Cornea Transplant Update

Okay, first of all, thus far, it seems it is NOT rejecting. But it was getting infected, and in turn THAT could have started a graft rejection, if I waited another day or so.

But I did have the BEGINNINGS of an infection, thanks to a stitch that had popped loose from the graft. So, the doctor I had to see on Triage/emergency basis removed it just with the tweezers. I asked and SHE (who is a Retina Specialist, not cornea) said it was ONLY the popped stitch, and kept me on my OmniPred steroid drop every 4 hours, and added Vigamox antibiotic drops 4 times a day.

Well.....

I'd gone back yesterday (Monday) for a re-check with my regular doctor, the Cornea Specialist. And he found something that must have developed over the weekend, otherwise the other doctor, I'm certain would have seen it while looking at my eye on Friday.

It seems that I have developed an abscess where the stitch was loose and just "floating" there. So, now I am a self-proclaimed walking Drug Store. At least through tomorrow morning, when the decision will be made to either keep me on my drug plan, or take a knife (again) to my eyeball (same thing he said, as when he removes the stitches). Yes, he may have to lance the abscess, let it drain, and grab a culture to see exactly what kind of infection is growing.

Of course, I'm hoping and praying feverishly that the drugs all are WORKING.

What's my drug regimen, you ask? The kind where it has made it impossible to volunteer at the school at all this week.

Twice a day, Aleve (one in morning, one at nighttime, both with food).

Once a day, Doxycycline (at bedtime, no dairy/calcium at least 2 hours before taking)

EVERY (waking) hour, Vigamox drops (antibiotic to stave off rejection and bacteria).

Every 2 hours, OmniPred drops (steroid) to ward off swelling and inflammation and eye pressure problems.

Every 4 hours, Bacitracin Ointment in lower eye lid, also an anti-bacterial medication.

To say I feel like I'm on a never-ending merry-go-round is probably a horrible understatement at the moment. And I have to do this regimen AT LEAST through a part of tomorrow morning. Probably even longer if he has to cut in to the abscess.

But!!!... Yes, there is a "but". There is a so-called silver lining in all of this mess.

It seems (seeing as I haven't seen the doctor in over a year) that we BOTH got a surprise. Because the doctor on Friday claimed I still had five stitches to go, but I don't know if she was actually looking for anymore of them other than the infected one. My regular specialist (Cornea) said he saw NONE.

Either he already removed some (which he did, a total of eight altogether), the other doctor removed the one, or they even actually DISSOLVED somehow, though they aren't considered "dissoluble" by what I had always understood.

So, that is ONE less worry to have to go through anymore. And that is apparently why my vision was now pegged in that eye as being either 20/50 or 20/40 (depending on which test I took between two different eye chart tests that they give me).

We'd talked about it many times in the past (and yes, he reminded me yesterday lol) that as stiches came out, being that the graft was sewn in pretty tightly and "flattened" it, to where it 'touched' my pupil, that the cornea would round its self out, and that this is FINALLY happening..

Now it seems that it is NOT the stitches, but the cataract that I have had since about a month post-transplant, that is hindering my peripheral vision on the outer left side of the eye.

So, of course, that means I am STILL facing (at least) one last surgical procedure to remove the cataract-ridden lens, and have it replaced with an implant.

So, there's the current news from the last post, If It's Not One Thing, It's Another... (WARNING!!!! language laced!) .. At least this one isn't filled with words that would make a sailor blush and pass out. (=

"When life hands you lemons..."

Don't you just love cliches? I do, for the most part anyways.

But, then again, I had so many lemons handed to me in this lifetime, which probably isn't quite half way over with yet, the cliche gets a bit tiring after a while.

At birth, I had fluid on my right lung, an esophugus that was basically torn in two, was a 'preemie' by 1976's standards and weighed only four whole pounds.

Oh, did I mention that that fluid severely collapsed my lung? So... Off to Santa Clara Medical I was flown by chopper. The staff told my father to not even expect me to survive the flight, let alone the surgery....Then to not expect me to live past the first 24 for 48 hours after that...And so on. 

Get the picture here?

Move it along to when I was just shy by a couple of months basically of turning the big 1-3. My mother suffered a traumatic stroke on October 1st, 1989. In the early morning hours, not long after midnight, on October 29th, not quite a whole month later, my mother passed away from the complications she incurred. 

