Back in February, my partner discovered what seemed to be a small white dot on my eye. At first, I didn’t take any notice of it as I assumed she meant where the graft fused with the rest of my eye. However, when I looked in the mirror one night before going into the bath, I noticed it, and for the first time in a while, I spurted out ‘Oh shit’ and the anxiety I had about my eye that I diminished years ago came flooding back in.
Before the pandemic, I underwent laser eye surgery and was meant to have regular check-ups afterwards. I only had one and then all my appointments were cancelled as was everyone else’s. And I decided I’ll wait on it and if I notice any issues, I will go straight back to my eye clinic. But all of last year, my eye behaved itself rather remarkably (with the exceptional hay fever and eye-straining).
Skip to now, I realised that I was in potential trouble. But I didn’t have any other symptoms than just had this cloud developing within the layers of my cornea. So whilst I was internally panicking, I was also quite calm and assured
I decided to try and call my eye clinic but no answer (of course, the pandemic). But I rang weekly to no avail until I, and others, started to see that it was getting more aggressive. So skip to this month, I decided I needed to take action and kick up a fuss (as much as I hate being that person). I was booked in for an appointment the week after.
The trouble with my eye journey is that I’m an incredibly complex case. Only my consultant can figure out what’s going on and how to deal with my situation. He’s a genius in that respect. However, he was on annual leave and I saw one of his fellows who was running the department on his behalf. And because of the complexity of my case, everyone was dumbfounded about what it could be. But all in agreement that it was most likely scarring. I love the attention I get at eye clinics, but I know as well that I’m so difficult to deal with that sometimes I can go in roundabouts if my eye decides to give everyone an adventure.
Nevertheless, I received a phone call today back from the lovely fellow consultant that saw me last week and heard back from my consultant who agreed that it’s an aggressive form of scarring. I will be put on what seems like an intense course of steroid drops and antibiotics and possibly other medication (was still somewhat recovering from my vaccine dose a couple of days beforehand).
And I will most likely be undergoing surgery to try and extract as much scarring as possible to minimise its issues on me. But, once again, cause of my complex case, what is normally a somewhat routine surgery, the risks are even greater because of my transplant. But one I know that I must take as my eyes will always be an ongoing battle.
It could be worse. But could’ve been better. But I’m grateful that I have a dedicated eye care team who realise the issues I’ve garnered during various COVID waves and lockdowns, and the battle that’s ahead of us.
Let’s see how everything goes.
Forever and always,
Ollie X