If you wear contacts, this story might make you extra cautious when it comes to your eye health. According to the British Medical Journal, doctors found 27 contact lenses in a patient’s eye while she was being prepped for surgery.

The lenses were clumped together in a “blueish mass… bound together by mucus” in the 67-year-old patient’s eye. Rupal Morjaria worked on the patient. She said the patient was shocked to learn of the discovery. “When she was seen two weeks after I removed the lenses she said her eyes felt a lot more comfortable,” Morjaria explained.

Morjaria said she chose to publish the casebecause most doctors didn’t believe it was possible for someone to lose so many contact lenses in their eyes without suffering from severe symptoms.

The patient had been wearing disposable contacts for 35 years. During that time, she rarely visited the eye doctor. When she developed cataracts, doctors scheduled surgery. They discovered the lenses while they were injecting anesthesia into her eyes for the surgery.

“It was such a large mass,” Morjaria explained. “We were really surprised that the patient didn’t notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there.”

Henry Leonard, Association of Optometrists clinical and regulatory officer, said, “Patients do sometimes present with a contact lens stuck under their upper eyelid, particularly if they are new to contact lens wear, or have problems with dexterity, but finding this many lenses stuck in someone’s eye is exceedingly rare. Most patients would experience significant discomfort and redness, and be at risk of eye infections.”

Doctors aren’t sure how 27 contact lenses ended up in the patient’s eye. They suggested that her “deep set eyes” may have been a contributing factor. They immediately postponed the cataract surgery after making the discovery. Morjaria explained that the patient had a high amount of bacteria in her eye from the lenses. She hopes that other contact lens wearers will be more cautious about their eye care.

“In this day and age, when it is so easy to purchase contact lenses online, people become lax about having regular check ups,” she said. “Contact lenses are used all the time, but if they are not appropriately monitored we see people with serious eye infections that can cause them to lose their sight.”

Watch the video below for more on the peculiar discovery: