Hospital Check-Up Appointment [25/1/2016]

First hospital appointment of the year has come and gone. I was a bit nervous as I was worried that they’d tell me that the transplant had failed (jumping to conclusions, again). Didn’t have to wait too long until someone called out my name and my eyesight tested. The right eye (which had Cross-Linking surgery in May last year) hasn’t changed, while the vision in left eye has slightly deceased, only able to read the ‘A’ at the very top of the chart.

I sat back in the waiting and had my name called out again and I didn’t see my consultant but rather another eye specialist. Explained to her my situation so she had some background. But there was major confusion as I had my eyedrops changed so many times during December that we had forgotten which eyedrops I was taking. Eventually my consultant told the junior specialist about it and quickly went away. I told her that I was noticing a triangle halo was developing at the top of my eyesight and that vision was decreasing, so she saw to it, and reassured me that it’s most likely the stitches causing the problem and should be gone when they’re taken out in about a years time. I now have to take the same eyedrops I was taking since December (Prenisolone Sodium Phosphate at 0.5%) but instead of 3 a day, I take 2 a day for a month, then 1 a day for another month, then stop altogether. Next appointment will be around April, so I look forward to it.

Funny story, as the specialist was putting local anaesthetic in my eye, some of it went over and covered my bottom eyelid. So I had orange eyelids for the day.

Even though the appointment only lasted 20 minutes, I hope that vision will get better and that the surgery didn’t go to waste. So I’ll keep optimistic.

Anyways, back to recovering and all that shiz. 

Enjoy your day,

Ollie x

"Sorry for the lack of updates..."

Sorry for the lack of updates. Nothing has really happened since the last post.

Firstly I just want to say how deeply sad I am that David Bowie passed away last week. I remember as a kid questioning my family about his weird eyes. Never would I know that when I’d be 19 that, for a couple of days, I’d have two different coloured eyes after having DALK surgery. It was a brilliant experience to go through. All my life I have always been fascinated by his eye condition; even before I had Keratoconus. Very iconic look. RIP Bowie.

Changing subject, I have an appointment next week. Sadly I have been noticing decline in clear vision and left eye is almost going back to way it was. Hopefully that this is normal, and that its just me being impatient and jumping to conclusions. Fingers crossed.

More updates as they come.

Ollie★

Eye Drops Changed Again Two Weeks After Last Change.

Worst week I had ever had last week (eye wise). Was in so much pain after given new eyedrops to try and ease the pressure that was building up in my eye, but my eye was completely red and to the point I couldn’t open it because it was too much for my retinas to handle. It was so bad, we were considering going to A&E, which is the last thing I ever want to do.

Luckily family rang hospital at 9am, and spoke to the emergency nurse about it and they’ve completely changed my drops, so hopefully I will feel a lot better now. Fingers crossed.

I have to give it to my local hospital for being so helpful and nice. So grateful to them.

P.S. The eyedrops I was taking before was Lotemax. But obviously they were the problem because whenever I put them in, they instantly hurt.

2 Days Since Having Meds Changed.

It’s been two days since I’ve been put on different eyedrops to help calm down the pressure that is building up in my eye. Sadly, since last night, I have been experiencing immense pain in my eye that I am finding it a bit hard to open my left eye late at night, so obviously it’s adjusting to the change of eyedrops, as my eye is a bit sensitive to light which causes the pain. but I hope that this is just a temporary thing otherwise I will go to the hospital and make a fuss.
Enjoy your Black Friday.

Ollie

P.S. The meds that they changed me to is from Maxidex to Lotemax for anyone that is curious.

Keratoconus Group Blog: Dear Keratoconus, This is how I feel about you.

Everyone with Keratoconus will want to read this.

Keratoconus Group Blog: Dear Keratoconus, This is how I feel about you.

Check Up at Hospital (6 Weeks After DALK Surgery)

Just got back from the hospital for my check up about my transplant surgery. Right eye has improved slightly, whereas the left eye has slowly gotten worse. But knowing that the vision will get better and worse over the next 2 years gives me more reason not to panic.

