Hi, I've been a contact lens wearer for many years and have good hygene with them, taking them out and washing/soaking every night. I've never had a problem, until now. Around the beginning of June, I had some irritation that just wouldn't get better in one of my eyes. It felt like there was something in my eye and I had to rinse out my contact, but that just didnt work. The irritation starts off as the feeling that something is in my eye, then the top eyelid gets itchy, and then I notice some significant drooping/swelling of the top eyelid in that one eye. If I take out the lenses, I still have the irritation for about a half hour before it gets better. With glasses, I am completely fine, except it does sort of feel like something is in that eye, but only very faintly.
I wound up switching to glasses for a day or two and then tried contacts again, but that one eye still had an issue. I saw an eye doctor for an unrelated matter and he thought it was just allergies (Zadator drops did not seem to help). So I kept glasses and kept trying out the contacts but nothing was making it better. About 4-5 weeks later, I went to my normal eye doctor who was also not sure what it was. He checked for anything under my eyelid several times and didn't see anything there. He had me use my glasses only, switch to a new pair of contact lenses again, and use some wetting drops for a week. After that week, I tried contact lenses again and it all seemed to be better. Unfortunately, that only lasted a week. Here I am now again unable to wear contact lenses without serious irritation in just one eye. Does anyone have any idea what this could be or what to do about it?
A long time ago, I used to wear contact lenses, suddenly my one eye kept ejecting the lens! I haven't worn them since. I do now have a chronic eye condition which may or may not be the reason I couldn't wear contact lenses.
Do you clean and wear the same pair for a period of time? If so, you may find the wear once lenses suit you better.
Possibly a tiny ulcer which would be very difficult to detect. I have one of these and it took many months of a gritty feeling and a Corneal specialist at the hospital to detect it. Once you have an ulcer it often recurs and needs daily care. Maybe your contact lens days are over,or as mrsmop has said,perhaps 'wear once' lenses will be better.
Thanks. Any other thoughts?
You dont say how old you are but if you are 40 onwards it could be the start of a dry eye condition which would make contact lens wearing very difficult. More common after age 40 but can occur at any age,especially if you have an inherited predisposition. I would suggest not wearing contact lenses for as long as possible,say 6 months or even better a year, and assess what the general health of your corneas may be. Possibly you have a tiny lesion caused by lens wear .for many years. Dont forget that a contact lens is a foreign body and your eyes will naturally try to get rid of it,
Thanks. I'm only 31, and have been wearing the same brand contacts for about 10 years with no issues before this. It's so strange to me.
Hi, this is still going on for me despite only wearing glasses for weeks at a time. Have an appointment with my eye doctor again but any other ideas what it could be?
Get your eye doctor to look for signs of any type of lesion on your cornea for a start. Also you mention a 'drooping' eyelid which irritates. Do you have a blockage of the meibomian glands situated in your eyelid.which may cause a tiny lump or crust and so irritate your eye surface. You can take a look yourself ...have a good look at the eyelid [upper and lower] rim..sometimes what looks like a very tiny cyst can be seen. you can try smearing vaseline on your eyelid rim at night...sometimes this softens/ removes the offending crust/cyst.
Good luck with the appt.
Pretty much experiecing the same situation here: been wearing contacts for 15-20 years, itchy eyelid on one eye only.
Did your appointment produce interesting findings?
My eye doctor switched me from the air optix monthly contacts to the Acuvue daily contacts and that worked for me. I too a few weeks off from wearing contacts before switching to these to make sure anything potentially damaged healed up.
Thanks for following up, appreciate you did! I"ll try wearing dailies once I visit a doctor again....
Hi I have exactly the same problem.
did you manage to get rid of the irritation and go back to wearing lenses again ?
Wendy
You have described my same problem.
I wear Synergy contacts. I'm 50 and have worn contacts without issues since a teenager.
Yes I've worn my glasses and have also seen my eye doc who sees nothing.
I just called and asked for another appointment.
Please keep us up to date!
Thanks!
See my last post a few posts up. I've been good ever since I switched to daily contacts from my monthly ones. Fingers crossed!
I had almost identical symptoms, and my opthamologist called it GPC - its a form of conjunctivitis caused by a sensitivity to long-wear contacts. Essentially you get sort of blisters on the inside of your upper eyelid, which is the source of all the discomfort. I had monthly disposables, and was always trying to save a little money by trying to wear them for 2 months if I could manage, and apparently that aggravated the situation, so even though I wore contacts for over 10 years with no issues, I have to wear dailies now. My opthamologist recommends wearing glasses as often as possible, because apparently once you have this sensitivity that causes the GPC, it's possible it can flare up even with the daily contacts, and then it can progress to wear you aren't able to wear contacts at all.
