September 29, 2008 12:00am
A WOMAN whose eyes clamp shut for three days at a time, then open up for the next three, has baffled specialists.
Natalie Adler, 21, from Melbourne, has been locked in the extraordinary routine for four years. Doctors believe she may be the only person in the world with the condition.
"My eyes are closed for three days and then open for three days," Ms Adler said.
"Something happens overnight on the third night. I go to bed and I can open my eyes, and then when I wake up the next day I can't. Nobody knows why."
Ms Adler has undergone hundreds of tests since her life dramatically changed in mid-Year 11 at school.
"I woke one Sunday and my eyes were swollen. It was the day before an English exam," she said. After a sinus and staph infection she said, "I just never got better".
"My eyes started closing intermittently, really randomly, but within a few weeks they were closing for three days," she said.
Associate Professor Justin O'Day, head of the hospital's neuro-ophthalmology unit at the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital said: "Natalie's a mystery. She's a one-off, we don't have a diagnosis."
During "closed-eye days", Ms Adler's eyes are completely shut, except for a small slit in her left eye. On "open-eye days", they function normally, though the left eyelid can droop.
Ms Adler crams as much as she can into good days, which are marked months ahead in her diary. But some things can't be scheduled.
"On my 18th birthday, my eyes were closed, but on my 21st they were open, so I had a party," she said.
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