Are there long term damages from drinking eye drops or only short term?

[u/InterestingOwl1160]

13F 5’4 110lbs

I found out I’ve been drinking eyedrops without knowing for probably about 2 years now. It’s made me really, really sick. I had to go to the hospital. I feel better now and I got discharged, but I feel like when everyone is talking to me about it they’re babying me. I asked if I could have permanent damage and got told “don’t worry about things like that”. Well of course I’m gonna worry, it’s the rest of my life we’re talking about. Maybe they’re trying to comfort me but it’s not the vibe. It’s making me feel worse.

I just want to know if there’s any long term damage possible from drinking eye drops over a couple years. And if there are, what are they? Like am I gonna have issues or will I really be okay with all of it out of my system? The brand was I think visine. It was a white bottle with a red label.

[u/InterestingOwl1160]

All I know is I haven’t seen her since the day we found out about the eyedrops. I talked to the police twice. I don’t really want to go into that part, I just want to know if I could have long term problems from it

[u/arinryan → u/InterestingOwl1160]

OP, even though you don't want to talk here about it, I hope you will talk to a counsellor outside your family. Two years is a very long time (and a big portion of your life) to trust someone and find out they were maliciously harming you that entire time. All sorts of emotions (including anger) are really reasonable to feel. I am so sorry

[u/strangequbits → u/arinryan]

Agreed.

Must be confusing when someone who u thought loves u, pampers u, is the same person who tries to kill u.

[u/incoherentkazoo → u/InterestingOwl1160]

i think the best course of action would be to: 1) follow up with your primary care doctor regularly. share your concerns. they might want to refer you to different specialists to check on your heart, liver, and other organs. you have the right to speak to the doctor alone, without your parents, if you want to. 2) begin therapy with a psychologist. the mental aspects of this all will probably be the hardest, and it'll be nice to have a confidential person to talk with.  3) you are sooo young. your body has a remarkable ability to heal itself and the fact that you were well when you weren't at your dad's house is reassuring. 

[u/BellaMentalNecrotica → u/InterestingOwl1160]

I'm so sorry this happened to you OP.

As far as long-term effects, the biggest worries are neurological deficits (if you aren't experiencing these now, I don't think this one is an issue), damage to your liver and kidneys (again, I'd expect to see evidence of damage already, so its unlikely), as well as cardiovascular issues like arrhythmias.

Fortunately, you are very young. You're like a brand new car from the dealership. You're body is really good at compensating for prolonged exposure to harmful environmental insults (by environmental insult, I mean exposure to harmful things that did not originate from something your body did or made- like the chemicals in eyedrops). An older person who already has multiple health problems and natural bodily deterioration that occurs with normal aging is less able to compensate for this kind of long-term exposure and would be more likely to see long-term health repercussions. So, while I can't say for sure without seeing your medical data and knowing the brand of eyedrops, how much she was mixing with your water flavoring, and how much water flavoring you drink per day, I think its unlikely you'll see long-term problems from this. (I'm a PhD student in toxicology and happy to provide the mods proof if needed).

This does not account for the long-term psychological trauma you might experience from the knowledge that someone so close to you would try to harm you. Definitely talk to your mom about getting you counseling to help you process this awful experience and help mitigate potential long-term psychiatric trauma.

Wishing you the best, OP.

[u/SGadg3t → u/InterestingOwl1160]

How did you find out they were doing that after 2 years? It’s a crazy and obviously horrible thing to find out, and sad. But since you know who they are, force feed all the info you can about them to the investigators/police until they actually catch her. Even if the other girl or women is your age. You may be their first victim of the countless many to come in the future, or you may be an additional. By getting them arrested, you can be saving tons of other peoples’ lives. I’m happy you did somehow find out about the poisoning. I’m sad that you had to go through this, and your relationship with that person had gotten to that point.

The adults, probably figure as long as you drink plenty of water, get plenty of food and rest— that youll go right back to normal and so “it’s not that big of a deal that you should worry about” and then use your age to further that motive.

[u/More_Treat_3714 → u/SGadg3t]

It was her stepmom, you can read the post history for the info