Also, if you really want to gross yourself out, do a Google image search for GPC. It's kind of gruesome.
Just sharing my experience in case its helpful 
Hey guys,
I have been noticing the same thing lately. My right eye after a long day gets irratated from my contact lense. It feels as if something is under nealth it. After i take it out it still feels like i have sand or an eye lash or something stuck in there..but i cant find anything. I have been using the same monthly contacts for year. After about 30 minutes the swelling of my eyelid goes down and there is only minimal irration. When i look at my eye in the mirror i can sort of see somthing on the top coloured part of my eye. Im not sure what to do. Its so odd its only just started happening.
I'm only 23 year old but have been wearing glasses since i was 3.
Hello I would say it's GPC based of my experience. Contact lens wearer for 10yrs.
My symptoms:
-grainy feeling like sand in eye
-red itchy
-watery
-horrible discomfort
Google it. I had never heard of it until I was diagnosed. And I thought I knew everything ha! Mine had started in the right eye. It felt as if my contact was torn and it was irritating the underneath (back) of my eyelid. I took it out went to my doctor because afterwards the back of my eyelid was so itchy and it felt like I had sand in my eye after I took it out. I was even getting a clearish discharge. So then he wrote down my symptoms checked the backs of my eyelids and he said that I had GPC. It's were you get some bumps in the back of your eyelid like a callous protecting your eyelid from the contact. Due to over wearing contacts past the recommend time and deposits of calcium and protein on the lens. As well as sleeping in them and not letting them soak for 6hrs plus, not sanitizing them properly etc. Anyways mind you I had been wearing contacts for over 10 years. So I couldn't believe it! But after a while your eyes can get sensitive to wearin contacts every day for that many years regardless. So I stopped wearing contacts for like three months to give my eyes a break. There's some medical drops he recommended but I didn't buy them. Just got an eye exam, bumps are gone mostly and I just started wearing contacts again two days ago. However my eyes (um both now wth!) just don't seem to be liking contacts at all anymore (sigh). Will be letting my doc know. I'll give it a few more days. FYI I heard that once you have GPC it is very hard to get rid of it. It's almost like your eyes have become allergic to contacts. So needless to say it seems like I will have to be wearing glasses most of the time which I hate. Use the Clean Care peroxide solution to sanitize them instead of the regular solution. That's supposed to clean them better; my doc said to avoid this problem. I hope my experience helps guys! It's the worst it made me sorta depressed in the beginning. Because I hate glasses!!! But wearing glasses vs contacts is healthier for your eyes. Good luck! If you have any questions lmk! 😊
this makes sense to me - i have the same problem and it seems to be hydration related (irritation in left eye only)
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing!
Antihistamines solved this problem for me.
I suffered from the same issue described by others in this thread for a year:
After wearing contacts (Acuvue Oasys bi-weeklies) for 15 years with no issues, all of a sudden I got bad irritation in one eye and couldn't bear to wear contacts at all. My optometrist said I had little bumps on the back of my eyelid as others on this tread have mentioned. He prescribed steroid based gel eyedrops which I used but they didn't solve the issue. I tried a dozen different bi-weekly and daily contacts. Some were better, some were worse, but none totally solved the irritation (the best of the ones I tried were Daily Aqua Comfort Plus). My optometrist basically told me that this sometimes happens to people after years of wearing contacts and usually it can’t be solved, so I just have to stop wearing contacts all together. I took month long breaks from wearing contacts and used artificial tears to try to clear up the irritation, but this didn't help at all.
I don’t generally have allergies, so I don't take antihistamines. But, one day after suffering from this problem for about a year, I tried taking Reactine on a hunch that it might calm down irritation under my eyelid. At this point I hadn't worn contacts for months but I still felt a very mild irritation in the corner of that one eye even without a lens in there. I took one Reactine a day for a week and the irritation subsided. I took one more week off the contacts to make sure, then popped one in and found that I was cured! Now I'm back to wearing my Oasys bi-weeklies which I love, and I’m not taking the Reactine anymore.
It seems the antihistamines just calmed the irritation down enough that blinking didn't aggravate it anymore so it just healed itself for good. Hope this helps others having this problem.