This is mostly just a tale of my unexpected eye-related adventure, but I'm curious to know if anyone else has dealt with similar issues.

I had my left eye removed 24 years ago and in that time, I've had zero problems with any of the prosthetics I've had over the years, or with the eye socket; until today.

This morning, I woke up and my left eye felt all crusty and gooey, which happens sometimes when my allergies are bad. I sleepily dragged myself to the bathroom and started cleaning away the gunk when it hit me; the smell of iron. It wasn't normal drainage that had glued my eyelids shut, it was dried blood. I cleaned it up - more blood. I wiped that way - more blood.

A little unsure of what to do, I texted my local optometrist to ask for advice. He happily opened up his office for me and took a look at it on a Saturday to save me a trip to the ER or to an out of town doc in a bigger city.

I have, it seems, developed a large hemangioma behind my prosthesis. He had me take out the prosthesis, which was super painful to do, but felt way better afterward, We got the bleeding under control and he checked to make sure there was no infection. Then he gave me an antibiotic cream and told me to leave the prosthetic out and loosely cover my eye socket. He said that it started bleeding again, I should instead pack it with a pressure dressing and he gave me an eye shield to wear at night, so I wouldn't bump it or rub it in my sleep

He's scheduling me an appointment with a guy on Monday afternoon to have it lanced and cauterized and check my implant to make sure that's all good.

This was not how I intended to spend my Saturday morning to say the least, but at least this issue is with the artificial eye and not the real one, so I don't have to stress out about my vision.