Had my left eye scanned for the first time since before undergoing the surgery and all the nurse could say (who has scanned my eye the whole time I’ve been at the eye clinic) was a massive “Wow”. My eye is no longer blacks and purples but now red and yellows, which is a MASSIVE improvement.

My consultant was worried about the pressure that was building in my eyes, and so prescribed me Lotemax, which is less aggressive than the Maxidex eyedrops I was taking are. This could explain why I had a couple of headaches and bit of pressure inside my eye (correct me if I’m wrong).

But the thing that has made my day is that I asked my consultant if I was able to start driving lessons and he said that if I was able to read a reg plate from 20 meteres, it should be okay. And guess what? Ya boy is gonna book some driving lessons and apply for a provisional. MANS GONNA BE ABLE TO DRIVE NOW!!

4 Weeks After Corneal Transplant Surgery

Time does really go quickly. It’s already 4 weeks since I had my DALK surgery. Sadly, I have a terrible cold that’s going around, so my eye hasn’t taken lightly to it. It is very itchy and irritable, but knowing I can’t rub my eye or even touch is the horrible part. But what can you.

I received letter from the hospital for my next appointment, so I’m looking forward to that. 

I also recently decided to join Reddit and be an active member on the /r/Keratconus subreddit. You can find me on there with the username: olliestorey

That’s all the updates I have. Enjoy your week!

Ollie.

3 Weeks After Corneal Transplant Surgery

Hi everyone,

This is just an update on how I’m getting on 3 weeks after my op.

Eye is getting a bit itchy and irritated but on consultatn orders, I am not allowed to touch, rub, do anything physical with it. I woke up today to a letter addressed for me from my local hospital describing my vision to my opticians who originally diagnosed me with Keratoconus.

My right eye (which I had Cross-Linking surgery on back in May) is 6/6, which is not bad! The left eye has a lot of room for improvement, but it’s not bad considering I only just had surgery a few weeks ago. The vision in that eye is 6/60, but with a pinhole, it improves to 6/18.

I tried playing a bit of Snooker yesterday, but I think the surgery caught up with me as I was just so tired and worn out afterwards. So I think a couple days eye rest is in order for me.

Hope you all have a lovely (rainy) day!

Ollie.

3 weeks after my corneal transplant surgery. You can just make out the stitches which are in my eyes, but they’re thinner than a width of hair. Which is pretty cool. But yeah, more blogging coming soon.

Ollie.

Twitter: @olliestorey

Facebook: /olliestoreymusic

Insta: @oljstorey

Tuesday 13th October 2015 (DALK Corneal Transplant Surgery)

It’s Monday 12th October. I had just been to the Crime Museum in London, and having my last meal. It was a Chinese. Very lovely and nice. But this would be last meal before I would of had to fast for my surgery the following morning. I make the most of it, and eat as much as I can. People tell me I’ll be very hungry after I wake up from the surgery, which was under general anaesthetic. My family told me to have an early night, but as I knew, I would be up much of the night anxiously waiting for 6am to come by.

It’s around 2am, and I take my last sip of water (I wasn’t allowed to drink after 5:30am and I wouldn’t be awake by then. I close my eyes, and then the next thing I remember is being awoken by my mum at 6:45am. “Come on darling, it’s time to get up”. I do what most people do and close their eyes and soak in the rest of the time they could in their bed. Off I go. 

I was looking forward to this surgery. Mainly because it’s been talked about, debated about, and planned about for so long, it felt weird that it was actually going to happen within the day. 

Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK) – replacing or reshaping the outer and middle (front) layers of the cornea.

The reason for this surgery is that I had one of the most severe cases of Keratoconus they had seen in a very long time. Especially someone so young (18 at the time of being diagnosed). Funnily enough, a month before the surgery, while having my eyes scanned, the nurse kept thinking I was blinking throughout it because the test kept coming back as purple and black colours. Which often means the eye is in a pretty bad state. So I had to spent 30 minutes having a nurse watch me to make sure I wasn’t blinking while another took out the test. Funny how life works sometimes.

