Field Note 02
Eye Care
Your eye won’t blink and it won’t close. It is drying out right now, and it can be scratched permanently in a matter of days. This is the most useful page on this website, and it’s the one I’d have wanted first.
One patient’s experience — not medical advice. When in doubt, get seen.
Day one, not week one
Of everything on this website, this is the thing that can cause permanent damage while you wait. A cornea that dries out or gets scratched doesn’t always come back. Get drops in that eye today, cover it tonight, and get an eye doctor to look at it — and if your eye is red, painful, or your vision is getting worse, go now, not next week.
What’s actually happening to your eye
The facial nerve doesn’t just run your smile. It runs the muscle that closes your eyelid. When the nerve goes down, that muscle goes with it — so the eyelid on your bad side won’t blink and won’t fully close.
Blinking is not decorative. It’s how your eye gets washed, several times a minute, all day. Take that away and the surface of the eye starts drying out within hours. Dry cornea leads to irritation, then abrasion, then — if you leave it long enough — scarring you don’t get back.
Meanwhile the tear-production side often takes a hit too, so the eye is being wiped less and watered less at the same time.
“This is the one thing here that gets worse while you’re not looking at it.”
The white-eyeball thing nobody warns you about
Early on I tried to close my eye in the mirror, and the eyelid came halfway down while the eyeball rolled up and back until all I could see was white.
It was the single weirdest thing that happened to me, and I was convinced something new had gone wrong. It hadn’t. That’s called Bell’s phenomenon, and it’s your eye doing exactly what it’s supposed to do — rolling up under the lid to protect the surface. It’s protective, it’s normal, and it is not a sign of anything getting worse.
It looks alarming. It’s actually the one part of your face still doing its job.
My sight on that side went blurry, and I quietly assumed the virus had damaged the eye itself. Six months in I finally saw an eye doctor, who checked me over and found my prescription had barely changed. The blur was mechanical — no tears, no blink, no clean surface to look through. Not the eye. That was a good day.
Part one
During the day: keep it wet.
You are manually doing the job your blink used to do. That’s the whole task. Drops, often, all day, whether it feels dry or not.
I used artificial tears three to six times a day in the early months. Not on a schedule I felt — on a schedule I set, because a numb eye is bad at telling you it’s in trouble. If you wait until it feels dry, you’re already behind.
I went through three brands before I found one that worked for me. That’s worth saying out loud, because if the first bottle doesn’t help, the answer isn’t to give up — it’s to try another one.
Affiliate disclosure. Some links below are affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Every product here is one I actually used on my own eye — including the two that didn’t work, which earn nothing and stay listed anyway. See the Medical Disclaimer.
What worked for me
Leader Artificial Tears
Daytime · 3–6× daily
The one that finally did the job for my eye. Cheap, widely available, and I got through a lot of them. I tapered off completely by around March or April, once my own tears came back.
Didn’t work for me
Blink & Systane
Daytime drops
Both are perfectly good products that plenty of people swear by. Neither did anything for my eye. I’m listing them because the useful lesson isn’t “avoid these” — it’s that eye drops are personal, and you may need to try two or three.
These kept my eye moist while my own tears were gone, and they did the job, but the Leader tears above were my favourite. Listing them because drops are personal, and if one brand is out of stock, another may suit you: one here and the other here.
Covering it during the day
My ENT gave me a moisture chamber — a cheap plexiglass-and-foam cup that seals over the eye to hold humidity in. In principle it’s exactly right. In practice, mine pressed straight onto a head that was already swollen and screaming, and it broke after about two weeks.
Once the swelling came down at around the one-month mark, I switched to something far less clinical and far more useful: a captain’s-style eye patch. A pirate patch, basically. Walgreens. A few dollars.
“I looked ridiculous. My eye was fine. Take the trade.”
Mixed result
Moisture chamber
Daytime · holds humidity in
The clinically correct answer, and worth trying — especially in dry air, on a plane, or if you’re outdoors in wind. Mine hurt against a swollen head and broke fast. A better-built one may serve you well.
