Bill update..

Thank you everyone for your very sweet posts & emails. Dr. Price said that everything went well. He had wanted to do the surgery by laser but Bill's eye wouldn't cooperate so they had to do it surgically. Since he has to wear a patch on his eye until in the morning, we won't know how his vision was affected by it until at least at that time. It's suppose to take a week or two for the vision to stabalize after something like this. Bill was born with a condition called anaritia. It's very rare. He has no iris in either eye. His daughter also has the condition, but her daughter doesn't. A little eye lesson: The iris filters the light so your eye isn't attacked by it. Without the iris, the eye tries to compensate by developing cataracts to filter the light. When the cataracts get so bad that the doctor can't see in the eye anymore than the patient can see out of it, the cataracts have to be removed. Now days, they can surgically insert an artificial iris when they remove the cataract. They also insert a lens to help with the vision. Bill's cataracts were removed ~30 years ago....about 25 years or so before artificial iris's were developed. So...when his cataracts were removed, the eye tried to filter the light by building up fluid in the eye....glaucoma. Glaucoma causes the pressure to increase (to where stints have to be put in to drain the fluid) and cornea's to fail. For Bill's right eye, after several stints & cornea transplants, his eye finally got tired and lost all of it's pressure. When it does that, all vision is gone and once that it is gone from loss of pressure, there's no bringing it back. His left eye has had stints for pressure and I think today makes the 3rd or 4th cornea transplant. His tissue is in pretty bad shape so they couldn't insert a lens to help clear up the vision. They also couldn't insert an artificial iris for the same reason. With the human donor cornea's, they were failing 12-18 months afterward and once they do, he MIGHT have clearer days every-other day. The other days, basically just shadows. Whew! More than you wanted to know, huh? Bill's eye problems has nothing to do with diabetes although he was diagnosed as a diabetic (on actos) 4 years ago. He truly is the typical 'blind in one eye and can't see out of the other'. Since he's had it since birth, he's good natured about it and he's never let it stand in his way of doing all he could. Thank you my friends!! Sherri

Thanks Sherri.. Prayers for Bill.. and the lesson never hurts. Linda

Sherri thanks so much for the update on Bill and the information about his condition. He has really been through a lot. I will be praying that you get good news today and in the weeks to come. Thanks so much for the Christmas card. It was really beautiful. How much longer will you be off work? Sounds like Bill now needs some of the TLC he's been giving you since foot surgery. Karen

The patch came off today and so far, things are good. There's a 'raw area' in the eye so he has to be careful and not take showers or in any way come close to getting water in it. He's also on 4 eye drops now (was on 1). He said his vision was about what it was on his bad days. I think it's been improving as the day goes on though. It was a huge relief to him when the patch came off and he was able to see anything at all. Men. They don't express their concerns the way us women do! I admit that I was concerned up until last night. Last night, that man of mine PROGRAMMED THE VCR and then this morning MADE COFFEE. That was when I knew that even if he does eventually lose all of his eyesight, he will be able to function just fine. Let's face it, which of us sighted people don't have problems setting up the VCR???? And he did it blind! It is such a relief to know that even if all isn't "normal", all will be just fine. Thank you again for all your concern & prayers. We both appreciate them very much. Sherri ps...Karen, I find out Tuesday when I'll be going back to work. I am expecting to go back the 22nd for 6 hours and then off until January 2nd. That's what we had discussed pre-op anyway. I try to help Bill out but he's bound and determined to be the care-giver...lol. I fixed him a sandwich..he iced my foot! lol.

glad to hear that surgery sounds successful. Bill sounds like a real keeper. You are very lucky. Enjoy the rest of your time off. Hope your foot is doing better. Karen