Oma’s Corner

KC is an abbreviated form of the word keratoconus.  Keratoconus is a progressive disease in which the normally round cornea thins and begins to bulge into a cone-like shape. This cone shape deflects light as it enters the eye on its way to the light-sensitive retina causing distorted vision. Keratoconus can occur in one or both eyes. I have it in both eyes.

I don’t remember when I first heard the word keratoconus. It just seems as though that word has always been a part of my family’s vocabulary. You see my sister was diagnosed with keratoconus when I was only 6 or 7 years old.

I remember how sad everyone seemed to be because of the difficulty she had with her vision. She got her first pair of contact lenses in 1958. They were those old fashioned hard kind. I remember her having such a hard time getting used to those things. Her eyes watered, hurt and she squinted a lot. Finally, my parents took her to a different ophthalmologist. Her contacts were not fitting properly and she had abrasions on her cornea. A new fitting helped her a lot, but her eyes were always squinty.

When I was about 9 years old, I got my first pair of glasses. I never wore them much because they didn’t help. I remember hearing people talk about seeing individual leaves on the trees, etc. but I never noticed any difference. I do remember the school nurse always scolding me because I usually forgot my glasses and she said that I would see better if I did wear them. I was a good girl, so I wore them. When I was about 14, the doctor began talking about contact lenses for me. I refused, because I remembered what my sister went through. Finally, someone convinced me that I would be able to see better with contacts, so I agreed to try them. In 1966, I got my first pair of hard contacts. I adapted to them rather easily. I followed the doctor’s instructions to a “T” and I did fine. I also threw away my glasses. I could finally see!

I lost my first contact lens about 5 months later when I went with my father to check out a prairie fire that looked like it could be threatening our property (this was in Colorado where I grew up). I climbed up on the running board of the pickup and the wind just whisked it right out of my eye. Was I ever sad! After that we carried insurance for awhile and I also had a spare pair, but I only lost one other during my years at home, so we dropped the insurance. The other contact I lost, I dropped on the floor and couldn’t find it. A few days later my mother found it stuck on the bottom of the toilet bowl. It had bounced on the floor and hit the toilet just right to stick.

KC didn’t slow me down much during high school and college . During my high school years, I played basketball, volleyball and other sports. I loved basketball the most. I made 3-pointers before they gave 3 points! That was my favorite shot. I also excelled at ping-pong. I practiced a lot. At college, after I beat a few boys and the girl who was considered the best, no one would play with me any more. They didn’t want to get beat! I practiced enough to learn how to accommodate for my vision. I could still see the ball and had good reflexes.

After my sweetheart and I married, we went to the island of Bonaire to live. We were missionaries with a missionary radio station, broadcasting God’s Word around the world. Bonaire was where I lost another lens. The water was beautiful. One could just look into it and see the beautiful white sand. So, of course, I wanted to go snorkeling and in order to see when I snorkeled, I had to wear my contacts. I was putting on the snorkel and mask when the snorkel swung around and hit me in the eye. I was standing in the beautiful, warm, clear Caribbean when my lens popped out never to be seen again. I did have a spare pair.

Later we moved to South Africa. Fortunately, I took a spare pair of contacts with me to that country, not knowing what I might find there. I also took a lot of bottles of solutions and cleaners — enough for three years. Good thing I did. Eventually, I was able to occasionally find solutions in Johannesburg and Durban. I did find a doctor in downtown Johannesburg who was recommended as a possible fitter. My friend and I took the train from Roodepoort where we lived, to Johannesburg and then walked to the building where this eye doctor was. I did not get contacts to fit there because of the “strange” fitting my eyes took. It was a nice trip in spite of not finding someone to fit my contacts. We went shopping and had “tea” in one of the department stores. I was disappointed that I was not able to find someone to care for my eyes, but I was not desperate to get new lenses, I was trying to locate a doctor just in case the need arose. I never did find a ophthalmologist in South Africa.

