Walter - Eyesight Difficulties

A couple weeks ago I wrote about Walter's doctor cutting back on some eyedrops - specifically the antirejection medicine, Prednisolone. That hasn't worked out so well.

Shortly after stopping the drops Walter began experiencing some itchiness and irritation in his right eye. It looked more red to me than usual. After about a week he noticed a lessening of vision. He described it as cloudy the way his vision was before his corneal transplant in November 2005.

Yesterday we went back to the eye surgeon to have things checked out. After a quick test it was clear Walter's sight is indeed diminished - he can no longer make out the big E on the chart. The doctor decided the change was due to stopping the Prednisolone. He put Walter back on the medicine at a higher dosage - 4 drops a day instead of one. We're hoping that Walter's vision will make a quick turnaround and hopefully he will return to the level of sight he had a couple weeks ago.

I think Walter's a little anxious about this turn of events as he asked me yesterday "what if it doesn't come back"? We're really trying hard to stay positive on this one. Most corneal transplant patients are able to go off this medicine a year after surgery. It has been almost 2 years for Walter but the doctor says it's clearly not time yet. Maybe we try again in another year.

We also got a reminder that we cannot measure Walter's progress against other patients. His eyes are different from anyone else this doctor has seen because of the excessive scar tissue from Peter's Anomaly. I think this is one way that Walter wishes he were not quite so unique.

We're hoping and praying for a quick turnaround of Walter's sight.