So, today marked the first anniversary of my partial cornea transplant (for those that need to know specifics, I had a DSAEK procedure, which is a partial-thickness corneal transplant that replaces only the endothelial layer.) I guess this means that at least part of my body (a very small part on a rather large body) is 70 years old. God knows I often feel like I’m 70…
When I had the surgery, I wondered how well I would see in the days and months afterwards. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, most of my doctors were pretty optimistic. They all agreed that unless something went wrong, I’d get back to 20/200. Some thought I could get to 20/100 or even better. One year later and my vision is at 20/400.
Dreams of reading a newspaper, magazine, purchase orders, invoices (those that I create to send to a customer, not those sent by a vendor — Eliz can read those,) mail, and anything else printed on paper never came true. Wild fantasies of tossing a softball around with Jane, hitting a tennis ball around with Jake, going to a Phillies, Flyers, or Eagles game (you know, I’ve never been to the Link) and enjoying it have all been placed back deep in the corner of my mind next to being a rock star, an action-hero actor, or a top chef.
As I’ve previously posted, none of my ophthalmologists know why my vision has deteriorated since June. Maybe it’s from the mold at our business (we’ll know shortly, because we are vacating or current building very shortly.) Maybe it’s age related. Maybe it’s because I’ve gained weight. Maybe it’s just supposed to be this way.
I have an appointment on 9 December with the cornea specialist. Perhaps he will have an answer better than the last time I saw him, when he told me that he didn’t know what it was and it would be a hard fix. I’ll post sometime after the appointment and let you know.
I do plenty of complaining, whining, and ranting here. One thing I’m not sure I’ve ever done is thank the donor of the endothelia that now resides on the fifth layer of my cornea. I don’t know who he or she was. I only know that the donor was 69 years old when they died and without their cornea (even though they only used the endothelia, the whole cornea was available to me) I would almost certainly be much worse off. Thank you sir/madam, I do appreciate your gift.