I am a 21 year old born blind in one eye, and now has that eye sewn shut!

Do you exclusively use winking emojis?

;)

Showing my ignorance, but why not just remove the eye? Or would that just increase risk of infection and trauma?

Money, time, circumstance. And all that jazz you said! The surgery is extremely expensive in the short term and long term, especially in my case as the orbital mass needed to replace the eyeball would have to be super custom made for my football/egg shaped eye socket. Before I was an adult at 18, the doctors said they legally had to preserve the eye in case something happened to my good eye. This was because it has like 6 percent the vision of a perfect eye, to their knowledge anyways. Thing is, it has nerve damage and always stay center, doesn't blink, and I'd rather be fully blind than see with that kinda disoriented vision. Using the effect it had on my quality of life, the doctors said when I'm 18 I can get an enucleation (destruction of your eyehole surgery). I was like dope! Until I realized how expensive it was and that by the time I was a big boy now the tarsorrhaphy surgery already made my life 90000x better

Sleeping with one eye open is a lot harder than most think!

have you tried gripping your pillow tight?

You just hit home man. Growing up, all I could do to sleep was lay down on my belly and shove my face into the pillow. I would nuzzle and rub my eye upward into my sheets so the eyelid would close down, and I'd just stay like that till I passed out. Of course once I just knock out I'd move around and then the eye would be all exposed to air and dust which was a big no no

I was just making a metallica reference, but damn that sounds real rough...

do sleep masks help at all, or does it just hinder your sleep even more?

I do hope it gets more manageable after the surgery

Yeah I feel so dumb because I felt so smart for understanding a different metallica reference about the same thing

The sleep mask help to fall asleep, but as most people I roll around and it slips off. Also, growing up I always had my face down so it was hard to sleep on my back with the mask on.

I didn't mean to be such a downer or make you feel like one man! Thank you for your replies

Your experience is pretty interesting. I think he was referring to the metallica song Enter Sandman, though:

"Sleep with one eye open Gripping your pillow tight"

The other reference made me think their couldn't be another, I didn't see this coming

Will this stop the eye goop from forming? Also will this surgery eventually cause the slit to seal or will you always have some hole(s)?

The eye goop is because my eye is still irritated actually. Due to risk of infections and the need for some circulation and freshness, I gotta have those slits in the eyelid. Unfortunately, that means it's still open 24/7 so those slits are areas of irritation that are red and in pain. During the day I put eye drops in the tiny slits, but when I sleep that's 8 or so hours it's just completely dry and exposed to air. My eye makes the goop to combat that irritation and forms while I'm sleeping.

I'm an ophthalmologist. You need to get some thick ophthalmic lubricating ointment to put in at bedtime every night. And then wear a patch over it.

I have many ointments and eyedrops, but I'll be completely honest: I don't feel any pain due to the nerve damage. Its just a little face washing and there's no negatives! I do have some cheap moisture goggles though, and I've tried weighted eyelids but the bottom lid is what fails to wrap around my eye. Should I invest in some moisture chamber that's more top of the line?

Only if it's painful. If it's just red, probably not an issue. If it really gets dried out, there's a higher risk of infections, and the ointment is just more convenient since it lasts longer than drops.

Thank you so much for your time and knowledge!

You're an opthalmologist. Cool! I've heard that you guys sometimes put a weight in the eyelid to help it close. I know you don't know for sure about this patient, but why/when is it better to sew shut over weighting shut?

All I know is that it wouldn't work with me because of gravity! My bottom lid is the one that struggled the most to wrap around my bulging eyelid

I never thought of an open eye causing night terrors before! And before it was sewn shut, what color was the iris of the blind eye? Do you have any issues with depth perception?

According to the doc it was because I'd see lights and shadows while rolling around or accidentally leaving the TV on. It would initiate a fight or flight response while I'm unconscious. Also the pain of the eye never closing was a factor, apparently in my sleep it used to twitch and dart around a bit (I scared so many people just napping). The iris looks just like my other brown eye! It was a lil red all around it though from irritation. Depth perception is awful with baseball, like just horrible. I can box my friends and drive for a job! No 3D movies or oculus rift though :(

CN you explain more about the eye not blinking? Is it a muscle problem outside the eye? Could their ever be some sort of bionic fix for this? Maybe electrical stimulation to force a blink or something?

I've always hoped my eye could be fixed by some controversial Elon Musk chip or a Terminator eyeball. But only because it seems so unlikely.

I was born with two tumors, one above my right eye and one below it. Both were extremely close to my eye, but not quite touching it. Neither also could be seen physically, besides a deformity cause by the actual weight of the tumors. Growing up until I was 13 with them in my head actually caused the bottom one to pull down my eye, and the top one to squish it. I now have a football shaped eyeball that's super blind due to the actual pupil being unnaturally shaped. The reason my eye can't blink is because the eye also bulges out forward, so the eyelids can't wrap around as much as it needs to. Also nerve damage haha! The top tumor is gone, bottom one remains, not cancerous, and my face is still slanted like 0_o

I hope I answered your questions decently! My story is a bit long and complicated so I tried to shorten it down

How do you feel about an eyepatch?