After about three years in South Africa, we moved to Swaziland, Africa. This little third world country is beautiful and the people are friendly. It is dry and dusty, just as Bonaire and Colorado are. No eye doctors there at all. My eyes did fairly well during our 18 years in Africa. I did manage to get my eyes examined every three years while we were back in the US. I needed new lenses every time. Sometimes my eyes would begin to give me trouble before the three years was over. That was tough. I think it seemed to be associated with having children. The last two years before we left Swaziland, an American optometrist came to set up a clinic in Swaziland. He loved trying to fit my eyes. He never did, but he collected all my old lenses and enjoyed looking at my eyes and trying various things. When the electricity went off, he had a sign outside the window he would use to check vision and he would hold lenses in front of my eye to see if they would help or not. He wished he had equipment for fitting KC eyes and so did I.

We liked to go camping for vacation, and sometimes it was kind of rough camping. I would boil water or get water from the restrooms and have it beside my sleeping bag, so I could wash and put in my contacts first thing. I sometimes would have to have Larry guide me to the bathrooms because I didn’t want to put my lenses in right away. It was a challenge sometimes, but I never did get any eye infections from using the water in Africa or from being stingy with the solutions by using the soaking solution more than one day. I only washed my lenses in the morning. I must have been taught to do it that way with the old hard lenses. Now we are supposed to clean them in the evening after we take them out.

My sister continued to have difficulties with her eyes. She loved to sew and had four wonderful children to sew for. It got to the point where she could not see to sew or do many of the things she longed to do. A cornea transplant was scheduled. She did have the transplant in 1978. Tragically, the man who gave the donor cornea was a trapper and had, unknown to the doctors, died from rabies. My sister had begun to see with her transplanted eye better than she had for a long time. Within weeks she began have horrible headaches and in a short amount of time God took her home. She left four young children and a husband who loved her. The youngest child was three years old.

My eyes continued to worsen, but I looked at it more as an inconvenience than any thing. I continued to need regular changes in my lenses. In 1986, I let my ophthalmologist convince me that rigid gas permeable lenses would be much better than the old hard ones. I had resisted changing them three and a half years before because I figured that the others were working fine and I didn’t want to mess with something new. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it attitude. Those new RGP lenses were like feathers on my eyes. When he put one in my eye there in his office, I just sighed. It was wonderful! I was sold! We finally returned to America to stay in 1989. We stayed in Colorado for a short time where I saw my old ophthalmologist. We were not there long enough for me to be fitted for my new contacts so he gave me some prednisone drops to help me tolerate my contacts until I could find a new doctor. The Hunt was on.

In Indiana, I called optometrists. I called ophthalmologists. If I couldn’t find anyone who knew what keratoconus was, I checked them off my list. I finally found an optometrist about 25 miles away. He did fit me with a new lens after making me go without for about 6 weeks. It didn’t help any to go without and I told him it wouldn’t, but he had to try. He was very sympathetic. He patted me on the knee and called me honey with a sad look on his face. He wanted to send me to an ophthalmologist to see if I would be a good candidate for a transplant. I told him I wasn’t ready for that yet and I’d probably have to see an ophthalmologist again when I needed a transplant so why waste the time and the money. I didn’t go. I never went back after I got my lenses. It took too long to get fitted and I didn’t like his “poor you” attitude.

I have also had doctors, and nurses tell me that I should have backup glasses. They have tried. They have even tried after I have gone without wearing contacts for an extended period of time and glasses alone don’t work. They make absolutely no difference in my vision. The doctors I appreciate the most are the ones who can tell that my eyes are bad enough that going without contacts is not going to improve anything. It did allow abrasions to heal, but did not cause any positive change in my vision or eyes. The only plus side of going without contacts is that no dust or mess is visible to my eye. I miss a lot on a good day anyway!

Although, I had reached the point where I could no longer drive at night, KC continued to be more of an annoyance than a real problem. I could still work around it and do what I wanted.

