{"id":6183,"date":"2025-07-21T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/bibliotheek\/i-lost-my-eye-to-the-acanthamoeba-parasite\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:07:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:07:03","slug":"i-lost-my-eye-to-the-acanthamoeba-parasite","status":"publish","type":"library_pt","link":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/library\/personal-stories\/i-lost-my-eye-to-the-acanthamoeba-parasite\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I lost my eye to the Acanthamoeba parasite.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2025-07-21T10:10:00+02:00\">21 July 2025<\/time><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One day, her eye became red and painful. At first, she thought it was just a minor irritation. The family doctor prescribed eye drops, but it only got worse. \u201cI couldn\u2019t stand the light anymore. The pain became unbearable. I was writhing on the floor. I was given different eye drops, but nothing helped.\u201d After three weeks, the doctor sent Marga to the hospital. At Amsterdam UMC, it turned out that her cornea was severely inflamed. The doctors took a culture and diagnosed acanthamoeba keratitis (see box). \u201cAll I could see was a thick gray fog. The doctor said, \u2018You must be in so much pain.\u2019 It was such a relief that someone acknowledged I wasn\u2019t just making it up. Those parasites were gnawing at the nerve fibers in my eye. I had pain in my temples, in my ears, and a constant headache. I couldn\u2019t stand any noise. My world was shrinking. I couldn\u2019t do anything anymore\u2014just lie there with my eyes closed or look down. I was also very afraid that the parasite would spread to my other eye.\u201d       <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tough months<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The doctors did everything they could to save her eye. She was given a lot of medication and had to use eye drops 24 hours a day. This meant she could barely sleep. But the parasite was persistent. She lost her independence and became dependent on her husband. \u201cWe told each other: we\u2019ll get through this together. But it was tough. The uncertainty, the pain, the lack of energy&#8230; all of it together wore me down.\u201d After seven months, the bad news came: the parasite was breaking through the eye. There was no other option left. Her eye had to be removed.          <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Farewell to Her Eye<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvisceration. I didn\u2019t know that word. But it meant that the contents of my eye were being removed. The next day, I was lying on the operating table. After the surgery, Marga felt something strange: relief. \u201cThe pain was gone. It felt like a liberation. Despite the sadness, I was on cloud nine. In hindsight, maybe I stuck with the medication for too long. The option of eye removal had come up before. But I really didn\u2019t want that. I was afraid of what it would look like.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Even more surgeries<\/strong> <strong>needed<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the battle wasn\u2019t over yet. It turned out the parasite hadn\u2019t been eradicated after all. Within a week, the wires were hanging there again. She needed another surgery. That was a heavy blow. \u201cI was exhausted\u2014mentally and physically. When I looked at my face in the mirror, I felt disfigured. They had to remove my entire eye socket because everything had been affected by the parasite.\u201d Because the doctors wanted to be absolutely sure the parasite was truly gone, Marga had to wait six months before she could receive an ocular prosthesis. That\u2019s because the Acanthamoeba\u2019s eggs can still hatch six months later. All that time, I walked around with my glasses taped over or wearing an eye patch. Fortunately, after that, the eye socket could be filled with fat harvested from my buttock. I wasn\u2019t allowed to have an implant, because there was a high risk that my body would reject it.\u201d          <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The body&#8217;s own fat did gradually settle a little deeper, which made the difference between that eye and the healthy one more pronounced. \u201cI now get fillers injected every six months. It works very well. I&#8217;m happy with the results.\u201d <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Looking Ahead Again<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During her recovery, Marga received help from the Koninklijke Visio rehabilitation center. \u201cThey really understood me there. That gave me strength.\u201d Eventually, Marga received a beautiful artificial eye. \u201cPeople don\u2019t notice the difference. I feel like myself again. Life is different, but it\u2019s certainly not over.\u201d   <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She does notice that she gets tired more quickly now. And that she has a blind spot. \u201cBut I\u2019m back to biking and driving with a blind-spot mirror. At the supermarket, I sometimes bump into someone. Then I say, \u2018Sorry, you were in my blind spot!\u2019\u201d It\u2019s an invisible disability. Marga looks to the future with confidence. She knows how hard it was, but she also knows she\u2019s stronger than she thought. \u201cLife with one eye is different. But it\u2019s good. I survived, I\u2019m alive, and I\u2019m smiling again.\u201d      <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Happy with OOG in OOG<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marga: \u201cI\u2019m so happy with the OOG in OOG Association. It\u2019s been great to be able to share my fears with others going through the same thing and ask them my questions. Now I try to do the same for others. Every year, I go to the National Contact Day with my husband, Ruud. It\u2019s wonderful to take a moment each year to reflect on everything that has happened to me. What a difference a day like that makes! I\u2019m still thinking about it for a few days afterward, and then it fades away again. It\u2019s wonderful to meet those kind, beautiful, strong people at the association.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Box: What Is Acanthamoeba Keratitis?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Acanthamoeba keratitis is a rare but serious corneal infection. The outer layer of your eye becomes inflamed due to a tiny, invisible parasite (Acanthamoeba). This tiny organism is found in water\u2014whether in oceans and lakes or even in tap water. Acanthamoeba keratitis affects 30 to 40 people in the Netherlands each year.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This inflammation of the cornea mainly affects contact lens wearers, because the parasite settles under the lens. However, anyone with even minor damage to the cornea can develop this inflammation.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The risk of Acanthamoeba infection is higher in:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Swimming, showering, using the sauna, or taking a bath while wearing contact lenses.<\/li>\n<li>Touching contact lenses with unwashed or wet hands.<\/li>\n<li>Rinse the lenses with water and\/or store them in water.<\/li>\n<li>Failure to properly clean the contact lenses or the lens case.<\/li>\n<li>Do not replace the lens solution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For more than 40 years, Marga (63) wore soft contact lenses. She was always careful. A new pair every month, always washing her hands, never showering or swimming with her lenses in. \u201cI was almost overly careful with my lenses. But I didn\u2019t know there\u2019s a parasite in water that can infect your eye if you have even a small tear in your cornea.\u201d That parasite is called Acanthamoeba. And because of that parasite, Marga lost her left eye.       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4865,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_daextauttol_enable_tooltips":""},"library_cat":[113],"class_list":["post-6183","library_pt","type-library_pt","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","library_cat-personal-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt\/6183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/library_pt"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"library_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_cat?post=6183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}