Some bad news

Those of you who read my blog regularly, will know that just over two weeks ago I had surgery on my left eye. As I wrote earlier on my blog, initially the surgery was a success. The surgery was to remove old lens remnants and scar tissue left over from the operations I had as a baby to remove cataracts. Last Wednesday I visited my consultant, who was very pleased with my progress. Unfortunately over the weekend the vision in my left eye began to deteriorate. My eye became misty and then cloudy. At first I thought it may be a side-effect of the steroid eyedrops I had been taking. They can cause blurred vision and even tunnel vision so I decided I would call Moorfields Hospital on Monday morning. By Monday, however the cloudiness in my left eye had got worse to the point that I was unable to see clearly out of my eye.

So early on Monday morning we went down to Moorfields again. As ever I was seen very quickly at accident and emergency because I am an existing patient who has recently had an operation. After various tests including an ultrasound scan the doctor that I saw, confirmed that my vision is being affected by yet another piece of lens debris. It appears that as one piece of debris was removed another piece has moved into its place. This is giving me the symptoms of a cataract and this time quite a bad one.

If you imagine looking at a large clock then my left eye is completely cloudy from about five o'clock through to 12 the section between 12 and five is misty. There is a section at around seven o'clock towards the middle which is very cloudy to the extent that I can seem very very little through it. As it is worse at the bottom of my eye it is making it very difficult for me to read and to negotiate steps.

My left eye, the one affected is my best eye which means I am using my right eye which does not see as well. Except now my right eye is the only one I can see through. When I'm using the computer I have to enlarge everything much bigger. I'm also having to get used to not being able to see as much when just getting around generally.

Although it is very disappointing that this has happened, I was aware of the risks involved with the surgery. The ultimate risk was that my retina became damaged which would lead to complete blindness in my eye. Still it doesn't stop the feeling of disappointment and frustration. I am trying to just get on with things and make the most of what I can see and can do. I'm using the Dragon text software again to write this blog entry, where I just dictate and it types everything for me. I've also looked into the access technology on my iPhone and iPod at and I need to make more use of that.

I have sent a message to my consultant and hopefully I will hear from him shortly about what can be done to correct it this time. The doctor at accident and emergency said that the only real option would be surgery but as I have only just had surgery on my I it may be a while until they can operate again. I also need to know how likely it is that this will just happen again. Hopefully there should be a procedure which can remove more of the lens debris but I won't know until I have spoken to the consultant.

I'm trying to look on the bright side and be positive about it all but it may take me a while to get used to it. What is worse is not knowing what can be done right now. I wish I had happier news to report.