I have several! From alligator skin to just some cows leather. They can be bothersome, and hard to pull off without being asked questions from strangers and even people I know going "why wear one now?" As I just kinda show it off

My bros, I am about 19 years older and almost lost my eye in a sport injury. While the eye was saved, the recovery left me mostly blind in that eye and I don’t have a lens (which means I can see light and color but that’s about it). There’s also a gnarly scar and the iris is not centered. I struggled for a long time with how others may perceive or pity me. What are some of your thoughts on being your best self without allowing this transformation to hinder you from living your best life?

Personally, I make the most of it. I never tell anyone how my eye became the way it is today. Somedays I fell upside down and got stung by jellyfish, others it was a welding accident and a spark fused my eyeball. But most of the time when someone asks me what's wrong with my eye, I just say "What do you mean?"
If you message me I'll chat with you always with some great one eyed jokes and ways to overcome it. There are some jobs that actually want one eyed people too! :)

Have you ever gotten in trouble because some douchebag thought you winked at His girlfriend?

I was waiting at a Starbucks once at a table by the window. To my right (bad, blind side) was the beautiful day, and to my left (normal looking sightfull side) was a table with 2 woman and a guy. I was waiting for a friend, and every so often I'd look all the way around to the left, trying to spot them coming into the store. Awkward, intimiate, singular eye contact was forming everytime I looked around with this one woman at the table. One last look around, and it was the guy and I looking into each other's souls. He comes up to me after a second of whispering to the two gals, and goes "what ya pulling bud?" And as I turn to him, I could see the twitch. The irritation in his face from what I assume he thinks is me winking at him as I was to his partner. Then, as his rage subsided and his stress faded, confusion took it's place as my eye remained the same. I nervously explained to him I was just born with a bad eye and waiting on someone, and he walked back to his table after a "sorry" and a broken cackle leaving his lips.

Are you officially a snitch now?

I am a witness to the death of Manuel Ellis, and the cops seem to act like I'm a snitch when I released a video showing them tazing him after they said they didn't. That's happening now and honestly they seem to follow me and glare at me like they all know who I am.

Hold up. Maybe you should do an AMA on that.

I tried a lil something like that when it first happened, and I had no reactions except negative and hurtful ones. Kept the post up for a day until the police/washington state patrol mentioned "are you mister stitches" in an interview. I deleted all social media then. I don't see the point, either. I've been talked to by the state patrol, the state attorney general, and been through so many recorded interviews I feel as if I have nothing left to say, except watch the video.

I am curious, was there ever the option of getting the eye removed? I am asking since from what I understood the eye doesnt help you in any way and only causes issues. So my first thought was shouldnt it be possible to remove it and make it so you could wear a fake eye? Atleast seemed like an option to me that should be possible but i am no doctor so I am just speculating.

Copy and pasted from another comment: The surgery is extremely expensive in the short term and long term, especially in my case as the orbital mass needed to replace the eyeball would have to be super custom made for my football/egg shaped eye socket. Before I was an adult at 18, the doctors said they legally had to preserve the eye in case something happened to my good eye. This was because it has like 6 percent the vision of a perfect eye, to their knowledge anyways. Thing is, it has nerve damage and always stay center, doesn't blink, and I'd rather be fully blind than see with that kinda disoriented vision. Using the effect it had on my quality of life, the doctors said when I'm 18 I can get an enucleation (destruction of your eyehole surgery). I was like dope! Until I realized how expensive it was and that by the time I was a big boy now the tarsorrhaphy surgery already made my life 90000x better.

You basically just quoted my every interaction with a doctor ever! It only poorly affected my quality of life and gives me zero benefit. The idea of removing is attractive if I was a millionaire

Cheeky winker 😉. Have you thought about rocking an eye patch? Margo does it on the Magicians and it's a good look.

I absolutely love that show and fell in love with her when that happened. Just got started on the books, I highly recommend it!

Have you seen the Cyclopedia comic series by Aminder Dhaliwal before? Hopefully it's not a weird question, I am just curious if it's something you would find enjoyable.

Personally I like the way the author uses humor to create narratives and some of the character stories really resonate with me.

Anyway, thank you for making this post. You have such a nice smile btw!

Saved and going to read after work. thank you for the information I am so excited to see any potential one eyed jokes

Have there been any ramifications from leaving the path prescribed by Metallica? Asking for a friend.

I feel more metal. That is all, for your friend.

If we applied an eye for an eye, who would be on the other end?

Mike Wazowski in a perfect world

Zoro, Sanji, or Luffy?

Zoro.

Saw in your earlier reply that your left eye doesn’t blink. I’m guessing that means it doesn’t happen on its own. Are you able to physically blink it yourself or no?

Your story is very interesting and will probably inspire someone else who may be going through the same thing as you. I was born with a heart defect, had four heart surgeries over the course of twenty nine years, and now have a mechanical valve. Thank you for sharing your story with everyone.

