Owning It

After a startling diagnosis, Wendie Marlais, 61, realized only she could save herself.

- Wendie Marlais

ONE SATURDAY MORNING IN 1996, I WOKE UP TO DISCOVER I WAS BLIND IN MY LEFT EYE. I was in my late 30s, worked out regularly and was, as they say, the picture of health. But just like that, my sight in that eye was gone! It was diagnosed as optic neuritis, an inflammation that damages the optic nerve. Despite my hopes that it was a temporary condition, I never regained my sight in that eye. After a time wearing a patch over that eye to “let it rest,” I accepted the fact that I still had one good eye and I adapted to my new outlook on life.

I was told that my condition had probably been brought on by stress. Stress? I was a married mother living in Scottsdale, AZ., with two young kids, a full-time job in marketing while providing public relations services for several nonprofit organizations. We were building a new home and selling our current house. I was working 10 hour days and I was finally starting to realize that the man I married was sick—his demons were drugs and alcohol. This was life and if it was stressful, it felt normal to me.

MORE VISION PROBLEMS

Over the next couple of years, I had to be hospitalized several times when my other eye started to fail. I was a fighter and I was determined to do everything I could to keep blindness at bay! Fortunately, they were able to save my right eye with some heavy doses of the steroid Prednisone, but my vision and overall eye health became a constant worry.

A LOT TO JUGGLE

From then on, life just got rockier. I started a business with my husband that crashed and burned, so I took a job as the marketing manager for a high-end resort in Scottsdale. At the same time my father’s mental and physical health began to fail. He lived in a nearby apartment, but he was getting more and more confused, and caring for him took up more and more of my time and energy.