I went to a local ophthalmologist for my next check up. They didn’t have a contact lens fitter, but were getting one. I waited for him and he was wonderful. He looked at my eyes and said.”We’ll start with what you have and work from there.” He always scheduled me last on his list and stayed late to do as much for me as he could. I kept him and his staff late many time. I am so thankful for him and for his wife who allows him to do this. He bought me 10 years before I needed a transplant. The ophthalmologist in that office has seen me at very odd hours. He has come in at 10:00 at night when my lens flipped over and stuck to the inside top of my eye and removed it for me. He actually couldn’t find it himself and thought I had lost it, but it was there and he persevered until he found it and got it out. He never charged me a dime! He has also seen me on Saturday when I was having rejection problems after my transplant and did not charge and he was not the one who did the surgery. I am blessed with wonderful doctors.

My eye continued to worsen. I wore glasses over my contacts to help with the astigmatism and, of course, my age made reading glasses inevitable. I was working with children with learning disabilities and was having difficulties distinguishing letters, reading upside down and seeing across the room. It was quite annoying. The children thought it very funny but were quite understanding. They knew what it was like to have disabilities. I could still drive, but not at night especially not if it was rainy. The glare and star bursts from all the droplets of water made it impossible. It is still very difficult even after the transplant.

Three years ago, I could no longer tolerate a contact lens on my right eye. I had been going to the eye doctor every week for months as he tried to help me. He had me go without that lens for a couple of months. During that time we took a trip and on my return three weeks later my eye had deteriorated considerably. An appointment was made with a cornea specialist for the next week. After seeing him, my transplant surgery was scheduled for three weeks later.

I was a little apprehensive about a transplant. I knew that what happened to my sister was the exception, but it did bring home the dangers involved in any surgery. The list of complications that the nurse reads to you is very unlikely to happen, but when someone you know dies as a result of a surgery, you know that those complications, no matter how unlikely, can happen.

August, 2004, I received my new cornea. I was a little disappointed with the immediate results, but it was better than it had been. I felt as though I had been hit in the eye with a baseball and had a beautiful little bruise under my eye. I was so pleased. The pain I had been suffering for months was gone. I could read stop signs! After 14 months, the stitches were taken out. Not much change in vision. New glasses helped some. I was scheduled to have some relaxing incisions made and cataract surgery. That was rather painless, some discomfort, but not bad. My vision improved dramatically. My eye lid began to droop badly after all the surgeries and was impairing my vision. I had eye lid surgery to improve that. I had “natural” eye shadow for awhile after that. The eye lid surgery helped a lot. Later the ophthalmologist did some more “relaxing” incisions in his office. They also helped a lot. My vision is now 20/30 in that eye. It is better than my left eye with its contact lens. (No, I am not considering a transplant in the left eye. It is doing fine with the lens. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”). I still need glasses to help with the astigmatism and for reading, but I am so blessed. I was off work for 5 days after my surgery. I never stopped driving in the daytime. I spent my recovery time working on the computer. I have had no light sensitivity since my surgery. I did have light sensitivity before the surgery.

I have had rejection problems and am using prednisone drops once a day for the rest of my life. I also have problems with dry eye and have to use drops for that and keep a humidifier running and take supplements for dry eye. I can see better at night, but still don’t drive much after dark. I see better in the daytime and can read again. KC is still a nuisance, but not really life altering for me. I use larger print on the computer and make adjustments where needed. I am now able to read street signs without stopping the car somewhere and walking back to read it. I don’t remember when I was last able to do that. Things still look a little fuzzy, but are so much better. I do make odd mistakes in reading when I can’t tell for sure what the letters are. But it is so much better.

I just returned from a check up with the ophthalmologist and my eye is doing fine. The omega 3 capsules I am taking and the artificial tears are improving my problem with dry eye. I am sure that the added humidity of summer weather has also helped. My vision is good. I am so grateful.

As I think of my life with KC, I am reminded of a young girl at the school where I work. She completely lost her eyesight in high school. She learned how to make her way through the halls and graduated with very good grades. What really impressed me was that she was a cross-country runner. She did not let blindness rob her of her joy of running. She found a helper to run with her. She held onto her helper and ran. She never came in last. To me she is an example of trust and making the best of something that would get lessor people down and depressed. I am so thankful for my sight and the improvement my transplant has made.

