SPRING 2000

January 5, 2000: I had an earache, so I went to see my physician. Fortunately, it's not infected. It's from fluid buildup in my middle ear caused by a cold and I'm supposed to take Sudafed to clear that up. I'd been concerned that with the abundance of eye drops I'd been taking, that fluid was traveling through my tear ducts to my sinuses to my middle ear. The doctor reassures me that that's impossible. He's also impressed with the new cornea, since I hadn't seen him since he was concerned about my corneal scarring and told me to see an ophthalmologist.

January 15, 2000: Finally had a chance to try out my new ski goggles (Yup, Santa came through for me). I'd wanted to go earlier in the month, but since I work in the computer industry, I was forced to work on New Year's Day and be on call on my days off for the first week of January, which meant I couldn't be more than an hour and a half away from work. Of course, Y2K turned out to be a huge non-event, but I made some extra money for the trouble. Anyway, the goggles were great and didn't fog up a bit. My glasses underneath the goggles, though, were another story. They would fog up whenever I exhaled, and would only clear up if I kept moving, which would circulate the air. For the last run, I decided to forego the goggles, since my whole reason for wearing them in the first place was to prevent my eyes from watering, and my eyes don't water as much since the surgery. Well, my eyes didn't water as much as they used to, but still too much to be workable for skiing. Looks like I'll have to tough out the fogging until I can wear contacts again.

January 21, 2000: This is my first day of 2-drops-a-day of the Pred-Forte.  This is especially good, since I don't have to take the drops midway through the day at work anymore. Just one in the morning and one at night. Everything feels fine, there's been no sign of rejection and my vision has been stable. Knock on wood.

March 12, 2000: I got an email this morning, asking "What's happened?" to this page, like I d abandoned it or died or something. No, I hadn't updated it, because, believe it or not, I'm doing fine. I've been at one drop a day of Pred-Forte for the last three weeks, and next Tuesday, I'll be cutting back to every other day.  I should be off it completely on April 21, and Dr. Everett said we could try soft contacts then. I figured I'd have something to post then, but in the meantime, like Gary Gnu of The Great Space Coaster used to say "no gnews is good gnews."

April 20, 2000: Today is the 1/2 year anniversary since my surgery, and also, the last day I take Pred-Forte. I see Dr. Everett for a checkup on Tuesday the 25th. My head hasn't exploded yet, so I'll assume all is still well.

April 25, 2000: Saw Dr. Everett today, and he says everything looks good. My stitches are intact, we haven't seen any signs of rejection yet, and my astigmatism is only 0.75 diopters. He noted that the next month or so is very important, because the graft doesn't have the steroids to protect it anymore, and at any point, my body may decide to turn on it. He clears me to start wearing contacts again, and says I should go back to RGPs, saying they're easier on the graft. He also notes that my left eye does have a mild cone that would be helped by the RGP. Since the right eye had always been much worse, we hadn't worried about the left before. He gave me copies of today's topography, along with one from about a year and a half ago, before the surgery. The red spots on the old one show just how "irregularly irregular" my old cornea was. As you can see, the graft is much shallower and has a more regular surface. You may notice that the scales along the side of each map are different (one goes up to 54.5, the other goes to 61). Taking that into account, the steepest part of the new cornea would register as light orange on the other map, instead of yellow. Still, pretty good, I think. Is it just me, or do both look like Antarctica?  

I need to make an appointment to see Dr. Smick to get fitted for new RGPs, and Dr. Everett wants to see me again in 2 weeks, so we'll see how things are going then. 

May 9, 2000: Went back for that 2-week checkup. Dr. Everett was out today, so I saw a Dr. Flint. He took a look at the graft through the slit lamp and said "absolutely beautiful work." That was encouraging to hear from someone who hadn't seen me before. He told me to stay off the Pred-Forte, and he said I should be fine to wear RGPs as soon as I get them (Oh, yeah. I saw Dr. Smick on May 2).

May 26, 2000: My contacts finally showed up! When I first put them in, I thought they were dirty or something, because they hurt like the dickens. Oh, wait, I said to myself. That's right, I haven't worn these in 7 months. This is what they felt like the first time I wore them 11 years ago. Within about half an hour, they feel fine and I can see great. My eyes work together! I wore them for about 4 hours, which was Dr. Smick's recommendation. Of course, after I took them out and put my glasses back on, my head started to swim like when I first got the glasses.

May 27, 2000: Wore the lenses for about 4 hours before they really started to burn. 

May 28, 2000: Got 8 hours out of them today and I probably could have done 10, they felt so good. I'm really getting into wearing sunglasses instead of clip-ons. Even though I have pretty cool clip-ons.

May 29, 2000:Wore the lenses for about 12 hours today, and they still feel great. Really, the only time they're uncomfortable is when I put in eyedrops. It's the same feeling as getting water in my eye when I'm taking a shower wearing the lenses. Go figure.

May 30, 2000: Had a checkup with Dr. Smick. He checked my vision, (I read 20-25 with my transplanted eye!) and he said they look underprescribed for distance, but if he were to correct that, I'd probably need reading glasses. Given my line of work, sitting in front of a computer all day, we agreed we'd leave them alone. I'm seeing both Dr. Smick and Dr. Everett next on June 13. Wore the lenses for about 14 hours, so I should be good to wear them as long as I like, now.

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