Why are eyes red and swollen after taking contact lenses off?

Gritty eye discomfort after over-wear of contact lenses?

• So I wear corrective contact lenses and a while back (several months to a year) I decided to make an awful decision and basically not take care of them. The few contact solutions I have tried always made my eyes burn when I put my contacts in, so I decided to stop taking them out, thus avoiding the need to put them back in and sting my eyes. My contacts are in my eyes virtually 24/7, I haven't been taking them out to clean them or anything. I do change them out about once a month, which the lenses are approved for (although my eye doctor suggests every 2 weeks). Anyway, I recently had a conversation with my brother and he lectured me about how bad it is what I am doing to my eyes, and said he had the same problem with the stinging and suggested a solution that won't sting. I haven't been able to acquire it yet, but did promptly take out my contacts and have been wearing my glasses today. I notice though, that when I blink there is a grainy feeling in my eyes. I don't know, but maybe this is dry eye because I have been staring at the computer screen for the last 4 hours playing a game. I have felt this with contacts in before, like when they needed to be cleaned, but they aren't in now and I didn't notice it until after I took them out. Call me an idiot, yes, I have been one. I am going to try this new solution and after giving my eyes a break and healing time from whatever damage I did to them I am going to have a very strict regimen. But does anyone know what this gritty feeling in my eyes could be from? My insurance won't pay for me to go to my eye doctor until about June or July, I am thinking of keeping my contacts out until then. But yeah, anyone have input about this discomfort I have?

• Answer:

  Do you really want to know? The grittiness on your cornea is the protein buildup on your contacts rubbing away your cornea just like sandpaper rubbing against a surface. Now, with the contacts out, you can feel the area on your cornea that has been sandpapered away. You're basically destroying your eye. Take a look at the veins in your eye. Are they buldging a little and does there seem to be more of them than usual? Those are the veins you can see. What you can't see is the veins growing inside your eye. Overwear of contacts deprives the eye of the oxygen it needs to survive and you are slowly killing your eye. Your body, in response to this, is growing veins into the eye in order to supply it with oxygen. When these veins cross between your pupil and your retina, you will start to lose your sight. The only thing that will help is laser treatments which can run into the thousands of dollars. Even then, they will not clear the entire affected area and you will be left with diminished vision for the rest of your life. THAT'S if you're lucky. Unlucky, and you develop a corneal ulcer that can make you blind. Straight to the point. You're not mature enough to wear contacts. Throw them away and never wear them again. There you go, straight to the point. Want to know what we opticians and optometrists think about this and people who act like you? Watch this, it was made by optometrists ... http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7296599/fun-at-the-eye-doctor