had ever felt” a few days after a beach trip with friends in Alabama in August.
The doctors first told the barista she just had sand in her eye, then blamed it on a common infection and gave her eye drops and antibiotics.
But the pain lasted for weeks. The outer layer of his eye began to cloud, which his doctor assumed was damage caused by an infection.
She was referred to a specialist, who scanned her eye and saw specks of white, cloudy material, and determined that the parasites had entered the young woman’s cornea.
He is believed to have contracted the parasites, which live in tap water, oceans and lakes, after swimming in the sea with his contact lenses in.
McCasland said: “If I could have avoided all this pain by not swimming with my contact lenses, then I would have done it.”
McCasland was forced to stop working at the cafe as a result of the infection. The pain, which had persisted for a month and a half, made work difficult, as did the loss of vision in the left eye, which caused changes in depth perception.
He has lost vision in his right eye and is awaiting an expensive transplant that has only a slim chance of restoring his sight.
The parasite, called acanthamoeba, lives in water and can enter the eye through microscopic tears in the cornea. The insects are between 15 and 45 nanometers in size, about 5,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
They burrowed into the transparent outer layer of McCasland’s eyeball and reproduced, multiplying and eating the healthy tissue there.
An estimated 1,500 Americans contract this disease each year, according to The Cleveland Clinic. About 90 percent of those cases occur in people who wear contact lenses.
As such, ophthalmologists recommend not showering, swimming, or using a hot tub with contact lenses in.
When the pain started, McCasland went to her optometrist, who diagnosed her with a common eye infection and prescribed antibiotics, steroid eye drops, and another eye drop for the pain.
In acanthamoeba keratitis, the parasites enter the cornea and begin to multiply, causing acute pain, cloudy vision, sensitivity to light and, in some cases, blindness. The cloudiness shown in this eye scan is the damage that insects have caused to your cornea.
She said it started with pain that “felt like I had glass in my eye.”
Then, after several weeks, his vision began to become blurry.
‘They (the doctors) still had nothing.
‘They kept shooting in the dark, which was really frustrating. I remember praying.’
After about a month and a half of constant pain and no answers, McCasland went to see a specialist whose office was four hours away from her.
There, after performing eye scans, he was diagnosed with acanthamoeba keratosis, the technical name for the infection.
She said: ‘It was a shock but also a relief to have everything answered. For so long being misdiagnosed and not knowing what it is and getting worse and in pain.’
If doctors catch the condition early, they can easily treat it with eye drops, which contain chlorine to kill parasites.
McCasland has been given a series of these eye drops, which contain some of the products also used to clean swimming pools, and which she must take every 30 minutes throughout the day.
In about 40 percent of cases, doctors have to perform surgery: scraping the outside of the eye to remove parasites and then repairing the area with a transplant.
McCasland said that during the 16 years he wore contact lenses, he never took them out when he went to the pool or shower. Now she said she wishes she had been warned. She said: ‘I have no sight now, I would do anything to get it back. I’m sure it would change your life.
McCasland is one of the unlucky people who will likely have to have surgery. He is currently awaiting a $5,000 corneal transplant, plus a $62,000 bill for all the different medications.
Since this diagnosis, she has been reflecting on her nearly two decades of contact lens wear.
He said he always wore them when showering and swimming, and also washed his contact case with tap water.
He recalled that on previous visits to his optometrist, the doctor had asked him if he showered with his contact lenses. He replied: ‘Yes, some people get away with it. “It’s really no big deal.”
This was frustrating for her, she said: “That bothered me, especially after I found out I had it.” She wants people to be aware that, although rare, this condition can affect anyone, even those who do not wear contact lenses.
As a result of his debilitating condition, McCasland was forced to quit his job.
Loss of vision in one eye has distorted your depth perception, and having sunlight hitting your eyes is painful; Both aspects make working in a well-lit cafe almost impossible.
Then a friend created a GoFundMe to help the young woman pay bills while she waits for surgery, because Texas does not offer short-term disability.