Sorry for the confusion: my left eye is 20/20 and my right eye is the bad one! I cannot blink my right eye with the eyelids themselves, but rather the crazy looking twitch caused by a strong cheek that feels like it can touch my brow.

I appreciate your reply so much, thank you for the kind words ;)

If you have an iama post I would be absolutely thrilled to learn more about your unique mechanical valve

do you ever get compared to Guts from Berserk?

http://imgur.com/a/HFa2mTu

Tempted to post this golden piece of work somewhere, just not sure where.

Am planning to cosplay Guts in the future

Do the lid muscles work at all? If science could make a pacemaker, it seems within reason that subcutaneous wires with a small device could send an electrical impulse to cause the eyelid to close. It could possibly be synchronized to the other eye so they blink at close to the same time, preventing possible embarrassing encounters with women.

Amazing reply, I appreciate your constructive thought. Honestly, it's just a money thing and I feel great so why change it!

How is your depth perception? How do you compensate?

Extremely poor and I move my head around like an owl

Patch collection? Not that you have to cover up anything but justifiably wearing a patch could be cool.

I do have plenty of patches actually, from cheap cloth ones to cosplay to an alligator skin patch! I wear none of them, as they're extremely bothersome either by being too hot in the summer or causing too many people to ask questions. For some reason, when I just show my sewn eyelid I get less comments about it than a big ol fancy eyepatch

Do you often see things coming?

I've had people flip me off for as long as they can without me seeing while I'm driving them around as a favor.

Is there a reason why you don't just rock an eye patch? Have you ever seen a photo of U.S. Congressman Dan Crenshaw? He is a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye in combat. My wife says his eyepatch is sexy. (Of course, the guy is a fuckin SEAL, so he's got that superman physique too!)

Yes!! I love that man!! Just listened to the podcast with him and Joe Rogan too. I will rock an eyepatch at fancy attire type effects, but other than that it's bothersome and acts as a vector people can use to ask questions

Have you got any advice for raising a child with one functioning eye, or insight as to challenges they might face?

Replies. Reactions. Responses. I wish that someone could've taught me even just half of the jokes and phrases I use as ways to prevent awkward small talk. When some naive kid asks what's wrong with my abnormal face, or if a customer that tipped me money feels like they bought the right to know my life story, or if I just have to light up the mood when it's obvious I'm scaring someone with a simple resting stitch face.

I would teach any young one eyed child to make the most out of it, and realize it might be your first unique experience to treat as an opportunity to be creative.

I was also born blind in one eye. Mine blinks and follows with the one that has vision but I was curious if you have the same struggles that I do. So I sometimes I get weird headaches where my brain is trying to force my blind eye to see and it's so bad sometimes that all I can do is lay down until it goes away. Only really happens when I focus too hard while drawing or reading a physical book.

Also do you have balance issues? I've been without vision in one eye my whole life but I get disoriented very easily and I sometimes loose my balance just standing.

What is your "good" eye's vision like? I have 20/15 which I think is a fair trade off for not being able to use the other.

Before it was sewn shut, I would see blurry colors and such and I could only focus and see them if I closed my good eye and sort of meditated. Not sure if it's nerve damage or my body adapting and protecting itself, but it was very difficult to get disoriented directly from that vision.

Fun cyclops fact #428: I don't get the spins! Do you? I'm talking about when I drink, I never get the whirly world experience people talk about with vertigo and all that. But it's a weird contradiction, because in my day to day life I'm off balance, especially if I'm bumped or tripped up

Any major issues that you've had from only being able to see out of one eye? I know your depth perception suffers but I'm curious as to how bad it makes your eyesight in general.

Mainly just the lack of peripheral. I bump into people quite a lot, and even run into walls haha! Honestly tempted to go full voldemort as my nose blocks a lot of my vision

Why is it a different eye in each picture? Lol

had to flip the proof photo for the mods

Elon Musk said he might be able to fix blindness in the future with Neuralink

Would you consider getting this chip installed if it ended up working?

Unfortunately, my bad eyeballs socket and the eyeball itself is shaped like an egg and a football at the same time. So unnatural and disoriented, I don't have that much hope for any artificial fix in the near future.

Can you ask Elon to install a cyber eye? That guy wil cyber anything and has the cash for it.

It's not if a millionaire has money, it's if a 21 year old cyclops does haha

Can you get me a way to be in contact with Elon? That guy will not reply to any of my messages and doesn't have the time for it

Do they just keep the “thread” there forever? Like hypothetically could it break and they’d have to sew it shut again?

I... Should've asked the doc more questions. When I tried to bring it up to them post surgery, they explained it was physically like fused and melted together and honestly all ya can see is skin stuck together no weird strings or anything.

So hopefully it can't break? Haha ;)

Might be a dumb question - but why wasn't sleeping with an eye patch sufficient?

With your normal sort of cloth or leather eyepatch it would have to be so tight that no air got through and exposed my eye to any irritation. That's a hassle! I have these weird things called moisture goggles my doc gave me before my surgery, and they're basically a giant scuba mask that is super uncomfortable.