Personal story written by Nina van Oostrum
Have you ever heard that when traveling to tropical countries like Sri Lanka, India, or Indonesia, it’s better to leave your contact lenses at home and wear your glasses instead? I haven’t. I flew all over the world with my monthly contact lenses, lens solution, and lens case, and ended my trip in Sri Lanka. There, I contracted a nasty fungal infection in my left eye.
Result: only ten percent visibility. My boyfriend and I spent six months traveling around the world. Before our trip, we’d heard horror stories about traveler’s diarrhea and food poisoning, but fortunately, we didn’t need to rely on Norit or malaria pills. Not that we shied away from danger—quite the opposite. We braved a cyclone in New Zealand in our camper van, crisscrossed Vietnam on motorcycles, and raced through Cambodia at 100 kilometers per hour with twenty-five people crammed into a ten-seat van. In the Malaysian rainforest, a snake almost fell on my head, while in Indonesia we rode on potholed roads on unroadworthy scooters. To top it all off, we helped make the roads in Sri Lanka unsafe with our very own tuk-tuk. In short, I’m a healthy, sturdy Dutch girl who can take a beating. Last June, my boyfriend and I happily embraced our families upon our return at Schiphol Airport.
A lot of pain
But that same night, I was struck by a terrible pain in my eye. The next day, the pain was so bad that I couldn’t even look at the vacation photos with my mom. Stubborn as I am, I wanted to wait it out a little longer, but by the end of the afternoon, I finally let myself be taken to the urgent care clinic.
The doctor concluded that it was just a common eye infection that should clear up with some ointment. But the next morning, the pain was even worse. In a panic, I called my family doctor. Things then moved quickly. Before I knew it, I was sitting across from an ophthalmologist at the hospital who, with me in a bit of a panic, referred me to Amsterdam UMC, where I was admitted that very same evening. Things were looking bad. Within 24 hours, various tropical bacteria and a fungus had taken over my entire eye. I couldn’t see a thing. They started me on an intensive course of antibiotics. It’s now been two months. While the bacteria have been killed, the fungus is still happily thriving in the depths of my eye. Every two hours, I put a drop of medicine in it. I visit the hospital weekly for checkups. The scars left behind by the bacteria mean that I can now only see 10 percent with the affected eye.
Am I sad?
Am I sad? No. Of course, I’m sorry that I’ll never again be able to see all the beauty in this world with both eyes. But fortunately, I’m still blessed with one good eye, which means I can still drive a car, ride a motorcycle, and work.
With a healthy dose of cynical humor—there are plenty of puns involving the word “eye”—I’m back to going through life with a spring in my step. At first, I assumed it was all just bad luck, until one of my specialists noted with surprise that I hadn’t left my contact lenses at home and had gone out without my glasses. The tropics are dangerous for contact lens wearers, she explained. Even a minor scratch on your cornea is enough to contract a tropical infection. That was completely new information to me. So here’s the deal: are you going on vacation to the tropics? Leave your contact lenses at home.
