A claims she was left with shingles and went blind for nine days from stress over the app being banned in the US.

Actor and singer-songwriter Requinn Nicollette relied on the platform for the majority of her income, and said she was left debilitated from the anxiety over whether it would be gone forever. The video-based app was on January 18th, with the ban lasting a full 12 hours.

The extreme move followed a decision to ban it unless parent company ByteDance sold the platform amid concerns about its links to the Chinese government, with many creators fearing for their livelihoods as a result. Florida-based Requinn however said she was so impacted by the stress, it may have triggered ocular shingles - a virus which affects the eyes and surrounding skin.

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The 28-year-old believes it was the stress combined with a recent bout of which brought on the disease. She woke on the day of the ban to find a swelling on her right eyelid, which she initially chalked up to a bee sting.

But her symptoms took a turn for the worse when the 'sting' became so swollen she couldn't see, taking a trip to ER at her nearest . One concerned security guard told her she looked as though she'd been "in a fight", she claims.

Doctors diagnosed Requinn with shingles, prescribing painkillers and anti-viral drops. She said she was unable to see properly for another nine days, and feared she may lose her sight forever. She's since spoken out to raise awareness of her symptoms, urging others to recognise the signs.

"I was in shock and horror [at my eye] because it was getting bigger and bigger every day," she said. "I grossed myself out and if I had to leave the house I would wear sunglasses." She added: "It felt like something was tickling my skin, like a crawling sensation.

"The following day my eyelid was twice the size. It felt like a stabbing sensation and felt like I was being shocked behind my eye where my optic nerve is and this is where I guess it [the infection] was attacking my eye. It got to the point where the pain was a 10/10 and it felt like the whole side of my face was on fire."

Requinn said going blind could have ruined her career as an actor and said she lived in fear for three weeks of this happening. Thankfully, the antiviral medication worked and while she is still fighting off the infection and might be left with permanent nerve pain in her eye, her sight has now returned.

While the , the app remains unavailable to download in the US. "I have my eyes open now and it's a blessing," Requinn added. "For the first few days when I had my eye open, everything was blurry and it was like I was looking through prescription glasses."

Shingles of the eye, also known as ocular shingles or herpes zoster ophthalmicus, is a painful viral infection that affects the eye and the skin around it and can be triggered by . Symptoms include a tingling or pricking sensation around the one eye, one side of the forehead or head and pain or numbness on one side of the head.