A girl is urging others to not bathe, swim or bathe whereas carrying contact lenses after being in “excruciating ache” for months and dealing with potential imaginative and prescient loss in a single eye from taking a easy bathe.Rachel Prochnow was 34 weeks pregnant when she felt her eye was a “little bit scratchy” final yr, initially pondering her contact lens had simply ripped whereas she was on the gymnasium. Nonetheless, it wasn’t till the next day when she began to really feel intense ache and suffered mild sensitivity that she went to an optometrist.She was then identified with the “worst an infection you may get in your eye” — Acanthamoeba keratitis.Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) is brought on by parasites which are present in nearly all forms of water, from faucet water to seawater and chlorinated water, in addition to soil. These parasites burrow into the attention by way of any little scratches on the attention floor and pose vital well being dangers.”The ache that comes with AK makes giving delivery seem like a stroll within the freaking park. The ache was completely unreal,” the American girl mentioned on Instagram. “For 3 months, probably the most sleep I acquired at a time was half-hour. I had 5 totally different around-the-clock drops that needed to be 5 minutes aside.”Prochnow’s being pregnant needed to be induced three weeks later and he or she has since acquired a “most cancers drug” and fortnightly blood work to observe her renal exercise, with the AK placing her vulnerable to kidney failure. She had no concept of the dangers concerned with carrying contact lenses whereas bathing.”I had been carrying contacts since I used to be 12 and was by no means advised to not swim, bathe, or scorching tub in them,” she mentioned. She is unable to see out of her eye and there was speak of a cornea transplant. It’s unsure if she is going to lose imaginative and prescient in her eye completely.Prochnow needed to navigate life as a brand new mum whereas dealing with ‘excruciating ache’ from Acanthamoeba keratitis. Supply: InstagramThe an infection is “uncommon however critical” and Australian optometrists solely diagnose one or two sufferers of their profession, Audrey Molloy from Optometry NSW advised Yahoo Information.”It invades eye tissue in a devastating manner… it is one of many large drivers behind day by day, disposable contact lenses as these minimise the chance of water coming in touch with lenses after which somebody placing it of their eye,” she defined.The ache that comes with AK is “manner out of proportion to what you see by way of a lesion on the eyes”. The one approach to deal with it’s through the use of disinfectants, but it’s so “strong” that even these do not at all times work successfully.”It may survive freezing, it could possibly survive boiling, even sorts of disinfectants it could possibly survive,” Molloy defined. “Contact lenses and water don’t go collectively.”Do you’ve a narrative tip? E-mail: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.It’s also possible to observe us on Fb, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.