The presence of corneal edema is a sign that your cornea
is not getting enough oxygen. Your cornea gets its oxygen
from the air around us (breathing through a contact lens)
rather than by red blood cells from our blood vessels.
The number one symptom of edema is hazy, blurry vision -
like looking through fog (similar to seeing in your
bathroom after a long hot shower. For those wearing their
lenses while they sleep, waking up to hazy vision (after
rewetting your lenses) for the first hour or so of the day,
means that your corneas are not getting enough oxygen, so
decrease your extended wear use!
Chronic corneal edema leads to long term changes to your
cornea. Neovascularization (the body forming new blood
vessels to aid in the oxygenation of the corneal tissue
due to lack of oxygen) is one of the most common
complications to over wearing contact lenses. This finding
is usually what a doctor finds when he/she informs their
patients that they are over wearing their lenses. While I
have seen these vessel changes slowly disappear, many
times they are permanent changes to the cornea.
Patients that would like to consider having LASIK surgery
in their future should be aware that advanced
neovascularization can affect a their candidacy for the
procedure.
