Countdown To Tomorrow

My husband is having a cornea transplant tomorrow.

We've known for awhile that he was going to need this surgery.  We also know that he's going to have another one done on the other eye about six to eight months after this one.

My husband has an eye condition called keratoconus.  He's been treated with hard contact lenses that are the size of a soft lens and he has to wear glasses to correct a little bit of nearsightedness.  When we couldn't afford to get his contacts, he decided to just go without any corrective lenses.  Eventually though, he couldn't pass the vision test to renew his license and he started to have trouble finding me in the store.

We decided that it was time to find out just how severe the keratoconus had gotten so we went to an optometrist in February, knowing we would be referred to the University of Iowa hospital in Iowa City to see the experts in our area.  When we saw them at the end of March, we didn't know what to expect.  The cornea transplant was the last thing we thought was coming.

In a follow up with my husband's contact lens doctor (he has to have a special doctor just for the contact lenses because the size makes them hard to fit), she recommended that he have another transplant in the other eye because the keratoconus had advanced to the point that finding the right contact lens for his 'good' eye was getting difficult.

It's going to be hard for Nate for the next three months because he won't be able to pick up our son.  2.0 weighs about 25 pounds and Nate's weight restriction is 20 pounds.  He won't be able to play with 2.0 like he does now, he won't be able to help me with 2.0 like he does.  And just at the time when 2.0 wants to play with Daddy more...

But in the end, Nate is going to be able to see.  That's more important than anything else.