Renu: Scary and Painful

April 25, 2006, 12:00AM. By Jane Mundy

"Until this whole Renu scandal broke out I was convinced it was something I had somehow done to myself, even though my doctor said it was probably the contact lens solution."

Steve Smith (not his real name): "After my ordeal with Renu, the worst part was not knowing if I would ever see again. It was so scary when I woke up one day and couldn't see, especially midway through my law degree with stacks of loans that have to be paid back.

I had been using Renu with Moisterloc for about six months. One night when I was out my contact started clouding up in my right eye, as if something was on it. I didn't think much about it and figured it was just dirty. I took my lenses out that night and cleaned them in Renu. The next day I went to work and my right eye was still cloudy, it was like being in some smoke. Still, I thought it was something that could wait until Monday to get checked out. I am a second year law student and I was preparing for finals and did not have time to waste, or so I thought.

I woke up Sunday and was basically blind in both eyes. It was like being in a really thick fog. I had a friend give me a ride to the ER. After seeing three cornea doctors, I was sent home after five hours with antibacterial eye drops and steroid drops. I ended up spending the entire week sitting at home listening to music because I was literally unable to use my eyes. On the fourth day, I was able to blurrily see things and open my eyes for short periods of time. The entire week I was in really awful pain that would not go away, and I was told that there was nothing they could give me for the pain and that it would pass. I ended up having to postpone my finals for two weeks while I sat at home. The worst part was that I was unable to study.

Eventually my eyes healed enough to let me study and start taking my finals.

I was leaving for Japan two weeks after my finals and the infection had caused a change in my prescription so I had to spend a lot of money and time getting fit for new glasses and contacts and paying for rush shipping on everything. About a month after I was in Japan my eyes finally healed, except my right eye's prescription changed further and I will have to get refit for both contacts and glasses in that eye when I return to America in August. Until then I have to predominantly use my left eye.

I would have to say the worst part of it was not knowing if I would ever see again. After knowing my eyes would eventually heal I guess the second worst part was the pain, my eyes always felt like raw meat and were always excessively dried out. I probably used eye drops every 30 minutes, not that it helped much. I think I can say that that was probably the worst week of my life."
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The number of people suffering from serious fungal eye infections is increasing and so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not been able to find the source of the problem.

An extremely high incidence of Fusarium keratitis, which can cause blindness and other serious eye problems, has been found in people using Bausch & Lomb's ReNu With MoistureLoc solution.