angel_cowgirl
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,
I was curious if any of you or someone close to you has had a cornea transplant or stem cell transplant?
Last summer when I went in for my annual check-up, my eye doctor immediately said I needed to see a cornea specialist. So I went, got proded on by 3 people (one of which I could swear was Dugie Houser
), and the main woman dr. said at some point I need to have a stem cell transplant on both eyes (hopefully to stop one from getting as bad as the other) and cornea transplant on the worse eye. In general, I don't like doctors, so anything like this freaks me out. But I guess my biggest fears are 1. the anti-rejection drugs - a. having to take them for quite awhile and b. I've heard theres some bad effects (aside from just making one more immune suppressant) like weight gain (thats the last thing i need!) and other stuff. And 2. I know theres risks with any surgery but is this the kind of surgery that if something really went wrong I'd be left totally blind?! It definitely stinks trying to see everything out of one eye (the left eye is just too blurry), but I'm afraid to have any surgery.
I went back in December to this specialist for a 6-month check-up and she said she couldn't tell that much had changed. But she said she wanted to get pictures of my eyes so that at the next appt. she could tell better if something changes (why didn't she do this the first time?). Both times she didn't act like the surgeries have to occur right now, but I think she hopes I'll decide to soon.
So besides wanting to know what your experiences might have been with these particular types of surgery or some other surgery that involved immune suppresant drugs, I wanted to share with you one of the pictures I was able to get from what i call the "eye photographer" (since I don't know his official title). I think its kind of a neat picture. *shrug* hehe I'm weird. But you can easily see how cloudy the eye is and the blood vessals growing over the eye. My mom was able to watch him taking the pictures with this telescope looking thing connected to the eye camera. And she actually watched. He warned her some people don't like looking at that kind of thing but.. BTW, if you're wondering there is no iris because I have Aniridia which means lack of the iris and Cornea Pannus (all the current cornea probs) is a common side condition.
Thanks in advance for any comments or information.
I was curious if any of you or someone close to you has had a cornea transplant or stem cell transplant?
Last summer when I went in for my annual check-up, my eye doctor immediately said I needed to see a cornea specialist. So I went, got proded on by 3 people (one of which I could swear was Dugie Houser
I went back in December to this specialist for a 6-month check-up and she said she couldn't tell that much had changed. But she said she wanted to get pictures of my eyes so that at the next appt. she could tell better if something changes (why didn't she do this the first time?). Both times she didn't act like the surgeries have to occur right now, but I think she hopes I'll decide to soon.
So besides wanting to know what your experiences might have been with these particular types of surgery or some other surgery that involved immune suppresant drugs, I wanted to share with you one of the pictures I was able to get from what i call the "eye photographer" (since I don't know his official title). I think its kind of a neat picture. *shrug* hehe I'm weird. But you can easily see how cloudy the eye is and the blood vessals growing over the eye. My mom was able to watch him taking the pictures with this telescope looking thing connected to the eye camera. And she actually watched. He warned her some people don't like looking at that kind of thing but.. BTW, if you're wondering there is no iris because I have Aniridia which means lack of the iris and Cornea Pannus (all the current cornea probs) is a common side condition.
Thanks in advance for any comments or information.