That type of scenario proves why I needed a corneal transplant so badly. Even the nurses were going mad about how bad my eye looked compared to my right eye (which is quite healthy after my CXL surgery and it seems that the Keratoconus has been halted). 

Anyway, back to the main story. I brought along my Bronson book (I had been watching a lot about Charles Bronson, now known as Charles Salvador for some time), my Mophie case for my iPhone just in case I had to wait all day and if my iPhone was to die. And that was it. On my way in a baggy grey shirt with some grey jogging bottoms, because I knew I had to be as comfy as I wanted to be, because this would be more serious than my cross linking. I regret not bringing my headphones because after I was out of the recovery ward, I just wanted to blast some Aphex Twin on my phone.

We arrive at the ‘Eye Day Surgery Unit’ which is this massive cubical in the middle of my local hospital and we go inside and register so they know I turned up and just wait. The nurse then calls my name (I will tell you though, feels so good to hear my new legal name than my boring birth name). I get called to ½ of the wards they have ready to question the patient and do anything that is necessary which the other waiting patients don’t need seeing. I have been through this sort of procedure before and I know what happens. They ask to verify who you are, why you’re at the unit and why do I need this surgery. Basic stuff. But knowing me, I give the nurse a full lecture as to why I needed the surgery, and she knows I mean business. Or I am just crazy. Probably the last one. Nope, definitely the last one. I am very crazy. 

I fill out forms and wait to be seen by my consultant who would be conducting the surgery. He calls me into one of the offices. “How are you feeling today, Ollie?” he asks as I close the door and walk to my seat. “I’m very nervous but excited!” I say quite quickly and nervously. “Good, what we’re (him and two other people which looked like students) going to do is quickly measure your eye to see how much tissue needs to be taken off, and these two will quickly observe your eye and what needs to be done to make this surgery successful. So I lay my chin on those machine which they use to examine your eyes with. I hear my surgeon mumbling to himself measurements of my eyes and other stuff he wants to note to himself. “Now”, my consultant says, “If you two have a quick look at this persons Keratoconus you will see what I’ll be doing during the Keratoplasty surgery and how severe his Keratoconus is”. They observe my eye then I am sent out back to the waiting room.

I then meet the Anaesthesiologist, who, of course, will be putting me to sleep before I head into theatre. She measures my height and weight so she knows how much dosage she needs to put me to sleep and such (hence why she’s an Anaesthesiologist). 

As I was going to be put under general, they wanted me to be comfy, yet want access to my chest and such if any problems occurred (which didn’t). I was told to put a gown which they gave me on and special tights which you have to wear during the op (I forgot the reason why but yeah, can’t be asked to Google it at this moment of time). With the tights on, the gown on and my red Nike shoes on, I looked and felt like someone who claimed they were the second coming of Henry VIII.

Before I’m asked to go with the doctors, the nurse starts giving me eye drop after eye drop. The first stung like a bitch, so obviously that was the local anaesthetic, because they always f%&*ing hurt. Then she gives me another one which makes everything in the room greenish yellow. Charlotte (my sister) says that it made my eye look like as if I had cross linking surgery again. Ah, the good old days.

Minutes after, I go to the toilet and give all my electronics to my family and other personal items, and I walk into the anaesthetic room. I have been through this procedure before. Lie on a bed, and let them do what they need to do. The thing I was worried about the most was the IV needle. As most are, I’m not a big fan of needles. So I was a bit anxious but looking back, the IV was the least of my worries. I had never been under general so this was going to be interesting. They put this tube like thing around my arm, and then ask me to open and close my hand. I had always wondered how they put the IV in, and I didn’t use my common sense, but hey. They couldn’t find a vein so another nurse held my arm done by the side of bed and asked me to open and close my hand again and they found one. “You’ll feel a slight scratch”. Famous last words. I felt it going in, but it didn’t actually hurt as much as I thought it would, considering it was going into my vein. Around 30 seconds later, the needle did start feeling a bit itchy and irritating, but again, least of my worries. 

