Losing Well Part 15

Continuation of my series, Losing Well. Part 1 can be found here.

December 2015
Having a child changed everything. I now had a purpose. I loved playing with my son. I looked forward to getting off work to be with him. When I was using my cane with my son I felt some people were judging me as an unfit father. It was hard not to want to start an argument with them. My vision has always been a topic of conversation for people who’ve never met me.

My visual field held steady during this time. Unfortunately, the rest of my vision didn't cooperate. 


22 April 2007
I was downtown crossing a street when disaster struck.  A water seal had been removed from the road, leaving a deep six inch wide pothole. My left foot went into the hole while the rest of my body continued to move forward. I fell to my hands and knees in the middle of the crosswalk. Unfortunately, my foot stayed in the pothole.

Even before I struggled back to my feet I knew the injury couldn’t be walked off. Something felt broken. An hour later I was in the ER. The good news was that I hadn’t broken my leg. I’d sprained various muscles in my foot, ankle and lower leg. The doctor wrote me a prescription for pain meds and the nurse braced my leg and gave me a pair of crutches. To which I held up my cane and asked her if she could also supply me with a third arm. I’ve been left with the choice of walking with crutches and not seeing where I’m going or walking with my cane. In horrible pain.

I requested help getting to a bathroom. A nurse got me into a wheelchair and pushed me to a restroom. Before she left she told me to pull a red cord to let her know when I was done. So I did what I needed to do then pulled the cord. Nothing happened. I was trapped in a Seinfeld episode.

I struggled my weight up onto my good leg. Only the wheelchair lay between me and the door. So I had to maneuver around the chair. I was in horrible pain. Once I reached the door I couldn’t open it because of where the wheelchair was located. After a series of painful and graceless movements, I finally escaped. When my nurse arrived she asked me why I hadn't just pulled the cord.

Now I'm left with two weeks of crutches, pain and a giant staircase. All you can do is laugh. Only it hurts when I laugh. Fate has had her way with me. Now leave me alone. Please.


1 August 2007
I feel like the beginning of the Simpson’s movie; itchy and scratchy. And it’s hard not to feel lied to. When I got cataract surgery on my right eye six years ago, I was told it was a simple procedure with a high success rate. As of today I’ve had my third corrective surgery.

The first two surgeries were YAGs. The fact that I had two YAGs in the same eye was apparently rare enough that my surgeon documented it for possible publication. I’m just that kind of guy when it comes to my eyes. Today’s surgery was for filamentary keratitis.

Sunday night I noticed that my right eye itched constantly. By Monday afternoon I was taking eye drops and hoping I didn’t have conjunctivitis. By Tuesday morning I knew something was seriously wrong. My eye was swollen, red, sensitive to light and in pain.

As best I can understand it, a piece of my cornea broke off and filled itself into wounds on the surface of my cornea caused by my cataract surgery. These broken pieces of cornea implanted themselves in the gouges on the surface of my eye and continued to grow outward until I felt their presence. At which time they became infected.

Like the YAGs, filamentary keratitis was most likely a side effect of that years old cataract surgery. The gift that keeps on giving. KF, RP, cataracts, amblyopia, YAGs, astigmatism. Dare I ask what’s next?


3 August 2007
I'm wearing a pirate patch. Doctor implanted a temporary lens on the outside of my cornea to help it heal. So now I have a bionic eye. I already had artificial lenses in both eyes and now I have an artificial cornea! To bad no X-ray vision. 


5 August 2007
Thursday my right eye: 20/40
Saturday: 20/200 

Saturday at the eye clinic and they had very short staff. I told the nurse, “you implanted a contact lens on my eye Thursday and I lost vision. Solution: take the damn thing out.” 


Nurse,"we probably can't do anything about that.”

Ten minutes later the doctor said, "who the hell put this lens in? It's all wrong." He popped out the lens and bam! I could see again. 


The "miracle" of our modern health system. And I still had to pay a 25 dollar co-pay. I pay for their mistakes. I’m in the wrong biz.

Part 16 can be found here.