The Other Eye

I was still in my twenties when I was diagnosed with corneal dystrophy, an often-hereditary eye disease that usually effects old people. But in my family, I was diagnosed first, then my mom, followed by my grandma a few years later. Since I've had the disease for such a long time, it was inevitable that I would need cornea transplants eventually.

Mom has had three corneal transplants. The first donor-cornea carried a rare duck fungus, more common in much warmer places than Nebraska. Unfortunately, that hard-to-diagnose fungus caused her to lose more sight than she ultimately gained, even with a subsequent cornea transplant that "took."

When my grandma was diagnosed, she was old enough that her corneal dystrophy didn't progress fast enough to require such drastic measures as a transplant.

My own eyesight has worsened gradually over the years. I think my eye doctors originally expected that I would need surgery long before now. And, even this summer, my right eye was still able to be corrected to 20/60, so I was not in dire straits, by any means. I missed out on some details--okay, I missed out on lots of details sometimes, but I could still see well enough to be able to drive familiar routes in the daytime, and I could still read and use the computer.

But, two and a half years ago, I was thrown a curve ball, a major interruption in my everyday life, when I developed a macular hole in the retina of my left eye. The effect was much like that of macular degeneration, an incurable disease that leads to loss of central vision. But a macular hole can be repaired, at least partially, through surgery. Click here if you want to read more about my macular surgery. Until the macular hole appeared, my left eye had been my best, more dominant eye. But even after surgery to repair the hole, my left eye remained substandard because of the scar tissue that was left behind. So, my formerly weaker right eye had to learn to be my dominant eye. It was not an easy transition for me or my eye!

One of the side effects of macular surgery is the formation of a cataract, so a year later, I had surgery to remove the cataract and implant a lens. After that, I had to wear a contact in my right eye to fool my brain into thinking that my two eyes had similar sight. Otherwise, without the contact, and even with glasses, I developed a splitting headache in a hurry. But, even with the contact, I needed to wear glasses with coated lenses to diminish the rainbows and halos I see around lights because of the corneal dystrophy, and to provide the bifocals I need so I can read.

I have become well-acquainted with a variety of eye doctors. I see an optometrist a couple of times a year so he can tweak my glasses and contact prescriptions to provide me with the best sight possible, under the circumstances. I see a local ophthalmologist to monitor my retinas, since my previous macular hole puts me at greater risk to develop another one. And, recently, I've seen another local ophthalmologist who specializes in corneas. Both of those doctors are surgeons. In fact, the first one did my cataract surgery last year, and the second one has done hundreds of cornea transplants over the years. However, neither of them felt qualified to perform my macular surgery or my corneal surgery. So I've gotten to know two different surgeons in the Denver area.

My cornea surgeon has assured me that my overall vision should improve greatly after surgery. And, I didn't need to have a full cornea transplant! Since my original diagnosis, surgeons have come up with a simpler, less invasive, endothelial transplant, using a thin, inner layer of a donated cornea, instead of the whole cornea.

So, my endothelial transplant was last week, on Thursday afternoon. And, while he was at it, the surgeon removed a small cataract and implanted a lens, so I had three procedures done for the price of one, because any future surgery in that eye might disturb the transplanted tissue. I was awake, although not too alert, for the entire surgery, which took a little more than an hour, followed by an hour in recovery, flat on my back. The hardest part, for me, was to lie perfectly still during the surgery because, as the nurse warned me, even a tiny movement seems like an earthquake under the surgeon's microscope.

Dr. Fish inserted a gas bubble into my eye to act as a bandage, applying pressure to the transplanted area of my eye. Because of that, I had to lie flat on my back for several one-hour stretches that same day, and I needed to sleep on my back that night, in the motel room. The gas bubble is still there, slowly shrinking in size, and blurring my vision at times. But it seems to be a much different kind of bubble than the one I had after my macular surgery; except for a little blurriness, I hardly know it's there. Click here to read about my other gas bubble.

Dr. Fish was surprised to find that I had 20/70 vision in my right eye the day after surgery, even without glasses. That's almost as good as my corrected vision, with a contact and glasses, before the surgery. And, my distance vision should keep improving over the next few weeks. It seems strange to be done wearing that annoying contact. However, I'll still need glasses to read, and to provide a lens coating for my left eye, which still has corneal dystrophy.

We don't know yet if, or when, I will have corneal surgery on my left eye. It might be better to just leave it alone, since any further surgery may cause more trouble than it's worth.

I've said it before, and I need to say it again: what a blessing God gave us when he created people with two eyes so, if one eye has serious problems, the other can take over. And, I am thankful for skilled surgeons who are able to fix the parts of our body that need help to function appropriately.

I'm also thankful for people who plan to have their organs and tissues donated when they die, so other people may live, or have an improved quality of life. Without a tissue donor, I would be sentenced to certain blindness, so I want to thank all of you who have already made a decision to be organ and tissue donors, in spite of that inevitable "ick" factor.

One more thing: as she was prepping me for surgery, Dr. Fish's nurse assured me that he was a fabulous surgeon, who had done more endothelial transplants than anyone else in the world. Later, when Bill asked the doctor how many transplants he had done, he told us that he had done hundreds of corneal transplants, and thirty-five endothelial transplants. It's such a new procedure that the expert has only done thirty-five! How blessed I am to be one of his patients! Because of his skill, I am looking forward to seeing better than I have in years.