They start putting this equipment on me, like the heart rate and etc, etc. They give an oxygen mask. And I have to say that pure oxygen is disgusting. The nurse says to me “Right, we’re ready to put you to sleep now”. I wanted to see how they did it. So I watched them inject it through the IV tube and it was this large syringe filled with clear liquid but with a few air bubbles here and there. All of a sudden, I start feeling pins and needles in my arm and I felt so knackered. My last words before I went to sleep were “Oh god, that is strong…” then I blacked out. It was a weird experience, but it was kinda cool, I guess. 

All of a sudden, I start hearing beeping and felt like as if the bed I was on was moving and being turned around. I open my eye (my right one) and I realise that I’m in a room that I wasn’t familiar with. I was in the recovery ward. This really nice young guy gently wakes me up and says “Hi there sir, the operation was successful and you’re in the recovery ward. We’ll going to take you out in a minute”. I kept opening and closing my eyes and looking around my area. I noticed that I couldn’t open my left eye, and that it was patched. I couldn’t believe that it (the operation) had been done. It felt like I closed my eyes for like two minutes. Amazing how science works. 

Around 5 minutes after waking up, I was wheeled back to the waiting room (they have two wards in there) and I noticed my family in their seats. They didn’t recognise me at first, until I started waving at them. I could hear my mum whispering “He’s out! He’s out!”. They walk up to me and the first thing I ask is for some water. I can tell you now, that sip of water I took was the best I ever had. I just blurted “God that water is f&*∞ing amazing”.

I waited and waited for the nurse to come and see me. I couldn’t open my eyes. So I had some assistance from my sister to walk me around the waiting room. Which consisted of bumping into the other patients and saying sorry whilst still in my hospital gown. I did my business in the toilet and went back to the ward. People say to you that you feel really hungry after being put to sleep, but I felt like I had eaten a couple hours ago and didn’t have any real appetite. 

The nurse was satisfied that I could home, gave me my eyedrops and tablets, and discharged me. I have to admit the first few days were uncomfortable and I couldn’t open my eyes for the same duration. But I was prying my left eye open two days after the op, and my body couldn’t cope with how clearly I could see. Now note, when I say ‘clearly’ I mean ‘everything is still hazy but most of the halo’s are gone’. My balance was everywhere and even felt a bit sick. 

But here I am now, two weeks after my operation, and typing this blog. My consultant has said that I have done three months worth of healing, and that’s mainly down to my mum giving me my eyedrops when I needed them, and I am doing well at the moment.

I feel excited for the future, and I hope that one day, I can have the vision that I once had and loved.

Ollie x

My blog on my day surgery is still in the works. But for the mean time, enjoy this photo I took today of my eye. The stitching looks beautiful.

1 Week 6 Days After DALK Surgery

Hi everyone,

I just want to say that I am currently in the middle of writing a HUGE blog about my experience at the hospital with my DALK surgery, and it won’t be long. But do keep in mind that I still need a bit of time away from the computers and such. 

In short summary: The surgery went well (obviously), and I have done three months worth of healing within a week. Vision is still a bit hazy, but come on… Not bad for someone who just had new corneal tissue for a week. ;)

I’ll try to be quick with the blog, and I hope you enjoy when it’s all posted.

Ollie x

Time for the cone to go

Hello everyone,

To all the people close to me, we all know that my surgery is very soon. And the nervousness is getting to me. But with the experience that I have been through with my cross linking surgery, I know I will be in safe hands.

I can’t wait to have some sort of vision back. It’s going to be a long road. 

Unsurprisingly, the Keratoconus in my left has gotten worse and it has gone to the point that there is 100% blurriness and there is no ‘webbing’ that I was experiencing. The halo’s have all smudged together, But meh.

I have pretty much recovered from the Cross Linking back in May and that eye feels great, but definitely needs a contact lens. But that’s better than being blind in both my eyes.

I better be off to bed, I’m knackered, I wanna listen to Aphex Twin, so I better be off. I will write some more before surgery comes knocking on my door.

