A mom who was told her dry eyes were just down to “genetics” was diagnosed with a chronic eye condition caused by 20 years of wearing makeup to bed.
Sarah Koseki, 41, thought nothing of going to sleep with her eye makeup on, until five years ago, when her eyelid got stuck to her eye, leaving her unable to see or sleep.
The Field consultant, from Boise, Idaho, was told by doctors she just had dry eyes caused by genetics or aging.
But after she began having agonizing corneal tears every three months, a specialist diagnosed her with MGD — an incurable eye condition that causes the glands in your eyelids to get blocked.
Every corneal tear leaves Sarah unable to work or read to her kids for 48 hours, and all she can do is sit in a dark room and wait for the pain to pass.
But she has developed a daily routine — using eye drops six times a day, washing her eyes with tea tree oil and using a heat mask — to help prevent corneal tears.
Sarah has also stopped wearing eye makeup.
She said: “I’m a millennial, so I used to do crazy eye makeup with cut creases, winged eyeliner and even eyeliner on the waterline, which is horrible.
“I went on a lot of nights out, and after nights out, and from age 18, I would just go to bed and sleep on my side, and the makeup would get into my meibomian glands.
“There are so many pain receptors in the eye; I would rather go through childbirth again than have another corneal tear.
“It’s so debilitating; you can’t drive, you can’t work, you can’t see.
“I now never wear eye makeup as it’s too risky.”
Sarah has always been blessed with good skin, so she never felt like she had to wash her face to avoid breakouts.
“Had I known it would lead to this, I would have implemented a nighttime face wash routine,” she said.
She would often wear thick eye makeup, and from the age of 18, after every night out, would regularly go to sleep without taking it off.
“I’m also a side sleeper, so I’d be rubbing one eye at a time into my pillow every night, and pushing my makeup into my eyes,” she said.
She didn’t think much of this, but in January 2021, when she was 37, Sarah was on a trip to Mexico when her eyelid suddenly got stuck to her eye.
“It was like Velcro,” she said.
She managed to peel her eyelid open, then felt a sharp, intense pain.
“I couldn’t find comfort with my eyes open or closed; I couldn’t sleep at all; I was beside myself,” she said.
As the pain wasn’t subsiding, she went to the pharmacy in the airport on the way home and was given Lidocaine drops (local anaesthetics) to numb the pain in her eye.
Lidocaine drops are prescription-only drugs in the UK and the US and can cause severe pain if not used properly.
“I knew it wasn’t good for my eyes, but I was in so much pain I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
After returning home, Sarah went to see an eye doctor, who told her she had a corneal tear, a cut in the front surface of the eye, and gave her some eye drops to numb the pain.
The pain lasted for two days, and it took two weeks until her eye was fully healed.
Her doctor told her that she must just have naturally dry eyes, caused by genetics or aging.
However, after this, Sarah began experiencing corneal tears once every three months.
Every time Sarah gets a corneal tear, she is unable to see anything and is in excruciating pain for two days, leaving her unable to work or do anything else.
“I can’t even read books to my kids at night,” she said.
“I basically put on a heated mask and go into a dark room with headphones in and listen to podcasts.
“I try and take my brain off the pain as much as possible.
“Advil kind of helps, but not really; it’s debilitating for at least 24 hours, if not 48.”
Sarah tried everything to get relief, even getting on all fours so that gravity would separate her eyelid from her eye.
“Sometimes I would hold my eyelids away from my eyes with my fingers to give me relief,” she said.
In order to try and prevent corneal tears, Sarah has developed a daily routine, including using eye drops six times a day, washing her eyes morning and night with tea tree oils, and using a heat mask to soften the oils in her glands and help them to flow better.
Before bed, she also applies Hylo Night eye ointment to keep her eyes moisturized.
“It’s just like brushing your teeth every day to prevent a cavity,” she said.
“If I miss one day of my routine, my eyes get angry.”
Her doctor also recommended using Johnson’s baby oil mixed with water on her eyes, but she has since learned that this can actually increase the risk of infection, as it is not a sterile treatment.
“I think half the problem is that people aren’t getting good advice,” she said.
A year and a half after her fourth corneal tear, Sarah experienced agonizing corneal tears in both eyes and frantically looked up a doctor who specialized in corneal tears in her area.
The doctor got her an appointment immediately and, after taking a scan of her meibomian glands, diagnosed her with MGD, a condition where the oil-producing glands in the eyelids do not work properly, which can cause dry eyes, irritation and damage to the corneal surface in August 2022.
Sarah’s doctor said that her MGD was likely caused by her sleeping in her eye makeup, as this can cause makeup to block the openings of the meibomian glands and stop them from producing oil.
Since her diagnosis, Sarah has stopped wearing eye makeup, other than under-eye concealer.
“It’s too risky to wear eyeshadow or mascara, even if I were to wash it off,” she said.
To help alleviate the pain, her doctor gave her a contact bandage, a protective shield that looks like a contact lens, which prevents the eyelid from getting stuck to the eye.
“Now I have those; when I get a corneal tear, I pop one in, and it eases the pain by 75%,” she said.
She has also tried IPL treatment, where pulses of light are applied to the eyelid and cheeks to help melt thickened oils blocking the meibomian glands, and didn’t have a corneal tear for 18 months after undergoing the procedure.
“I’ve tried out 85,000 things to find out what works for my eyes,” she said.
“There’s no cure for it, which is the hardest thing, and anything that helps isn’t covered by insurance.
“The money I’ve spent on this is asinine.”