Then, it was just me and my father, living life to the best of our ability, on our own (so to speak).

Almost twenty years later, I start getting strange infections in my left eye. Of course, it was all the signs of Pink Eye. But instead another kind of infection. So we treat it through my Opthomologist. 


Just over a year later, I get another "attack", so I gear up to see the good doctor again, to get more medicine. But, I also like an idiot, poked myself in the bad eye while scratching my eyebrow. 


After being sent to a Specialist, I find out that I perforated the eaten-away Cornea (window on the outside that keeps outside infections...out). So off to North Carolina's Duke University Medical Center I go.


They tried "gluing" the hole shut, in hopes that it repaired its self at best. Or at worst, hold it shut for the infection to go, as to do a Corneal Transplant.


Of course!...My luck had it that three days later, I get to go back to Duke for an emergency Corneal Transplant.


As fate would also have it, the surgery was done exactly 20 years later, to the day, that my mother had passed away.


She taught me, as did life its self that we all will have those sour lemon moments in our lives. At different intervals, there will be trials. We will at times be defeated. But mostly, we will defeat them! 


It's just all in how you use those lemons. Make that sweet lemonade. Or, use them to be a sour-soul.

What are YOU thankful for this holiday season?

This morning, I sat here and it suddenly dawned on me, that in one week, it will be Thanksgiving Day. And it will also mean my kids will have an extra two days off from school to drive me completely and utterly insane.

Of course, this is the holiday where people are thankful. For what they have, who they have in their lives, and so forth.

You know, the usuals. We are all thankful for our jobs (for those that are employed, especially in these very hard economic times), our families (even those pesky inlaws), for our homes and other neccessities in life. And even for the not-so-needed materialistic things that we have.

While I'm extremely grateful for all of the above myself, there is one special thing in particular that I am more grateful and thankful for this holiday season. One thing more than anything else in the above list. Yes, I think honestly even more than my children....

My eyesight.

In a flash (literally) it was gone from my left eye. I could barely see any light through it.

After a failed "gluing" procedure done on my Perforated Cornea, that was "blown out" by a skin infection that went to my eye, and my own clumsiness, I required an emergency Corneal Transplant surgery. Even though my eye was still heavily infected. 

Really, it was a gamble. Either do it, and chance possible failure (rejection) and lose my whole eye. Or just take the eye and get it over with.

There is only one way to retrieve a cornea from another person's eye. That is to remove the cornea from a deceased donor who was gracious enough, and had a kind enough heart to donate their organs and/or their tissues after death.

Within not even a week after surgery, I had my first huge break through. For the first time in about two weeks, I was able to read the first big letter, and a second set of letters on the eye chart. I could see a hand waving their fingers from about two or three feet back. And I was able to discern light from dark. 

Now, I'm able to get the first maybe two or three lines of an eye chart. Believe me, my Periphrial vision and judgement on clearing things on my left side are still problematic. But I deal with it. It's especially hard if I have to wear my protective eye patch. But it's all worth it.

Because, thanks to a fellow human being's final act of love and kindness, I am able to watch with both eyes wide open, my children grow, be happy, and one day have their own children.

God had truly blessed me and my life. He has given me and my family something special this year. And it's a gift that I hope to have until He calls me home to be with Him. He sent me an angel that day. That angel is my Cornea Donor and their family. May the Lord bless them as He has blessed me.                                        

It was a crazy evening. Filled with fun, laughter and love.

Where? At my Brother In-Law's of course!

He is the man when it comes to cooking. Not to knock down my hubby. After all, his pork chops are to die for. But the cheese burgers were pretty good last night. Simple, but oh so delicious!

After feeding six starving children (after all, they all think that they are dying of hunger on a daily basis), which included my three, a cousin, a nephew, and a niece, everyone kind of went their seperate ways.

The smaller kids watched a movie and played in the bedroom upstairs. The older ones went down stairs to the bedroom to play Fasion Show and Chutes and Ladders (nice combo!).

My husband, his brother and I just sat in the living room, watching the movie Sahara with Penelope Cruz and Matthew McConnehey (still can't figure out how to spell it).

At nine o'clock, the fun ended. It was time for the decent drive home. Then my oldest daughter went home again with her cousin to spend yet another night.

This morning, it will be cleaning time soon. My husband is home, so I know he will help me, being I am on several restrictions for my eye's recovery from surgery.