Thursday, August 22, 2019

Story of the loss of my right eye

Final tally from a collection of my hospital patient files: I was born at local hospital at 5lbs 8oz with a cataract on my right eye and taken to regional hospital remove the contact lens when I was 3 weeks old and 5lbs. Over the next 20 months, I underwent ~44 operations under anesthesia which involved ~15 surgeries of 9 different types involving ~17 hospital admissions consisting of about 109 non-consecutive days in chunks mostly of 2-7 days with two twenty or so day stints in the hospital. I had surgery for on my first birthday. I had some vision post glaucoma after first cyclocryotherapy in November 1985. There was significant scarring and damage from glaucoma surgeries such as trabeculectomies and an iridectomy. The second cyclocryotherapy in April 1986 was the first and only treatment that was noted that I did not handle it well. In an unofficial exam in May 1986, it was reported that I had a lack of light perception - the EUA scheduled for that day and possible third cyclocryotherapy was cancelled due to red eardrum and white blood cell count was at 19,000. A follow-up was scheduled. No more hospital trips after this point, end of hospital records file. In January 2007, my right eye reached 0 pressure and I had an evisceration late that Summer. I picked up my first prosthetic right eye, hand crafted by an ocularist, on my 23rd birthday. Of all the things to have learned, I love that I found out my original iris colours were green (OD-right) and blue (OS-left) as they looked the opposite growing up. 

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