I must end this being thankful for the excellent doctors God put in my way to care for my eyes. I believe that I could not have had better. I am also thankful for the family who allowed the corneas of their loved one to be used to give someone else sight. It was a very humbling experience to think that because someone died, I can see. Words do not come that would adequately express my thanks to that family, but I do thank them from the bottom of my heart.

Although I am not blind, the words below written by Fanny Crosby express somewhat my feelings are about KC.

Oh, what a happy soul I am,
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don’t
To weep and sigh because I’m blind.

This was started a year ago in March. I guess I will leave this part as it is and continue writing at the end.

Today, Larry left for Australia. I am not quite “home alone” because Josh is home on spring break. I feel “home alone” because he is always running around and I don’t see him much.

Tomorrow I take Mom in to the surgeon to have some skin growths removed. I will miss a half day of school. Hopefully not many kids will show up while I am away.

October 6, 2006, my mother went home to be with the Lord. She was a good mother and did her best for her family even tho things were tough.

I look back and wonder if I would be as content if I had as little as she had. Probably not. My parents were dry land farmers. That means if it rained and the grasshoppers weren’t bad and it didn’t hail, they might get a good crop. If it didn’t rain, if the bugs were bad, if it hailed or flooded they were without. No second plantings. They did have cattle and could and did sell some of those during the hard times. They also had between 30 to 35 milking cows. That helped a lot, but they barley got the equipment paid for and fancier equipment was required. The milk would go straight from the cows to a big “bulk” tank. The milk trucks would then come and pump the milk from the bulk tank into the milk truck. At that time my parents decided to get out of the milk business.

We used to have milking machines that had “suckers” (can’t think of a better word at this moment) that you put on the cows teats. One had to be careful and hold them just right while they were putting them on, or they would lose their suction and fall off. When the can was full, we carried it into the other part of the barn away from the cows and poured it through a sieve with a filter paper in it to get the cow hair and dirt out. Then it went into 10 gal. (I think) milk cans and put in the cooler ready for the milk man.

Sometimes we would meet the milk man someplace and put the cans on his truck and sometimes he would come to our place and pick them up. I liked it when we met the milk man because sometimes I got to go along. My dad would sing hymns like, “When The Roll is Called Up Yonder” and other old hymns. (If others come to mind I will add them) I would put my head on his lap as he drove and listen to him sing. He was a fair singer. It was nice and cozy and comforting. My brother and I took turns riding with our dad.

We sometimes would “separate” the cream from the milk with a machine that we turned by hand. I got to do that sometimes. One of my favorite things to do was to help my dad. Below is a separator similar to the one we used. We would put the milk in the top. We had a big can on the floor under one spout for the skimmed milk and a smaller can under the spout on the round “shelf” to catch the cream. We then turned the crank and out came cream and skim milk. We fed the milk to the pigs. We sold the cream and used some for butter.

This is similar to what we used to use to make butter. We put the cream in this and turned it until it started to get thick. Then we kept turning it until the butter started sticking together and the “whey” was left. We took out the lump of butter and washed out all the whey. (whey doesn’t taste very good and I don’t think the butter would last as well or taste as good with it left in) Then we would knead in some salt. Yummy, that was good on fresh bread.

We usually took the cream into town to sell it at the creamery. I am not sure what all they did because we usually had to stay in the car, but I know they checked it to see how good it was. We also could buy chicken feed at the creamery and that is what we usually did. My parents used the cream money to pay toward the chicken feed. The chicken feed came in pretty bags and my mother would choose the bags that she liked. I got a pretty white dress with pink flowers on it once. My mom put tucks in the front and pink bows on the shoulders. I liked it. (Most clothes then had to be ironed. Chicken sacks were no different) She made dish towels, curtains and quilt backs as well.

Well this blog has turned out differently than it started. It is good to remember.

