The gift of sight
I decided to start this blog as I have been given the chance of sight and I want to do everything in my power and more to give this graft the best opportunity to heal and take to my cornea. I want to be able to see again and I want to share my journey with you, to inspire you and help you know that through trust, determination and healthy choices, we can heal ourselves.
A week ago I was blessed with the gift of receiving a corneal graft … potentially the gift of sight.
I have a severe cornea disease called Pellucid Marginal Degenerative Disease (PMD), it’s pretty rare and for me has been a rapid onset causing my cornea to thin and taking away my vision. It started in my left eye in June 2013 and in my right eye in March 2014. Without hard reshaping contact lenses I am barely able to see. Life isn’t as I used to know it…
But each day I wish, hope and pray that a miracle will come. That one day I will find a way to see again, that I can heal myself and I can find inner peace and trust that the universe will give me the gift of sight.
Then on 12 April a potential gift presented itself…. I had incredible pain in my left eye and it wouldn’t stop watering. I went to the hospital emergency ward and was told I had a severe perforated cornea that was so damaged that I require an urgent cornea graft in order to save my eye.
‘Oh wow!’ I exclaimed. ‘Does this mean I will be able to see again?’. For you see, a cornea graft is the only medical thing that could return my sight. I asked for a cornea graft in February and my doctors said it wasn’t necessary… and here I am today.
Unfortunately my Canberra doctor advised that it was just a patch job to seal my eye and that I shouldn’t have my hopes up for any improved vision.
My heart sank.
But then a series of random events occurred …. An international cornea conference was being held in America and most of Australia’s cornea specialists were leaving for it the next day… So my Canberra specialist was unable to perform the surgery, not that he wouldn’t be good at it, but Canberra is a big country town and my Sydney specialist performs cornea transplants all of the time.
So I was told I had to go to Sydney for the surgery as a cornea would have to be sent from Sydney to Canberra and because my specialist wouldn’t be able to see my post-surgery. I asked for my Sydney specialist to perform the surgery but was told that as it’s an emergency I will have to take the duty doctor. Well guess what? They duty doctor was heading to that conference as well and that left the door open for me to ask about my specialist again. Hoping that he wasn’t also going to that conference.
Guess what? It was Greek Easter that weekend and my specialist had chosen to stay with his family to celebrate rather than go to the conference.
Oh wow!
I went to Sydney at 3.30am the next morning, in too much pain to worry about the surgery, to think about having someone else’s organ in my body…picturing all those horror movies we’ve seen about looking through someone else’s eyes!
My lovely specialist, Con, performed the surgery, but he didn’t just do the patch job, he took the opportunity to give my eye a nip and tuck and help reshape it into a normal eye shape. He was very happy with the surgery and said that the chances of sight returning are pretty good, we just have to wait 4-12 months.
By this stage I’m speechless. There is a potential that I WILL BE ABLE TO SEE CLEARLY, my perfect vision could be restored. Medicine has done it’s bit, the Universe did it’s bit to present the opportunity, now it’s up to me to heal myself to give this cornea the best host, a healthy body, mind and spirit.
I am at peace with what is.
Miss Nat xoxo