This Woman Woke Up Blind Few Times A Month For A Year Before She Realized That…

This Woman Woke Up Blind Few Times A Month For A Year Before She Realized That…

When Angela Finch was 39, her life changed forever. She woke up one morning after her husband had left for work, and was surprised to find that she could not open her eyelids. Angela was able to see the light, but was basically blind; she just couldn’t lift her eyelids.

Baffled and starting to panic, she felt her way around her house. When she got to her phone, she tried to call her husband, but of course, she could not tell what she was dialing. He called her, luckily, and then came home to take her to the hospital.

At the hospital, the doctors were equally baffled. They couldn’t figure out the problem and eventually sent her to an emergency eye doctor. There, they put antiseptic drops in her eyes. Even though it was painful, it helped loosen up the eyelid so they could look inside.

The doctor told her she was having a problem with the top layers of her corneas, the epithelium. These transparent layers of the epithelium had come unstuck and were caught on her eyelids. This was preventing her from being able to open her eyes.

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Angela’s doctor gave her some lubricating cream and was assured that everything would be fine in just a few days. Angela went home hopeful, but just a few weeks later, it happened again. She woke up and could not open her eyelids.

It was soon evident that this was going to be a recurring thing. Every few weeks, she would have to deal with plunging into blindness for days at a time. Soon, the impacts of this began to spread through her life.

Because it happened so frequently, it was hard to make plans or take trips. Angela could do nothing on those blind days, except sit and listen to audiobooks. She had a jewelry business that she was falling behind on, and her partner began to suffer. Her husband had to take care of her on those days, arranging the house so she could function. He had to set up food and drinks in specific places and put tape on buttons on the phones and remote controls so that she could find things.

Although she was unable to open her eyelids, her eyes became extra sensitive to light. On her blind days, she would stay inside with the curtains shut. Her eyes hurt sometimes, as well. Angela began to lose weight with how much stress she felt from the situation. She was anxious every night when she went to bed; worrying that she would wake up the next morning and not be able to open her eyes.

Soon, Angela was diagnosed with recurrent corneal erosion syndrome. This can stem from an eye injury or occur spontaneously. Most people experience a feeling of a foreign object being in their eye, causing irritation. Some, like Angela, experience difficulties opening their eyes; in some cases the epithelium will rip when they try to open them.

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Angela has since had surgery to remove the top layers of her corneas. A specialist also put her on a special treatment of steroids, lubricant drops, and omega-3 and vitamin C supplements to help soothe and heal the epithelium.

She has slowly improved since her treatments began. Lucky for her, she sought treatment quickly. Time is important for proper healing and treatment of this condition. The episodes became less frequent for Angela, and she has now been episode free for a few months.

www.guthrieeyecare.com  www.goodhopeeyeclinic.org