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 😀

Thanks to everyone who’s been keeping up to date with my eye situation. I know not all of you are pray-ers but I do appreciate all the support and good wishes from everyone.  (For those who are new to the story I had a cornea transplant in March of 2010)

Today didn’t go as expected but it was still good news…

I have been working towards getting all the stitches out (there are 13 of the original 16 still in there). And I thought today would be the day. I had misunderstood the procedure and thought that I couldn’t move on to the next step of recovery… new glasses, contacts etc until that happened.

Seemingly the vision in the eye is greatly improved. The shape of the cornea is very good and the stitches are all secure. So in cases like these they tend to leave well enough alone. I asked if it’s possible they would leave the stitches in forever and the Dr said that it was possible as long as they didn’t cause any problems.

I explained that I can’t wear my glasses at the moment, ergo I can’t drive. I need my glasses to give me better vision in my left eye, but when I’m wearing them the vision in my right eye is so bad it makes the room spin. And it turns out that this is because I don’t need glasses for my right eye now. I can get clear glass in the right eye and have an updated prescription in the left eye and I should be fine, actually better than fine… to read and drive etc. It’s not 20 20 vision or anything like that in the right eye but clear glass would be enough and probably the wiser option as the vision/cornea may change again.  

So I’ve already booked in with my optician to get new glasses. 🙂

I’m absolutely delighted with the outcome and again I appreciate all the prayers and interest in my cornea transplant journey. I’m also really excited that my cornea donor Brandon and his family have become a part of the story. His parents Diane and Bill and their friends have been praying for me and I’m hoping to meet them please God, later this year.

 

In case you didn’t know, I submitted a photo to an exhibition run by the Circle of Light Foundation in Colorado. It is connected to the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank, which sent the cornea to Ireland from the US. The photo is of me holding my laptop with a picture of Brandon on the screen. I hope you like it.

A x