The interesting thing is that Larry is gone again. He was in Australia when this was started. Now he is in Los Vegas at a communications conference. He is staying at Circus, Circus.

Enough for today.

We have been so blessed! We now have another Granddaughter. Rachel Marie was born to Nathan and Elizabeth McGuire the 8th of January 2007. She arrived at 1:08 P.M. in Beckley, West Virginia. She weighed 7 lbs. 4.5 oz. and was 20.5 inches long.

We were able to take a long weekend the 15th of January and meet her. We got to visit her again this week and see how she has grown. She has lots of dark hair that curls when it is wet. She smiles a lot and loves to be held. Her big brother, David, is just a little bit proud.

She is a beautiful little girl and she keeps the numbers even. Three Grandsons and Three Granddaughters. We are so blessed.

It has been a while since I wrote. It has been busy and then to have a length of quiet time to write and think is difficult. One would think that with the kids all gone quiet time and time to set at the computer would be easier, but it is not.

A lot of things have happened since I last wrote. The first important thing was last March 21st. I received a phone call at 1:30 A.M. asking if I could come stay with three of our grandchildren That was the night Adrian Matthew was born. He arrived at 3:33 A.M. about 45 minutes after Mom and Dad arrived at the hospital and a few minutes before the doctor. He weighed 7 lbs. 11 ox. and was 20.5 inches long.

It was so much fun to celebrate Adrian’s first birthday with him. He is an active, inquisitive, happy little boy, just as he should be. He has a mouth full of teeth. He climbs up and down stairs with no fear. He threatens to walk, but has not yet.

Edible Play Dough yields about 2-1/2 cups of fun:

1 cup powdered dry milk
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup honey

In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Chill. Shape into faces, letters, shapes, etc. or cut out with cookie cutters. If mixture is too sticky, roll in additional powdered milk. Decorate with raisins or candy if desired.

After one month of repeated trips to the eye guy, I now have my glasses. They seem to work fine. I have discovered that I may prefer to drive without my glasses as I have better peripheral vision without. Since my vision is now 20/25 in my eye with the contact lens and 20/30 in the eye with the transplant, I can legally drive without the glasses. The glasses do add brightness and sharper edges to objects, which is nice. I can read with these glasses. I am so pleased with my eye sight!

Now that I’ve figured out how to find this place again, I just thought I would tell about my adventures getting my new glasses.

Exactly one month ago, I took my prescription to Dr. Cripe in Goshen to get my new lenses for my glasses. I had gotten my prescription from Dr. Whitson in Indianapolis. He is the one who did my cornea transplant. I called Dr. Cripe’s office and was assured that it would be no problem to get my lenses there. I went on over and left my prescription and paid for my glasses. They took some measurements and I was told they would be ready in about a week. The next day I received a call that they needed another measurement. I went back and they took the measurement. Next week, I received a call that the lenses were there. I made the appointment to have the lenses put in the glasses, only to be told when I arrived that the lenses had been cut incorrectly. The new ones would be ready next week. Next week, I returned only to be told that the lenses were the right shape, but too big! The next day I received a call that the lab had called and would not cut another lense without my frames. I left my frames and a few days later received a call that they were ready. When I returned the call to make an appointment to pick them up, I was told they were booked. The next day, I picked them up and the gal handed me a paper to sign. My first words were, “I can’t read anything on this paper! I can’t see it.” The gal mumbled something about needing to get my eyese checked again, but that Indianapolis was a long way off to do that. Maybe I just needed to get used to the new prescripton. Well, that evening I still could see nothing when I tried to read. Distance was good. I peered through the lense to see how they changed because I got none of the glare or reflection that I had on my previous progressive lenses. There was nothing there! The next day, I called and said there was nothing in the bi-focal part of my glasses. I took them back to have what I already knew confirmed. I mentioned that I thought that I should get some sort of refund since it had taken so long and been such a nusience and I had had to buy some reading glasses to get me through the weeks, I was without my glasses. I was told they would leave a note for Dr. Cripe and my new lenses would be there on Monday. Monday I had an appointment for my mom at 4:00, so I asked Larry to take my frames down so my glasses would be ready to pick up quickly. I called late in the afternoon to see if I would have to leave work early, to be told that they were not there and they would call as soon as they arrived. Wednesday, I received a call that they would be there on Friday and a refund check as well. Hopefully I will have the correct prescription and they will actually be ready. It has been one month to the day since I dropped off the prescription. The girls in that office made comments about seeing me a lot. Not my fault!