Any questions you have for me do feel free to pop in a question.

Ollie x

13 days

Just 13 days until my corneal transplant. I’m nervous. I’m excited. I’m feeling every emotion possible. October should be an interesting month.

Thank you to everyone again for the massive support and love they have shown me.

O X

Check up at the hospital

Today, I went to the hospital to have a check up to see how my eyes are doing. And obviously, the right eye is doing great and the left is just getting worse.

The right eye has maintained so (hopefully) that means that the cross linking operation worked. The left eye is getting worse. It is now protruding more than ever (more than the camera on the iPhone 6) and rubbing against my eyelid, which irritates the eye and make it all sore and such.

After the scans and tests, me and my consultant started talking about my next surgery, and i had some concern over the pain I’ll be experiencing after the operation. And (with no beating around the bush) the surgeon did tell me that the first 48 hours will be quite unbearable, and then a week later the pain will make a return. But, luckily, they’ll be providing me with drops, painkillers and hopefully some drops to numb my eye.

Due to the severity of the keratoconus in my left eye, the doctor did say that they wouldn’t be able to know if the surgery has worked until a year a half later when the stitching is all out and I’m healed. But if it means risking my vision to try and get better eyesight, I’ll do it straight away, no matter what.

It’s just now under a month until my transplant, and I’m getting more excited and nervous for it. I can’t wait to see what I’ve been missing for the past three years.

Ollie  x 

3 years.

September 11th. It is a very haunting day. On the other side of the pond, almost 3,000 people lost their lives. It was a horrible tragedy. But I have my own on this date.

Three years ago, I still lived with my biological father. At this point of time, we didn’t get along. And I hated him, and still do.

You’re probably asking yourself why am I posting this sort of story on my blog about my Keratoconus. Well I can say once I explain the story, it will make some sense (hopefully).

11th September 2012. 2012 was a pretty rough year for me. I failed most of my GCSEs, my family was ripped apart and I was going through one of the most horrible phases I have ever had to experience. I wouldn’t wish that sort of experience on anyone.

It was the evening. I just came home from a local college that I just started to study Music Technology. I loved it. The problem was that they (the college) said to me that on the Thursday, I didn’t need to turn up because it was teacher training day. So I had a day off. Woo! But this is where it gets a bit complicated.

During my last year of Upper School, I used to skip quite a lot of days. I was under a lot of pressure, and now realise, I was also suffering from depression due to the upbringing I had. Most kids would resort to drugs and alcohol to solve this problem. But mine was just staying at home, and being with the ones I loved. But, because of the majority of my family moved out, I was always on my own. Not their fault, but mine. The house I lived in, I was born in it. I had an attachment to it. I lived there for 16 years and couldn’t see myself living anywhere else. So moving with my family to the other side of town was a no. And I feel stupid for not moving with them.

Back to the school thing, I used to skip a lot of school. To the point, I actually just didn’t turn up. But because my school were so advanced, every time I didn’t turn up, my parents would receive a text saying I wasn’t in and they wanted to know why. My biological father never confronted me about this until this day. But by the time he did, I had already left that school and basically snapped out of the need to skip everything. Education was very important to me, and I wasn’t going to waste it this time.

I tell my parents about the teacher training day. My mum says that cool. My biological father on the other hand, dismissed it and claimed I was lying. This really annoyed me. Really bothered me. I just couldn’t understand why my own father wouldn’t believe me. That was the only lie I ever told to him. And that was I never went to school because of everything I was dealing with. 

Back to the evening, I come home after my family drop me off at the old house I used to live in, and my biological dad comes back from work (I think). I confront him about the situation. ‘Why don’t you believe me about the (colleges) teacher training day? You can call them yourself if you must’ as I’m in the kitchen, putting a curry in the microwave (anglo indian and proud by the way), while he’s in the toilet doing something which I won’t mention on this blog. 

