The Life of Jeff and Katie

My semi-final eye update

Posted by jeff | Filed under Uncategorized

Sorry for not posting this sooner, but here is the latest on my eye. I’ve been back at work since Jan 4 and I have slowly worked my way up to a full schedule. I now have no more employer-imposed work restrictions and I go into the office every day. My eye is almost completely healed and I am now able to open it almost all day long. Several people have told me that it looks good and they can’t tell a difference from how it looked before. Unfortunately, the infection left quite a scar in the center of my vision which makes everything blurry when I look with my right eye. I will continue to take steroid drops for the next month or so which should help a little with the scarring but the bottom line is that I am going to need to have a corneal transplant to restore my vision.

The good thing is that the cornea is the best place on the body to transplant (who knew?). There are several reasons for this:

The cornea normally contains no blood vessels so a blood type match is not needed
Corneal transplant rejections still happen, but because of the lack of blood vessels, they are very uncommon.
Almost everybody can donate a cornea so it is really easy to find one; in fact, my doctor says that the “eye bank” he uses can usually provide a good cornea on the same day. I have some weird ideas about what an “eye bank” looks like inside its doors.
In some cases, a full corneal transplant is not necessary. Instead, a partial transplant can be performed which replaces the top layers of the cornea. My doctor said that almost all the rejections he’s experienced with full transplants have been at the back of the cornea so partial transplant rejections are rare.

In my case, my doctor advises that I elect to have a partial transplant. Not only is the rejection risk much less, they also lasts a lifetime. Full transplants, only last 20 years or so before they have to be replaced. The downside to partial transplants is that they do not restore your vision as much as a full one could.

At my next visit (in a couple of months), we will try a hard contact lens in my eye to see if that improves my vision as much as I’d like it to. If it doesn’t, then I will go ahead with the partial transplant and will probably have it performed some time after July of this year. After being out sick for several weeks, I have some disability pay to build up. One thing that is nice is that I can have the transplant whenever I want to; my eye can’t get any worse than it is now!

Until then, this is the last update on my eye that I plan on posting. Please let me know if any of you have specific questions. Thanks again for all the love and support you all have given to us during this ordeal.

The latest (eye update 2)

Posted by jeff | Filed under Uncategorized

Good news from the Doc today. He says that I’ve healed about 70% and the bacteria should be completely gone by now. The next step is to wait for the ulcer to completely heal and contine with antibiotics to make sure that the infection has been completely eradicated. My dosages have been reduced and I now only have to put drops in my eye every few hours.

For the curious here is more detailed information about what I have exactly. The official diagnosis is a corneal ulcer caused by +4 pseudomonas aeruginosa (the +4 means that it is the most severe type of this bacteria that’s out there). The doctor says that this was caused by a contact leans making a small tear in my eye which allowed the bacteria to get in. However, there are several things that make this situation particularly interesting:

My contacts are advertised to be safe to wear during sleep and they are FDA approved for such use.
I always take my contacts out every night. The only time I remember sleeping in them is during a 2 hour nap on the Sunday before the infection.
I recently changed out my contacts and so I was well within the manufacturer’s schedule.

So, the lesson is, always take your contacts out even if you are only planning on sleeping for a short time. Call or email me if you’d like details about what brand of contacts that I use.

I am still basically blind in my infected eye. I can see a little better every day but if you hold your hand out in front of me, I can’t tell how many fingers you’re holding up. Restoring my vision will take some time and we’ll know more once the abrasion has completely healed. For now, even though it is in much less pain, I keep my bad eye closed so that it doesn’t interfere with my good one. I am now able to read and use the computer more but I haven’t attempted to drive yet. It’ll be hard to drive with no depth perception or peripheral vision but the Doc says that I can do try whenever I’m ready. I’m planning on starting work again after the 1st and he says that he doesn’t see why I wouldn’t be able to at that time.

In other news, I am peeved that it’s Christmas and I had to turn on the A/C at home today. Dang it Houston!

My eye! (an update)

Posted by jeff | Filed under Uncategorized

As most of you have already heard, this week I came down with a serious infection in my right eye. This infection was so severe that it created an ulcer in my eye which severely impaired my vision. As of now, I still cannot see anything but a big blur in that eye but the pain is thankfully much less. I am now taking three different antibiotic eye drops, one of which I have to take every 20 minutes all day and all night. Yesterday my doctor prescribed an ointment for me to use so that I can sleep in 3 hour blocks. This finally let me get some rest after staying up almost 48 hours straight (I cheated and fell asleep for an hour during my 2nd night).

For now the prognosis looks pretty good. Dr Singh, my ophthalmologist, says that my infection should visibly clear up within a week and there will be a scar left on my eye. When the infection is gone, then we will work on restoring my vision. Most often, people with my condition, through therapy, are able to have their vision restored without surgery so hopefully I'm one of the lucky ones. Thankfully, the infection is not in the center of my cornea. In any case, it will take several months before I am able to see as well as I was able to before.

To pass the time I have been watching plenty of TV and movies and I am now able to use the computer for short stretches of time. I've also been reading a lot as my other eye is quickly adjusting to doing everything on its own. I've also been spending lots of time playing with Abby and looking for the $25 bottles of antiboitic that she likes to hide.

It's such a cliche, but times like these really make you grateful for what you have. I have several weeks of full-paid disability leave from work and we have very good medical insurance. Our friends and family have been wonderful and many have gone far out of their way to help us during this time. I am humbled and from the bottom of my heart, I am eternally grateful for what you have done for me and my family. You know who you are.

I've been going to the Dr every day since Wednesday but I've been given the weekend "off." I should have more information about my progress after my visit on Monday and will post another update at that time.

Posted via email from The Life of Jeff and Katie