A Texas mother was left blind in one eye after making a serious mistake with her contact lenses.
Last year, Rachel Prochnow, a lifestyle writer based in Austin, Texas, did something she’d done countless times before: She showered without taking off her glasses.
What started with a mild irritation in my right eye quickly worsened. “The pain makes giving birth seem like a walk in the bloody park. It was absolutely unreal.”
Within two weeks, Mrs Prochnow, who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time, was completely blind on that side.
Doctors told her that a parasite found in the water had entered her eye, probably while she was showering, and had infiltrated the delicate tissue, damaging it.
Ms Prochnow first realised something was wrong when she felt a slight sting in her eye and sensitivity to light. She soon developed excruciating pain and could see nothing but light and hand movements.
She had always been careful about taking care of her eyes, having worn contact lenses since she was 12. She always took them out at night, cleaned them thoroughly, and threw away her contact lens cases regularly, making sure everything was sterilized.
But she never knew that showering, swimming or getting into a hot tub with her contacts could leave her vulnerable to infections.
“I thought I was doing everything right, but I wasn’t,” he said.
Doctors eventually diagnosed her with Acanthamoeba keratitis.
“Due to the severity of the disease, we had to induce labor at 27 weeks,” She said on TikToksharing that two months after giving birth, she was “still battling this painful disease.”
The condition is caused by aCathamoeba parasite, a single-celled organism found in lakes, oceans, tap water, soil and air, According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An estimated 1,500 Americans suffer from it each year, according to The Cleveland Clinic. Approximately 90 percent of these cases occur in people who wear contact lenses.
It affects the cornea, which is the outermost transparent layer of the eye. Wearing contact lenses can cause microscopic tears in this layer, through which the Acanthamoeba parasite can penetrate.
If the parasites manage to enter the cornea, they can multiply and spread, causing eye pain, redness, blurred vision, sensitivity to light and watery eyes. In the long term, this can lead to blindness.
Actinic keratosis is estimated to affect about 1,500 Americans a year, making it a rare condition. Still, Ms. Prochnow said she wants to raise awareness about the issue because she was never told not to swim or shower with her contact lenses in.
If doctors detect the disease early, they can easily treat it with eye drops.
In about 40 percent of cases, doctors have to perform surgery: scraping the outside of the eye to remove the parasites and then repairing the area with a transplant.
This is what Ms. Prochnow had to go through.
After initially being misdiagnosed by five different doctors, she consulted with specialists and had her cornea scraped.
She then began a rigorous treatment with eye drops that she had to apply every 30 minutes for three months, with the help of her parents and her husband Cameron.
He was also given intense medications, similar to those used in cancer treatment, and had to have regular blood tests to make sure the drugs were not causing his liver failure.
“If my parents and Cameron hadn’t been totally committed to helping me through this, I would have definitely lost everything,” she said.
One year and 82 doctor visits after she was initially diagnosed, Ms. Prochnow underwent surgery to replace her cornea with one from a deceased donor.
The surgery went well.
Whereas before he could only see light and hand movements, he can now see and read larger letters at an optician’s. His vision is far from perfect, but he can correct it with glasses.
Now, she is focused on raising awareness about the disease and raising her one-year-old son, Lachlan, who is due in July 2023.
Some tips to reduce the chance of getting this infection include removing contact lenses before showering, avoiding swimming with them on, never using tap water on contact lenses or to clean the contact lens case, and not wearing contact lenses for longer than necessary.
The Texas mom shared her story in a Instagram post which has garnered over 742,000 likes.