The good thing is that my vision today is 20/30 in my eye with the transplant and 20/25 in the other eye. I can see in the daylight without my glasses!! Eighteen months ago, I was counting fuzzy fingers with that eye. I can drive with no glasses. I just can’t read. The pressure in that eye in 11 or 12. That is good after using the Pred-Forte drops.

Thanks to Allan, I am trying something new. Right now I am just experimenting to see if I can do this right. If I don’t Allan will have to fix it. Good thing we have a computer whiz in the family.

I can’t tell by doing this, just what will show up on the Blog. Will the date just appear? I guess I will find out.

Kisses to the grandkids.

What to put under Oma’s Corner?? That is a hard question. I could do many things, but maybe right now I’ll just talk until I have a better idea.

I enjoyed my grandkids a lot this Christmas break. I purchased some foam picture frame ornaments and we decorated them and put their pictures in it for their parents. They are really cute. I think that I will have Opa make more pictures so all the grandparents can have a copy. I will have to send David’s to him and see if he will decorate it at home.

We also had fun making stepping stones. They are almost too pretty to put outside. Maybe we can make more, decorated in different materials and/or hand prints and foot prints next Christmas (or maybe sooner). That would be fun.

Also, we had fun at Pottery Smottery. Mark, Andrea and David painted a cocoa mug in a class. They also got hot chocolate to drink and stories. It was fun. Audrey made a mug with her mom and put her hand prints on it. They will be real cute and fun to drink from. I should explain that Pottery Smottery is an open studio where one can go, buy and paint pottery. They have lots to choose from and the price includes the paint and the glazing afterward. The bad part is that one has to wait a whole week to get the finished product. That is a long time to wait for something you have worked on so hard.

Audrey, her mom and I went for several walks. Mark, David and I and Opa visited Great Grandma at Greencroft Retirement Center. Neither one wanted to leave. They were having fun. They were watching the cat under the chair and discussing the fact that the cat was not used to David because he hadn’t been there before. There they lay, flat on the floor with heads stuck under the chair. David said, “I think that it is getting used to me. I just pet it gently. That’s how you get cats used to you. Just pet gently.” Pretty soon, Mark said,” OK, now let’s see what we have learned.” David said,”I know what I learned. Cats can sit up like dogs!”

Mark has lots of friends at Greencroft. He gives them hugs and kisses and talks to them, even when he can’t understand a word they say or they can’t talk. He is a real little missionary to those people and the nursing staff. One lady was talking to him about his daddy being away in Pakistan. She was saying how terrible the earthquake was and how bad it was to have his daddy gone. Mark just said that “God allowed this to happen so that those people would get to know Jesus.” That lady could only say, “Well, how about that.”

We went to church on Christmas Day. David, Mark and Andrea set with us in “big church” and did very well. It was Andrea’s first time. We went home and had a huge turkey dinner (29 lb. Turkey) and then opened presents after hearing the “rest of the story”. We read some of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve before the grandkids opened the traditional pj’s from Oma and Opa and then we heard the rest on Christmas Day. It is wonderful to see that even 2yr. old, Audrey, knows that it is Jesus’ birthday we are celebrating.

The Lord has blessed us with wonderful grandchildren, who are being taught the important things in life. They are being taught about Jesus and how to please Him by learning and reading His Word. They are being taught that others are important. I am so thankful and blessed beyond what I deserve. I continue to pray for them, their parents and uncles, that they would continue to love our Heavenly Father and choose to serve Him and please Him where ever they are. I pray that they would be pure in all ways for Him.