A miracle of new vision ~ May 9, 2002

David Heiller

The world is changing before my eye. My right eye, to be exact.

On February 28, 2001, I had a cornea transplant on that eye to correct a condition known as keratakonis.

Keratakonis means the cornea is misshapen and cone-shaped. Glasses can’t correct it. Contact lenses can, but because of the cone shape, contacts don’t fit well.

Waiting for the healing and the vision that came with it.

That was my status. A doctor diagnosed keratakonis in both eyes when I was in college. My vision has gotten worse ever since. Less ­than-perfect vision was something I learned to live with. And I know there are many people with way worse eyes than me.

The past 14 months had some ups and many downs, as my new cornea got used to its new owner. It was frustrating, because I use my eyes a lot as editor of this paper. But I told myself it was like road construction. You get frustrated with the detours and delays, but once it’s finished, you are glad for the smooth drive.

The last of the stitches were removed in March of this year. Then the big day: I had photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) surgery, a type of laser surgery, on April 24.

PRK is a little different procedure than regular lasik surgery. The recovery time is longer (four to six weeks or more).

A handy diagram

During surgery my eye was open all the time with the help of an instrument that held my eye-lid open. It only took about 10 minutes. First the doctor removed the top layer of the cornea with a spatula. Then he used a laser to reshape the cornea. All I had to do was keep looking at a pulsing red light.

For the first few days my eye hurt, and the vision was cloudy. It was like looking through a dirty window.

But now, wow.

It’s hard to convey what is happening.

I woke up the other morning and looked out the window and saw a squirrel on a tree branch outside the window. Without putting my glasses on. That hasn’t happened since we bought this house in 1981.

A few days later I woke up and could read the alarm clock without squinting. Another first.

On Saturday evening, I took a walk with my wife, and stopped and looked at her in the golden sunlight, and realized I could see her perfectly with my right eye. It was better than my left eye, which had a glasses lens over it. In just a week and a half, my right eye with its new cornea had left my left eye in the dust. It took my son about 10 years to do that to me.

Cindy had joked that I would leave her once my eye got better and I could see. I can assure you that will not happen.

Every day my vision gets a little clearer. The world looks like a spring rain has just cleaned the air.

I can barely tell it’s happening, it’s happening so slowly. But every day is better, and that is circumstance that doesn’t happen in life too often.

I’m the recipient of a great gift. Somebody—a person from Florida, I was told—donated their healthy corneas. I got one. I am very grateful for that.

I’m grateful for the technology that makes this a safe and relatively easy procedure. I’m grateful to Dr. Dan Skorich who did the transplant, and Dr. David Hardten who did the PRK surgery. (I said it was relatively easy, but I should qualify that statement: These doctors made it seem easy.)

It’s a modern-day miracle.

Now on to my left eye.

Editor's Note: Unfortunately the PRK procedure was wonderful only for a short time, and David needed a third cornea transplant. Luckily we realized that PRK wasn't going to work before he had the left eye done.
Still, he was thrilled with those few weeks of no-glasses-needed vision.