Woman's Eyes Seal Shut for 3 Days a Week

**bijou** · 09-29-2008, 03:43 PM

A woman whose eyes clamp shut for three days at a time, then open up for the next three, has baffled medical specialists.

Natalie Adler, 21, of Melbourne, Australia, has been locked in the extraordinary routine for four years. Doctors believe she may be the only person in the world with a condition in which her eyes involuntarily shut for days at a time.

"I go to bed and I can open my eyes, and then when I wake up the next day I can't," Adler told the Daily Telegraph. "Nobody knows why."

Adler has undergone hundreds of tests since her life dramatically changed before she even graduated from school.

"I woke one Sunday and my eyes were swollen. It was the day before an English exam," she said.

Doctors believed the swelling was from a sinus and staph infection, Adler said.

"I just never got better," she continued. "My eyes started closing intermittently, really randomly, but within a few weeks they were closing for three days."
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link

Weird, there is something I don't quite believe about this story the regularity of the opening and closing sounds as if it is hysterical in nature. Still at least she can schedule most stuff around it.

**Gingersnap** · 09-29-2008, 03:58 PM

I think you are right and here's the money quote:

During "closed-eye days," Adler's eyes are completely shut, except for a small slit in her left eye.

As anyone knows who has ever cheated at Blind Man's Bluff or Hide And Seek, a small slit is all you need for fairly effective sight. This sounds like a conscious or unconscious way of avoiding stressful situations and getting some attention. Even women who have menstrual cycles that are dead-on normal can't calculate their periods months in advance with this type of precision.

**jinxmchue** · 09-29-2008, 06:47 PM

I only had that happen in the mornings when I caught pink eye from my kids. That's SOOO much fun, I have to tell you.

**lurkalot** · 09-29-2008, 08:22 PM

hysterical blindness....

**Bubba Dawg** · 09-29-2008, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by lurkalot

hysterical blindness....

does that cause any sort of ...rash.....:p:D

**jinxmchue** · 09-29-2008, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by lurkalot

hysterical blindness....

Hey, isn't that what liberals suffer from?

**Gingersnap** · 09-29-2008, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by Bubba Dawg

does that cause any sort of ...rash.....:p:D

More of a discharge.

Seriously though, pink eye can glue your eyelids together until you make into the shower but this story is a psychological issue, not a pathological issue.