He finishes up and then comes towards the kitchen door. We start shouting at each other. The first thing you should know about me is that I hate fighting. I’m a lover not a fighter. So, as a way to stop this argument, I proceeded to tell him that i was going to shut the door, and end the argument there and then. But one thing about my biological dad is that he always wanted the last word. Even if it meant causing such an uproar. 

I slammed the door. I could tell on his expression through the glass door that he wasn’t pleased. And he was angry. I then started feeling force coming from the door. I noticed it was him trying to push his way through. 

After about 30 seconds of pushing and shovelling this door, he eventually wins and grabs a hold of me. And I grab him back. We have a bit of a pushing session. Then suddenly, he pushes me up against the hallway wall and then felt two sudden out of the blue blunt forces to my face. He didn’t punch me, he smacked me. Now you may be giggling and going ‘its going a smack’ but you have to take in account that he is 6 foot 2 and over 20 stone. Getting smacked by a big bloke feels like as if you’re being punched. 

I felt sick and shocked. My biological father hasn’t hit me this hard since I was a kid. I was 16 and I thought that he still wouldn’t have the need to use such violence.

We were still struggling and the only way I could get him off me was if I ripped his shirt. I did the act, and he got upset by it, and freed me. I went immediately to my BlackBerry mobile phone and shouted ‘I’m ringing the fucking police!!!’

Months before this fight occurred, my grandma always used to tell me ‘If he ever does anything to you, ring the police!’ I would always reply ‘Don’t worry grandma, he wouldn’t do anything to me’ But boy, was I wrong.

‘GO ON THEN!’ my dad shouts as I’m dialling 999. He obviously thinks I won’t do it. He obviously thinks that I’m too scared to do so. But the moment he heard ‘999 whats your emergency?’ he facial expression went blank. He realised he was about to be in a lot of trouble. For some reason, he starts rummaging through stuff while going ‘where’s my charger?’ I could tell that he was fearful. Maybe he was scared that he was going to be arrested.

I tell the lady on the phone what had happened and that I wanted police to come around asap, and they came within 5 minutes. 

There was a knock at the door, my biological father proceeds to open the door, and a policeman walks in the house, looking confused as to the surroundings (we had quite a messy house).

The policemen then instructs me to go back into the kitchen and then ask my dad to go to another room while I told the guy my side of the story. And as you know, I hate lying. I told him everything within a minute. I told him that we had an argument, I slammed the door and there was a fight, he hit me, and I ripped his shirt to get him off me. Very basic but very much self explanatory. The policemen then says ‘okay, I want you to stay in the kitchen while I talk to your father about his side of the story. This is when the bullshit happens.

My dad lied through his teeth to the police officer. I was listening through the walls, and he claimed that I went into the toilet room and was trying to wind him u[, apparently slapping a laptop out of his hand and apparently I choreographed this event just so I had an excuse to move out. This really upset me. I was the only giving a bollocking for lying about not missing school, and here he was, lying right in front of a police officer. 

The officer comes back into the kitchen, and says that my father tells him that I assaulted him as well and that he wanted me arrested. I had never been so shocked in my life. A father wanting his son arrested for something he didn’t do, and which didn’t even take place.

There was a few moments of silence while I try and think about what I was just hearing before the policemen says ‘have you got anywhere to stay tonight?’ I say yes and I’d be moving in with my mum anyway after this. My mum and sister took tablets so they had a good night sleep due to the mental problems they were suffering. It took me around 10 times to try ring my mum. Nothing. Rung my sister around the same amount and eventually got through and explained to her what happened. She was worried and rightly scared. But I assured her I was alright and would be taken into a police car to be escorted to my mums house.

This was the first time i ever went in a police car, and luckily it wasn’t because I wasn’t being arrested. I literally walked out of that house with bags and bags of all my life. 

10-20 minutes later and I arrived at my mums, she says thanks to the officers for driving me there, and welcomed me in. I was quiet that night. I still found it hard to comprehend what had happened.

The left side of my face was burning after the smacks I got from my dad. I didn’t cry, I didn’t react to the force. I just stood their quiet, not knowing what to do. And that was the night I moved out.

