Bride could go blind in one eye after eyelash extension tape nightmare

By Rebeccal Cooley For Dailymail.Com 17:12 23 Sep 2022, updated 17:25 23 Sep 2022

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A bride-to-be's beauty prep ended up ruining her wedding after her eyelash extensions landed her in the hospital with sliced eyeballs - leaving her at risk of going blind.

Alexis Theriot, 33, Elkhart County, Indiana, decided to get her lashes enhanced ahead of her big day to achieve a 'glam' look and speed up the process of getting ready ahead of the ceremony.

The mom-of-four went to a lash technician who had done her eyelashes before, just two days before she was due to get hitched to her fiancé Cameron Theriot, 33, on September 2.

'I thought instead of applying a lash each day around my wedding day I would just get my lashes done, and they would be there for the whole week of my wedding and after,' she said, 'but I deeply regretted it.'

The beautician applied adhesive tape to Alexis' lower lash line to prevent her eyelids and lashes from getting glued together at the start of the two-hour appointment.

'She put the tape on and it felt very uncomfortable,' she recalled. 'I told her, and she said, "Your eyes are probably sensitive," but my eye felt very irritated, almost to the point of [it] being unbearable.'

Alexis continued with the appointment, but her eye pain continued to increase.

'When she was done, she pulled the tape off, and it was an instant relief, but on the way home my eyes were hurting more and more,' she explained.

'I tried to go to bed, but I kept not getting good sleep because of my eyes. They were irritating me and kept waking me, and the next morning it felt like they were on fire.'

Alexis was still in excruciating pain when she made the grueling ten-hour drive from her home in Indiana to her wedding venue in Tennessee the day after her lash appointment.

'I just pushed through and got my kids in the car to start my drive,' she said.

Alexis messaged the lash technician, who told her to buy an over-the-counter pain reliever and eye drops, but they failed to soothe her 'burning eyeballs.'

After finally making it to the mountain venue on the eve of her wedding, the mom sought advice from a friend who is an optometrist and was told to see a doctor.

On the morning of her big day, she was forced to drive to a nearby hospital, where she learned the extent of her eye injuries.

The anxious bride-to-be was held up for hours while being examined by doctors and waiting for an essential prescription ahead of the 5 p.m. ceremony.

'I had some puss and blood drainage from my right eye, so they had to try and clean a lot of that off because it was crusted shut from sleeping,' she explained. 'It was very painful for them to even touch the skin on the right side of my eye and touching my eye was even more painful.

'I started crying because of the pain and my tears actually stung my eyes worse. The pain was unbearable,' she recalled. 'The doctor put dye in both of my eyes and looked at them under a special light and told me that they were both cut and bruised - and one was "severe."

'They said I had a hemorrhage in my right eye - a main one and a smaller one - so possibly two and the pressure was very high.'

Alexis was warned that if the pressure didn't go down, she could face vision loss and even blindness.

'The doctors said the tape rubbing is how I got a cut the entire length of my eye because that is the exact placement of where the lower lash line is and the injury on my eye,' she said.

'The doctor told me that if I didn't get the eyedrops soon and a bad enough infection set in, it could take my eyesight, and I needed to take it very seriously.'

Hospital doctors administered numbing drops to Alexis' eyes, but she said they wore off after an hour, and the excruciating pain set in again.

After leaving the hospital with her prescription, she had to wait two hours for a nearby pharmacy to open. She then learned the medication wasn't in stock, and the pharmacist had to call it in from another location.

Alexis was gone for more than eight hours before she was able to rush back to her wedding venue, saying she 'wasted her whole morning.'

'I made it to the venue at 3:30 p.m. and no one was dressed and my hair and makeup wasn't done,' she said. 'I got all my children ready, but I didn't even have enough time to do my hair and my daughter's hair exactly how I wanted it. It was just very disorganized.'

Alexis felt her wedding day was already ruined and wanted to postpone the ceremony because she was in so much pain, but that wasn't an option.

'I didn't even want to do the wedding anymore, and it's not that I didn't want to marry him. I just wanted to be able to enjoy it, but I was in so much pain that nothing was enjoyable,' she explained.

'I wanted to delay the wedding a few days, but I couldn't because the venue was already taken for all of the other days, and I wouldn't get my money back, so I just felt really forced to proceed with the wedding.

'I wanted to have this awesome family moment, so I just put my brave face on and got through it, but it wasn't at all how it was supposed to go. It really put a huge damper on my vacation and wedding day, and I just regretted getting the extensions so much.'

Alexis said doctors have confirmed that her left eye is healing well, but the pressure in her right eye remains high due to the deeper cut and resulting hemorrhages.

If her eye does not start to heal in the next couple of weeks, she could develop glaucoma - a condition where the optic nerve becomes damaged due to pressure from swelling. It can cause vision loss and blindness.

As she anxiously waits to find out if she will be permanently blinded by her ordeal, the newlywed wants to warn other women about the potential risks of eyelash extensions.

''I'm just hoping that in six weeks I get a clear bill of health for my eye,' she said. 'No lash extensions are completely safe because even if it only happens one in one thousand, you could be that one, so it's just luck of the draw. It could happen to anyone.

'My personal suggestion would be if you want lashes for a special occasion just go with the glue-on lashes,' she advised. 'I would never get eyelash extensions again, beauty is never worth your health.'

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