As Requested
Hi, Everyone! Much has happened since I last updated. I finally got fed up with corporate living and quit my job. Now I'm an unemployed student planning to enter nursing next year.
Last week I received an anonymous request for more information on Mom's cornea transplants. So far she's had just one eye done because of unrelated health concerns. However, she is much better and is planning the second surgery later this year.
Corneas are received from cadaver donors, and unlike other organs, no matching of tissues or blood types is necessary. The operation itself was about two hours long and performed out-patient. Mom had very little pain and no bad side effects from the procedure, other than a couple of stitches popping, which is very minor in the later stages of healing.
Originally, Mom was myopic/nearsighted, and wore very thick glasses. In the 80's, she was accepted into an experimental study of radiokeratotamy (RK). In this first corrective surgery, her corneas were cut into pie shaped slices, in the hopes that as they healed, her corneas would be reshaped and vision would improve. Each of her corneas was scored with 16 pie pieces, which, despite immediate improvement, turned out to be an overcorrection. Consequently, Mom became extremely presbyopic/farsighted. Also, due to the scarring, she had a lot of haloing and light distortions and also lost depth perception, particularly at night.
Since the transplant, vision in that eye is greatly improved. She uses that eye almost exclusively, and has a dummy lens in her glasses for her "bad" eye. She is looking forward to the upcoming procedure. To have such positive results after being told by the Lighthouse of the Blind that her vision was incorrectable and no reputable surgeon would touch her scarred corneas, Mom is thrilled. To someone facing similar vision issues and legal blindness, she reccommends that you find a specialist and look into the possibility of corneal transplants.
Such procedures are only made possible through the generous donations made by family members facing difficult circumstances. I know firsthand what it takes to be such a donor, as I donated tissues and corneas following my father's death this past December. I urge you to educate yourselves on the donation process and to give it some consideration. You can check out www.lifegift.org for more information.
Last week I received an anonymous request for more information on Mom's cornea transplants. So far she's had just one eye done because of unrelated health concerns. However, she is much better and is planning the second surgery later this year.
Corneas are received from cadaver donors, and unlike other organs, no matching of tissues or blood types is necessary. The operation itself was about two hours long and performed out-patient. Mom had very little pain and no bad side effects from the procedure, other than a couple of stitches popping, which is very minor in the later stages of healing.
Originally, Mom was myopic/nearsighted, and wore very thick glasses. In the 80's, she was accepted into an experimental study of radiokeratotamy (RK). In this first corrective surgery, her corneas were cut into pie shaped slices, in the hopes that as they healed, her corneas would be reshaped and vision would improve. Each of her corneas was scored with 16 pie pieces, which, despite immediate improvement, turned out to be an overcorrection. Consequently, Mom became extremely presbyopic/farsighted. Also, due to the scarring, she had a lot of haloing and light distortions and also lost depth perception, particularly at night.
Since the transplant, vision in that eye is greatly improved. She uses that eye almost exclusively, and has a dummy lens in her glasses for her "bad" eye. She is looking forward to the upcoming procedure. To have such positive results after being told by the Lighthouse of the Blind that her vision was incorrectable and no reputable surgeon would touch her scarred corneas, Mom is thrilled. To someone facing similar vision issues and legal blindness, she reccommends that you find a specialist and look into the possibility of corneal transplants.
Such procedures are only made possible through the generous donations made by family members facing difficult circumstances. I know firsthand what it takes to be such a donor, as I donated tissues and corneas following my father's death this past December. I urge you to educate yourselves on the donation process and to give it some consideration. You can check out www.lifegift.org for more information.
posted by TrisaTx at
9:47 AM
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