Back to 20/20!
Yes, on Tuesday, I got my first pair on scleral lenses to take home and try until tomorrow when I go back again. They are set up for 20/20 distance viewing which means that I need a pair of those marvelous drug store glasses for reading. Not a bad tradeoff when you consider that I have had my right eye issue for about a year at this point.
The major issue is putting them in. You need a special tool to do so because the lenses are hard, they have to be oriented just right, and they are larger than normal contact lenses 18 mm vs 14 mm. Not to worry, they have you go through several training sessions to try to get the knack of it. For someone who has always been fearful of shoving stuff in their eyes, this is quite an about face. After Tuesday's training sessions whereby I had to successfully put them in each eye at least seven times(forget the many failed attempts) my eyes were so red that I thought that the world was covered with ketchup!
Fortunately, you can wear them all day long. But you must take them out at night(it's easy to remove them with another gadget that they give you). However, the past two mornings we had to make our early trip to Boston for my photophoresis treatments which meant that the pressure was on to get the lenses inserted so that we could leave at a reasonable time. It took a while but I did manage to get them in. I took them out for a while this afternoon and reinserted them in both eyes with only three tries - so either I'm improving or I got awful lucky. We'll see tomorrow morning.
What does it all mean? For one, I have more stuff to buy to rinse off the lenses. Because the solution has no preservatives, it can only be used for two days. That's fine except that they give you fairly large size bottles of this stuff and charge a lot for it. You're trapped! Either you buy the stuff or you don't use the lenses - lose/lose! Somebody said that they sell the stuff at the Christmas Tree Shop so we'll check that out tomorrow. Likewise, every night there is a protocol that must be followed to sterilize them for the next day. I guess that it all will become second nature to me and be a part of my "new normal".
Otherwise, when I have the lenses in, my eyes stay moist and I really do not need to constantly douse them with drops all day long. However, they due tend to fog up once in a while, so that the use of eye drops helps to alleviate that problem. Tomorrow's visit should give me my final set of lenses and complete the fitting and training components of the program.
Lastly, today marked the completion of my eighth week of photophoresis treatments which should finally start us all looking for some sort of improvement. So far, there doen't seem to be much change. But I am scheduled for four more weeks and I see my oncologist on Wednsday to determine what's next.
It's been a busy summer driving from one medical appointment to another. I don't think that a medical facility exists within fifty miles of my house that we haven't visited or that a doctor exists in the same area that we haven't seen!
The bottom line is how do I feel? I'm still somewhat tired and weak from the photophoresis treatments. But when I see how others have benefitted from them, I know that this is just a bump in the road. And, my eyesight is back!
As I have said many times before, life is good...
Bob
July 24, 2011 11:05 PM
Lunch with the other "parents"!
We went out to lunch today with the people who had our dog for his last two and a half years. They are nice people and confirmed agian that we made the right choice as to who should take care of him in his final years. Of course we talked about his life, his foibles, and his love. Without the latter, he would have been a dickens of a dog to contend with because he got into and chewed everything from the day he was born until the day he died. But he overcame all of that with his love and will always be fondly remembered.
After the Norway bombing this week, I e-mailed the woman who lives there and was a bone marrow donor and came here as part of my "coming out" party in February 2010 for my 1 year anniversary. Though her family does not live in Oslo, you never know if thety could have traveled to the city for the day. Fortunately, everyone is OK. It's a small world(a Disney World favorite ride!). To think that I would actually know somebody in Norway to be concerned about!
None of that would have happened without this blog. Again, another blessing from this disease.
This week, it's more photophoresis and round one of getting my new scleral lenses! That begins on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it because it gets my vision back to 20/20 and, hopefully, diminishes my need for so many eyedrops and solutions during the day. But, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The care and feeding of these special lenses are quite involved in an effort to keep the disinfected and to keep my eyes from getting infected. However, if others can do it, there should be no reason why I cannot.
The secret is to take it one day at a time...
Bob
We went out to lunch today with the people who had our dog for his last two and a half years. They are nice people and confirmed agian that we made the right choice as to who should take care of him in his final years. Of course we talked about his life, his foibles, and his love. Without the latter, he would have been a dickens of a dog to contend with because he got into and chewed everything from the day he was born until the day he died. But he overcame all of that with his love and will always be fondly remembered.
After the Norway bombing this week, I e-mailed the woman who lives there and was a bone marrow donor and came here as part of my "coming out" party in February 2010 for my 1 year anniversary. Though her family does not live in Oslo, you never know if thety could have traveled to the city for the day. Fortunately, everyone is OK. It's a small world(a Disney World favorite ride!). To think that I would actually know somebody in Norway to be concerned about!
None of that would have happened without this blog. Again, another blessing from this disease.
This week, it's more photophoresis and round one of getting my new scleral lenses! That begins on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it because it gets my vision back to 20/20 and, hopefully, diminishes my need for so many eyedrops and solutions during the day. But, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The care and feeding of these special lenses are quite involved in an effort to keep the disinfected and to keep my eyes from getting infected. However, if others can do it, there should be no reason why I cannot.
The secret is to take it one day at a time...
Bob
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