Best Days...Be Thou My Vision!

I have a genetic eye problem called Fuch’s Dystrophy (Sounds like 'kooks'). So, what’s that you ask? Normally, the cells lining the inside of the cornea maintain a healthy balance of fluid but with Fuchs the corneal cells die off and fluid builds up. This inability to clear the eye causes the cornea to swell, causes blurry vision, eye pain and extreme sensitivity to light.

Several years ago, during a routine exam our eye doctor recommended I see a specialist. A few years passed under the care of a corneal surgeon until he deemed the time was right…the dystrophy had reached a point where corneal transplant was in order.

In the Spring of 2016, I received the gift of a donor cornea to replace my diseased right eye. The transplant turned out to be a wonderful experience with my sight improving to 20/20 almost immediately. The Lion’s Club, supporters of the Colorado Eye Bank, presented the opportunity to thank the donor’s family and I did just that through a letter of gratitude. The next step was to wait for the possibility of rejection before performing the same on my left eye. Six years passed before the surgeon cleared the way for the second transplant.

On October 27th, 2022, I was the first patient of the day! All went well and I was home by 10:30. However by 11:30 the pain I began to experience became so intense that I was unsure what to do first…call the doctor’s office, call 911, or go to the ER.

The next seven hours were torturous leading to a second surgery that same day resulting in paralyzing pain and blindness in that eye. I was so broken. The next week was spent under a blanket in our bedroom crying. I’m not sure when it happened but I finally realized a prayer ARMY was needed to drag me out of the darkness. My cry for HELP went out via social against my propensity to think that people wouldn’t have time to pray and as usual I was wrong! Literally hundreds of prayer warriors engaged and engaged immediately! (When will I learn?)

Three post-op visits followed that first week. The doctor feared my vision wouldn’t return and warned against “false hope”. But God had a plan! Seven days passed when my peripheral vision began to reappear, then the blindness began to clear. By the end of the first week, I was able to see light.

I continued to grieve but the prayers and petitions of so many instilled HOPE back into my spirit and with that I began to adjust to impaired vision becoming my "new normal".

But God had a plan.

There was work in the waiting. I learned what it’s like to wear an eye patch and to be disabled. My compassion for the “handicapable” increased. I had to embrace being still and most importantly TRUST that God was, has always been and continues to be my Vision!

Earlier this month I went in for a laser procedure with no promises. The surgeon literally stated it “may not help but it wouldn’t hurt”. Like a scene out of Star Wars, red flashing laser beams were shot into my eye as a measure to clear what may have been scarring-and it worked!

The blindness was-zapped!

God had a plan!

There IS work in the waiting. Be still.

Mark 10:51-Speaking to the blind man Jesus asked;

“What do you want me to do for you?”

“Rabbi, I want to see”.

Amen