A trip to the beach has turned Brooklyn McCasland’s life upside down after she contracted a vision-threatening eye infection while swimming in her contact lenses.
It happens when a parasite that can be found in water invades the eye, damaging the cornea, causing severe pain and potentially leading to blindness. The condition, called Acanthamoeba keratitis, is rare in the U.S., but when it does strike, it most often affects contact-lens wearers.
McCasland, 23, who has lost vision in her right eye and is waiting for a corneal transplant, must now spend her days in a dark room because of the extreme eye pain and light sensitivity. She says she wants to spread awareness about the rare eye infection.
“I’ve been going to the eye doctor since I was 7, having checkups every single year, and not (during) one of those visits have they ever said to not swim or shower in my contacts,” she tells TODAY.com.
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“I think there’s still a lot of people who don’t know, like myself.”
Contact lenses and water don't mix
McCasland, who lives in Longview, Texas, has been wearing contact lenses for 16 years. She says she’s always practiced good lens-wearing habits, including changing the solution as directed and never sleeping in her lenses.
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She wears monthly contacts, which means she takes them out every night, and replaces them with a new pair after a month of wear.
In late August, McCasland went on a girls beach trip to Alabama and swam underwater in the Gulf of Mexico while wearing her contact lenses.
Contact lenses and water “are a bad combination” because water makes contact lens wearers vulnerable to eye infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns.
People should never wear contacts while showering or swimming, the agency notes.
But like many contact lens wearers, McCasland had never heard that warning.
About a week after she got back from the beach, she started to feel like there was something in her right eye. That sensation turned into sharp pain a few days later. McCasland went to her eye doctor and received antibiotic drops and other treatments, but nothing helped.
It would take weeks to get the correct diagnosis: Acanthamoeba keratitis.
What is Acanthamoeba keratitis?
Acanthamoeba are single-celled organisms that can be found in pools, hot tubs, tap water and shower water, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
They can invade the eye through a minor abrasion in the cornea and infect it, causing severe pain, inflammation and even blindness, the CDC notes.
Soft contact lenses can act like a sponge, absorbing water and impurities in it such as Acanthamoeba, and becoming their portal of entry into the cornea, Dr. Thomas Steinemann, a clinical spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, previously told TODAY.com.
Contact lenses can also create tiny cuts on the eye that make it easier for the parasite to enter as they become trapped under the lens, Dr. Danielle Trief, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, previously told TODAY.com.
There are one to nine cases of Acanthamoeba keratitis per 100,000 people, with up to 93% of cases happening among contact lens wearers, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Because it’s so rare, Acanthamoeba keratitis is difficult to diagnose. McCasland says she was misdiagnosed for a month.
'Feels like there’s glass in your eye'
Her eye doctor finally sent her to a cornea specialist, who quickly suspected Acanthamoeba keratitis. Confirmation required scraping cells off her eye with a metal tool.
Treatment involved inserting chlorhexidine and Brolene antimicrobial eye drops into her eyes every 30 minutes day and night, and then from 6 a.m. to midnight. She may go down to four times a day soon.
She’s also taking Impavido, an anti-parasitic drug, three times a day.
McCasland hasn’t been able to work at her job as a barista in a coffee shop for more than a month because of the severe eye pain.
“It feels like there’s glass in your eye,” she says. “I don’t think people understand how intense the pain is. It’s really debilitating.”
Her medication comes with side effects that make her sick. She also suffers from headaches caused by the cornea inflammation, and experiences nerve pain that goes up the right side of her head and into her cheek bone. Pain medications only help for a little bit, she says.
Because she’s supremely light sensitive, McCasland keeps her eyes closed as much as possible and stays in her bedroom with blankets covering her windows for extra darkness. She only leaves for doctor appointments. She can’t drive, so her boyfriend takes her.
A corneal transplant will hopefully restore the vision in her right eye, but that may not happen for a year — until her doctor is sure the infection is completely gone from her eye.
“I’m very social. I like to go out. So for me to just sit in a dark room all day … it’s been super, super hard,” McCasland says.
“I’m still looking at a long road of recovery. But I wanted to spread awareness for this.”
McCasland’s friend has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for her expenses as she recovers.
How to avoid the infection:
The CDC has these tips:
- Don't swim, shower or use hot tubs while wearing contact lenses.
- If water touches contact lenses for any reason, take them out as soon as possible. Throw them away, or clean and disinfect them overnight before wearing them again.
- Don’t use tap water to store or disinfect contacts.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from Today:
