A Big Change Ahead

Yesterday my husband and I went to the University of Iowa hospitals in Iowa City, IA.  For those of you who are not familiar with the Quad City area, it was just shy of a hour drive to get to this hospital.  We went there because the doctors there are the best in the state in dealing with my husband's condition.  A lot is going to change in the next few weeks.

My husband has an eye condition called keratoconus.  His corneas are thin, which has caused his eye to take on a shape like a football instead of a basketball.  It has caused him to be legally blind in his right eye and has taken away his ability to drive amongst other things.  If left untreated, eventually he could go blind completely in both eyes.  Our trip to the hospital was to see about getting him fitted for the special contact lenses he has to wear to correct the shape of his eye.  We also spoke with a cornea specialist about the condition of his corneas.

The only way to correct the right eye is with a cornea transplant.  Otherwise the best vision my husband will have out of that eye is 20/50.  It's just not good enough.  So the doctor said that he wants to do a partial cornea transplant.  In 6 weeks.

The rejection rate is 1-2% with a partial transplant as the part that rejects is the part that my husband would keep.  He wouldn't be able to work for two weeks after the procedure and he wouldn't be able to do any heavy lifting or strenuous activity for three months after.  The sutures would stay in for a year (there are no blood vessels in the cornea so the tissue takes a little longer to heal) and after that, he would be fitted for a new contact lens to finish the correction of the vision.  We'd have to possibly have the procedure repeated in about ten or twenty years and my husband would have to use steroid drops in his eye for the rest of his life.  

But he'd be able to see.  He'd be able to drive again and go back to school.  He'd be able to do the things he does now just a little bit better.  He'd be able to watch our son pedal a bike down the street and go after him.  He'll actually be able to see.

It's a wonderful thing.  But it's also scary and overwhelming...

So much to do before May 17th.  But this will be good.  It's a beginning.