The reason why this story is related to my keratoconus is that after that night, I started experiencing black outs, nose bleeds and extremely painful headaches. I thought I was going mad. I then started noticing that the vision in my left eye was going. And I was too scared to tell anyone about it, so it went unnoticed for two years.

Finally, I had the courage to go to Specsavers and tell them the problem in my eyes. Took well over a hour to see what the problem was. The optician then started asking me weird questions and one of them was ‘Has someone punched you recently?’ I explained to him (the optician) about the night me and my father had a fight. You could tell that he knew what had happened. 

He told me that I had Keratoconus, and my left was in the very advanced stage where it would probably need a transplant to even get my eyesight back. He also then started explaining that the smacks I took that night obviously dislodged the lens in my eye, and thus starting off the Keratoconus.

I have asked many other eye specialists about the possibility of receiving those kind of traumas near the eye starting my Keratoconus, and they said that they couldn’t be 100% sure, but said that it seems it.

So here I am, its 2015. And I’m awaiting a transplant in just over a month for something that could of been stopped. My life would of been completely different if my father had just walked away from the door, not having the need to have the last word. But no, because of his decisions, his son is blind in one eye. And I’m having to pay the consequences.

And that’s why I will have a lifetime full of hate and anger towards my biological father, because he didn’t think carefully enough about it and decided to basically beat his son up to the point that he’s lost sight in one eye.

But you know what. That’s okay. Because he’s just lost the only son he had, and his only son now hates him. I’m better off without him. 

But he did me a favour, he gave the best ever reason to change my name, and I did. I’m no longer Oliver Mills. I’m Ollie Storey. And I’m happy to be like that. Because Mills is a shitty last name anyway.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, you’re the ones who deserve all the credit.

Ollie x

Clouding of the [left] eye

Hi there everyone,

The last couple days haven’t been that good. My eyesight is, unsurprisingly, getting worse in the left eye. My family have now pointed out that the scarring in the cornea is now very visible to the naked eye. This makes me sad, but makes more impatient for my corneal transplant. Hopefully I can take some photos of it and post it here.

Past few months, I have been having less reliable vision. I keep hallucinating in my left eye, and I think I keep seeing shadows, or all of a sudden, a bright light gets in the way. Even in dark rooms! Whenever family ask me to fetch something for them, i end up asking them for help because I can’t see a blooming thing! But left does go on!

I did sadly have a bit of a tumble while tidying up, and ended up banging my head against a piece of metal. This was because of a poor judgement I made because, again, my unreliable vision.

Still going through the days bit by bit and counting down the days for my transplant.

Much love,

O x

themeds:

Here are my stitches. I think they look kind of cool. haha As far as I know, I will have them for probably 6 months to a year. My eye is still kind of gross, but not nearly as bad as it was.

Hope you have a speedy recovery :)

My Transplant

So most of you might know, I am awaiting for a corneal transplant. Luckily, I only had to wait a couple months on the waiting list. My surgery will be around October. And I’m looking forward to it. The reboot of my life as I like to say.

Now some of you might be asking ‘Why are you excited for a painful 2 years of recovery?’ and I’d say because I want to get back on my feet and take on the world, but my eyes are stopping me from that. I want to become a music producer. And that means staring at screens all day everyday, even trying to write this post together is a challenge and a half. I want things to go back to normal, and want to be able to recover both physically and mentally and get myself out there in the world of work. Sadly, it takes time, but I won’t be a burden to myself or my family and use the free time I have to my advantage. I look forward to the future.

The exact procedure I am having is a Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK). A video of the sort of operation I’ll be having is in the link down below. Though it will likely be different to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hwtSeiFnV4

Two years means a long way for me, but something tells that it will go faster than I can say Keraotoconus. 

If you have any questions or messages of support, please do feel free to use the fan mail feature. 

Enjoy your days,

Ollie x

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Twitter: olliestorey
Instagram: oljstorey
SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/oljstorey

littlemissleprechaun:

My eyes post op. I got the right one done and will have the left one done in about 4 months.

That’s crazy! I hope you have a speedy recovery ☺️