She looks calm and composed on TV \u2014 but behind the scenes, Fox News anchor Shannon Bream has battled agonizing pain, misdiagnosis, and private heartbreaks she carried in silence.<\/p>\n
For years, Shannon Bream showed up on camera with poise. But what viewers didn\u2019t know was that she was waking up every night in blinding pain from a mysterious eye condition no doctor seemed to understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like someone was slashing my eyeball with a hot poker,\u201d she revealed. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get any rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shannon Bream \/ Facebook
\nShe survived by setting alarms every two hours to apply eye drops \u2014 just to keep the pain at bay. For two years, she lived like this: working through the day, suffering through the night, and hiding it all from colleagues at Fox. The only person who knew the full story was her husband, Sheldon Bream.<\/p>\n
Doctors Dismissed Her. She Kept Going Anyway.
\nWhen Bream finally saw a specialist, she hoped for answers. Instead, she got dismissed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re very emotional,\u201d the doctor told her \u2014 a remark that nearly broke her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all I could do to get to my car before I burst into tears,\u201d she later wrote.<\/p>\n
Feeling misunderstood, exhausted, and without a diagnosis, Bream began spiraling into depression. She confided in students during a speech at Liberty University that her mental health had taken a dark turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt the walls closing in,\u201d she said. \u201cI had no answers. Nothing but chronic pain and a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Online, she found forums of others living with similar agony \u2014 some of whom had talked openly about ending their lives. She admitted she understood the feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine living another 40 years like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
But her husband pushed her to keep searching. Eventually, Bream found Dr. Thomas Clinch, who diagnosed her with epithelial basement membrane dystrophy and recurrent corneal erosions \u2014 a rare condition that causes the cornea to tear spontaneously, often multiple times per day.<\/p>\n
Facebook
\nThere\u2019s no cure. But at last, she had a name for what she was fighting \u2014 and a plan to manage it.<\/p>\n
Then Came Cancer. And Criticism.
\nNot long after reclaiming her health, Bream was diagnosed with breast cancer during a routine mammogram. She went in for a checkup, and left with a life-changing diagnosis. A biopsy confirmed it. She underwent surgery immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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