Anyone who wears contact lenses will know the basics about how to safely care for your eyes while ensuring you can still see, but influencer Rachel Prochnow has been desperately trying to raise awareness about a rare vision-threatening condition, Acanthamoeba Kerititis (AK), that can cause complications for contact-wearers, after contracting an infection that left her blind.
The mother and fashion influencer shared a post on her Instagram updating followers on her progress after undergoing a cornea transplant earlier this month, one year after first being diagnosed with the infection.
In the caption she explained: “On July 3, 2023 I was diagnosed with Acanthamoeba Kerititis, a parasite that destroys your cornea. I got it from showering in my contacts in Austin, Texas. I had been wearing contacts since I was 12 and no eye doctor I had ever been to told me to not shower, swim, or hot tub in my contacts. I always washed my hands before handling them, never slept in them, replaced my contact case every 2 months, and didn’t overwear my contacts (I wore monthlies and replaced them every month). I thought I was doing everything right. I wasn’t.”
Instagram content
While Acanthamoeba Kerititas can affect anyone, whether they wear contact lenses or not, it's much more prevalent in people who wear contact lenses. Rachel replied in the comments section clarifying the parasites in AK are “opportunistic". “Typically [they are] only a risk if you have contacts in while in water," she said. “The contacts press them into your micro fissures [the little scratches on the surface of the eye caused by contact lenses]. If your contacts are not in, they don’t get pressed in your eye. The eye is not their natural environment, but they’re opportunistic so they’ll take it if they’re pressed into it.” However, it's very uncommon and, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, “the incidence of the disease in developed countries is approximately one to 33 cases per million contact lens wearers.”
Rachel had previously shared her story in full detail in May to raise awareness of the condition in the hopes of preventing anyone else from going through what she's experienced. She wrote a post pleading: “PSA: DO NOT SHOWER, SWIM, OR HOT TUB IN YOUR CONTACTS.”
Instagram content
She went on to share her ordeal in detail. “11 months ago, my life was completely changed,” she acknowledged, adding: “After 82 doctor visits, traveling over 12,000 miles for specialized [sic] medical care, thousands of dollars in compounded eye drops, and one surgery, I feel able to share my story.”
Rewinding to last June, she explained: “I was 34 weeks pregnant (my eye diagnosis had nothing to do with my pregnancy-this only affects healthy people, usually in their 20s and 30s, but anyone can get it) leaving the gym and my eye felt a little bit scratchy. I figured my contact had ripped and I replaced it at home. The next day, I experienced pain and photo sensitivity at my mom’s birthday party. The [day after that] I went to my optometrist who had no idea [what] was wrong but prescribed me some steroids (which turns out was the worst thing she could’ve done for the disease I contracted).”
After two weeks of doctors visits, where she was misdiagnosed by five different medical professionals, Rachel finally was referred to an eye doctor in Austin who diagnosed her with Acanthamoeba Kerititis.
“You get AK from showering, swimming, hot tubbing and other [with] your contacts in. Or from letting your contacts come in contact with tap water. Contacts produce micro fissures in your eye, and when you come in contact with any water with acanthamoeba in it (ALL water has acanthamoeba in it, except distilled or boiled water) those amoebas can latch on those micro fissures, get trapped underneath your contacts and burrow their way into your eye,” she explained. “Acanthamoeba is also known as one of those brain eating amoebas you hear about. It is vision threatening and in some cases, you lose your eye.” Rachel noted she hadn't swam or used a hot tub for 9 months before her infection so the only place she could have gotten it was from showering while wearing her contacts.
“The past 11 months have been a blur. Thankfully, Lochlan [Rachel's baby] wanted to come early and we had a very easy induction so I could get on the medication I needed. I had to take a cancer drug and get blood work done every two weeks to make sure I wouldn't go into renal failure. In addition, I had to put chlorohexidine/PHMB into my eye every hour around the clock for 3 months. My parents moved in with us to help with the drops and our precious Lochlan since he was just born,” she shared.
“For months, the most sleep I got at a time was 30 minutes. I had 5 different around the clock drops, that had to be taken 5 minutes apart. My infection (which turned into a disease) was so bad, I was in danger of losing my eye. Had my parents and Cameron [Rachel's husband] not been fully committed to getting me through this, I would have without a doubt lost it. I wasn't able to do any drops myself as I was blind (and have been since June 2023) and in excruciating pain. The pain that comes with Acanthamoeba Kerititis makes giving birth look like a walk in the freaking park. The pain was absolutely unreal. I try not to remember it,” she reflected.
“In September, I got much worse, and we began seeing Dr Tu in Chicago as he is one of the only doctors in the US who really knows how to treat this. Him and my wonderful doctor here in Austin have tagteamed my recovery and I feel so blessed to have such a dream team of doctors helping me. My disease has such a bad outcome usually no doctors will touch it. I always say doctors who treat AK are saints,” insists Rachel.
“In November, I noticed the pain begin to subside and asked to get off all the pain meds I was taking. I weaned myself off of them and the pain never came back. I had to continue hourly drops to continue to kill this amoeba. In January, we noticed the tide was turning in my favour. I had an open defect on my eye (you can see it in the first picture) and my wonderful Austin doctor recommended doing an Amniotic membrane in my eye to help heal it. That's actually a part of a placenta – how amazing right?! After three of those, my eye fully healed and things started to get much, much better. I had FINALLY turned the corner,” she explained.
“A few months ago, my doctors decided it was time for the test of my eye – to actually prove the amoebas aren't there. So they took me off the Chlorohexidine/PHMB drops and watched me very closely for signs of their return. Every weekly doctor visit proved over and over that these amoebas are gone. I'm still blind – the damage the amoebas did to my cornea is irreversible – but the amazing thing is that underneath my cornea, my eye is healthy,” Rachel said.
As for her cornea transplant, the future is looking optimistic. Rachel explained “my vision should slowly return. But, she implores, “please send this to every person you know who wears contacts. I had no idea this was even a remote risk.”
For more from GLAMOUR's Senior Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk
Sign up to our newsletter for more daily content straight to your inbox.
Check out the GLAMOUR Summer Edit Beauty Box, which includes the key essentials for a summer glow-up from Fenty, Milk Makeup and more. Worth £284, but yours from £16 per month.
