Experience: I woke up blind twice a month for a year | Life and sty...

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Experience: I woke up blind twice

a month for a year
I would go to sleep at night wondering if I would be able to open my eyes in
the morning
Angela Finch
Friday 6 November 2015 14.00GMT

I remember watching The Day Of The Trids when I was younger and
thinking how terrifying it would be to wake up and not be able to see. I
didnt think about it again until one day last year, at 39, when, about
an hour after my husband, Paul, left for work, I woke up and couldnt
open my eyes. Yet, under my eyelids, I could see. What I was
experiencing was stranger than ction: I just couldnt lift my eyelids. I
got up and felt my way downstairs, panic rising in my chest. Apart
from wearing glasses for shortsightedness since I was a child, Id never
had any problems with my eyes.
Groping about for the phone, I tried to call Paul, but couldnt work out
how to dial and kept pressing the star and hash keys. Then, thankfully,
Paul called me. I found the answer button and blurted out what was
going on. He said hed be back home as soon as he could.
While I was waiting, there was a knock at the door. I opened it just a
crack, aware I looked a strange sight, a woman with her eyes closed
and wild hair, wearing a T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms. Are you the
postman? I whispered. Fortunately, he was, and a very sympathetic
one at that. He even came in and dialled the doctors number for me.
Paul arrived home about 20 minutes later and took me to the doctors
surgery. The GP was baed and referred me to the nearby eye hospital.
There, they gave me anaesthetic drops, which were painful but meant I
could gradually open my eyes. Once I did, the doctor immediately told
me it was an issue with my corneas, the transparent eye covers,
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which are made up of many layers. The top layers had come unstuck,
and so, when Id tried to open my eyes, they had caught on my lids.
I was given lubricating cream and told Id be ne in a few days. I
believed it, until a fortnight later, when the same thing happened
again. And two weeks after that, when I again awoke and could not
physically lift my lids. This went on and on I could almost predict it
to the day. It was scary, frustrating and painful; to make things worse,
my eyes, although closed, were incredibly sensitive to light, which
meant that when I was blind (usually for about two or three days at a
time), all the curtains needed to be shut and I had to stay indoors.
Life changed dramatically. We couldnt plan anything. When you are
blind, you adapt, but this was the worst of both worlds: either being
unable to see and having to navigate a house not designed for anyone
with vision impairment, or going to sleep at night wondering if I would
be able to open my eyes in the morning. Every night, just in case, Paul
would clear a pathway to the armchair, place meals and drinks in
specic places, and put bits of tape on the remote controls so I could
feel for the right buttons. When it happened, I would just sit all day,
listening to audiobooks. Im a jewellery designer, but the condition
meant I was unable to create intricate pieces. My business partner
began to suer. I dropped three clothes sizes with the stress.
I Googled my symptoms and all I could nd was an American forum
that said I would have this condition for life, and it would get worse. I
had an operation at the eye hospital to remove the top layer of my
corneas. I was awake during surgery, so it wasnt very pleasant.
Afterwards, the episodes became slightly less frequent, but still
occurred every three weeks. After six months, a specialist diagnosed
me with recurrent corneal erosion syndrome, and put me on a course
of treatment that involved steroids, lubricant drops, vitamin C and
omega-3 supplements.
I havent woken up unable to open my eyes for about eight weeks now,
and Paul and I are crossing our ngers that it wont happen again. He
still leaves a drink and a couple of biscuits by the armchair just in case,
and I have to wear goggles to protect my eyes when Im in the garden.
The neighbours must think Im quite eccentric, but as long as I can see,
I can live with that.

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Experience: I woke up blind twice a month for a year | Life and sty...

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/06/experienc...

As told to Eleanor Tucker

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Topics
Blindness and visual impairment
Disability
Health

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