Yippee skippee and YEAY!!!!!!
Finally after almost 2 years of waiting to experience the benefits of my cornea transplant… I can see! The biggest difference is definitely with reading and typing. Everything had to be in 20pt and Arial or I couldn’t see it. And books…! Well I had to practically stick them to my nose to be able to read. (Not condusive to finishing an MA, I can tell you.)
I’ve got my new glasses now and it’s wonderful!
Not long after my op, in my regular piece in Vox Magazine ( http://www.vox.ie a great little magazine I highly recommend… and not just cos I’m in it :D) I told a story about a freak teapot accident I had while I was in hospital…
20 20 Vision?!
I recently had an eye operation. For a while the sight in my eye will be worse before it gets better and it is a slow but steady recovery.
A couple of days after the op I felt it was time to stop allowing people to pamper me. So when the staff brought me my tea on Day 3, I very firmly assured them that I was fine and needed no help.
I could see the tray and everything on it, I got my cup and saucer in front of me, picked up the teapot and promptly poured the tea into the saucer! I quickly grabbed what I thought was a white folded napkin and was mopping up the tea before I realised I was using the bread!!! Whatever I did next (and I’m not sure what that was), I sent the knife and fork flying off my tray and crashing to the floor.
I sat in the bed like a bold child who’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t have while a girl came back into the ward, took one look at the tray, one look at me, and without a word took the tray away returning with a new one; the tea already poured!
Although I could see all the things on the tray, I didn’t realise that I couldn’t really see them properly. I’m so looking forward to being able to see! My eyesight has been deteriorating for years. This op and the eventual op on the other eye will change my life and I’ll be able to see… clearly!
I’ve been reflecting on verse 12 in 1 Corinthians 13. The verse says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (ESV) And I realise that after all my ops and recovery I STILL won’t have 20 20 vision. That won’t come until much later.
In the mean time, I’ll probably keep spilling the tea of imperfection in to the saucer of life; mopping it up with the bread of blindness!!!
But one day…I’ll get there. Just you wait and see!
From June 2010 edition of Vox Magazine http://www.vox.ie
Ahh the blind ol’ days 😀
Within two years, I went from 20/400, to 20/30 vision in my transplanted eye. Sadly, I’m now regressing, thanks to a cataract. Once removed, mine should be back to about 20/30 again. I remember back then (and am now again) being “graceful”. I run in to doors with my shoulder. I don’t always clear the foot of the bed (where I have pointed angles) and I sometimes don’t clear the doorways. It’s all good (bruises and all!) because my donor’s gift saved my entire eye, as well as giving me back my sight.
yes, I’m so grateful to my donor and his family. The 2nd anniversary of his death is this Thursday. It’s a real privelege to be connected with his family – and to be able to see 🙂 Hope the cataract op goes well x