Things are going well..

Things are going well. I really appreciate all the emails from people pledging their support.

I am getting used to being monocular. I am also getting use to the usual pirate jokes and people calling me "patch." I do not have any pain. The biggest thing is trying to drive without killing anyone. Some people have blind spots in their car. I have a blind side. If you live in GA I recommend passing in the right lane, I am definately a liability out there. I try to refrain from driving, talking on the cell phone, and drinking my coffee, but sometimes it just has to be done. My friend Waymond asked if I can get a handicap sticker for parking my car. I thought that was pretty funny, but I am afraid they would take away my license, cell phone, and large coffee.

The nice thing this past weekend was that I had a chauffeur most of the weekend. Amie and I went to the cabin and she drove up and back. It was nice to kickback in the passenger seat and watch a DVD or read. I am sure she is looking forward to that 12 hour drive to Michigan while I sleep, read, and watch movies. I might have to expand my Netflix subscription to 6 movies for that trip. I bet I can catch up on all the pop culture I have missed out on in the past few years.

Larry Wall's Cornea Tranplant Diary

Larry Wall's Cornea Transplant Diary
I found this link to another cornea tranplant diary.
Larry's surgery looks to have taken place about 1998.
Wow looks like fun!

This is a good picture of the cloudiness casued by the hydrops 

Meeting the Specialist

Wednesday

I spent the morning cramming for school. This eye thing sure happened at an inconvenient time. I have so much going on right now. I definitely do not need to be sitting in a doctor’s office all day. Luckily I have a cool boss and a job that is flexible. So, my mom picked me up at the house at noon and we headed down to Emory Hospital.
We arrived at the Emory Clinic and it was very impressive. The building was brand new.
We signed into the doctor’s office and filled out the usual paper work. It took several hours to see the doctor. He was running a little behind schedule, imagine that…..

When I saw Dr. Stulting, he was amazed at the size of the bubble in my eye. He told me I had acute corneal hydrops. Acute corneal hydrops is commonly associated with advanced keratoconus. It occurs when a layer within the cornea, known as Descemet's membrane, ruptures. The cornea becomes swollen, causing significantly blurred, and often foggy vision. The corneal swelling usually resolves over a period of 6 to 8 weeks without any specific treatment; however, the condition may result in scarring and permanently decreased visual acuity. Corneal transplantation (penetrating keratoplasty), may be necessary to restore vision.

Well, the good news was that the hydrops might cure itself and surgery might be unnessary. He said the chance of this was under 10%. The bad news was that we had to wait for the hydrops to heal before we could look at transplanting the cornea. The really bad news was that it is going to take at least six weeks for the hydrops to heal itself and it might not heal.

All I could think about was the fact that I would be without my right eye for another three months before I could even begin the healing process. Somehow I thought I would walk out of the doctor's office and be able to see. Now I find out that it would be about six months before I could hope to be able to use my eye.

We ain't in Kansas anymore....