What worked for me
Captain’s-style eye patch
Daytime · from ~1 month on
Soft, cheap, no pressure on a sore head, and it keeps wind, dust, and sun off an eye that can’t defend itself. It also spares you from squinting through blur all day. Not glamorous. Extremely effective.
Part two
At night: keep it shut.
This is the dangerous half. Eight unconscious hours with an eye that won’t close is where the real damage happens — and you won’t feel it happening.
During the day you can at least notice your eye and put a drop in it. Asleep, you have no defence at all. That eye can sit half-open, drying against the air, for an entire night. This applies to naps too — and in the early months you will nap, because the exhaustion is enormous.
Two things go on that eye before you sleep: something greasy to hold moisture in, and something to physically hold it shut. Ointment plus a cover. Both, every night, no exceptions, until it closes on its own.
What I used, and what I got wrong
My first instinct was kinesiology tape, which was a mistake. It is far too aggressive for eyelid skin — brutal to remove, and the last thing you want is to be pulling hard at the tissue around a compromised eye. (It didn’t go to waste: I ended up using it for mouth-taping at night, which is a different note entirely.)
What actually worked was a gentle-removal eye patch — a soft adhesive pad designed to come off without taking your skin with it. I bought them from Amazon over and over for months.
What worked for me
NexCare Gentle Removal Eye Patches
Overnight · every night
Soft adhesive that actually comes off gently. This is the one I reordered again and again. Pair it with an ointment underneath. If you buy one thing off this page, buy these.
Don’t do what I did
Kinesiology tape
Not for your eye
Too sticky by a mile. Removing it tugs hard at the skin around an eye that’s already in trouble. Great tape. Wrong job. Use a purpose-made gentle patch instead.
Drops run straight out of a slack eye. Night ointment is thicker and stays put, which is the whole point when you’re about to be unconscious for eight hours. It will blur your vision — that’s expected, and it’s why it’s a night product. Ask a pharmacist or your eye doctor which one they’d give you.
The shower problem
Not strictly the eye, but it belongs here because it’s the other thing on your bad side that can’t defend itself: your ear. With the ear canal damaged and blistered, getting water in there is asking for trouble.
My solution was low-tech and it worked for about three months: a smear of Vaseline on roughly a third of a cotton ball, pressed into the ear canal before getting in the shower. The petroleum jelly seals it; the cotton holds it in place. Take it out afterward.
See an eye doctor. Actually do it.
I waited until December — about six months in. That was too long, and I got lucky.
I had convinced myself there was no point: nothing was going to make the eye close, so what was an optometrist going to do about it? That reasoning was wrong. An eye doctor isn’t there to fix your facial nerve. They’re there to look at the surface of your eye and tell you whether it’s being damaged — which is exactly the thing you cannot assess yourself, in a numb eye, in a mirror, at 2 a.m.
Your eye is red, painful, or oozing; your vision is getting worse rather than staying blurry; you feel like there’s something gritty stuck in it; or you’re seeing new light sensitivity. Those are corneal-damage signs, and they’re an urgent appointment, not a “next month” one.
When does it end?
Honestly: later than you want.
My eye did not blink and close properly on its own until around April 2026 — roughly ten months after onset. That’s a long time to tape your face shut every single night. I tapered the daytime drops off around March or April, once my own tears finally came back.
Ten months of drops and patches sounds unbearable when you’re on day four. But it becomes routine faster than you’d think, and it’s the cheapest insurance policy in this entire condition. An eye is not a thing you gamble.
The whole playbook, on one card
- Drops, 3–6× a day — on a schedule, not on how it feels. Try another brand if the first does nothing.
- Cover it during the day — moisture chamber, or a soft patch once swelling allows.
- Ointment + a gentle patch every night — including naps. Never kinesiology tape.
- Vaseline and cotton in the ear before every shower.
- See an eye doctor early — and immediately if it’s red, painful, gritty, or vision is worsening.
- Keep going until it closes on its own. For me that was ten months.
Seth
Patient · Founder
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