After 3-4 days of not seeing the bubble on Emily's cornea, we thought it might have been a fluke thing. But it finally came back...and only for a brief moment or two. Jason's parents were watching the kids while I worked a couple of days during this week, and of course the bubble has to resurface when I'm not around right?
It went away as quickly as it showed up. In fact, my mother in law wasn't sure she even saw it. But I'm sure it was there. So I called and made an appointment for Dr. Zaidman to see her.
I hadn't seen the bubble personally in a while, and it wasn't there the day we went to Zaidman's office. But based on what I described and the current condition of the cornea, Dr. Zaidman said that what we saw was ultimately a corneal blister. Its a fluid fillled bubble that may come and go, which was the case for Emily. He went on to describe everything that we had seen and experienced thus far.
It went away as quickly as it showed up. In fact, my mother in law wasn't sure she even saw it. But I'm sure it was there. So I called and made an appointment for Dr. Zaidman to see her.
I hadn't seen the bubble personally in a while, and it wasn't there the day we went to Zaidman's office. But based on what I described and the current condition of the cornea, Dr. Zaidman said that what we saw was ultimately a corneal blister. Its a fluid fillled bubble that may come and go, which was the case for Emily. He went on to describe everything that we had seen and experienced thus far.
The reason for the appearance of the bubble is fairly simple, it's a sign of chronic deterioration of the cornea. As the cornea starts to fail, the 5 layers stop absorbing fluid or letting fluid pass thru them properly. The bubble is essentially an indication that at least one or more layers are no longer working as they should. When the bubble appears, it's filled with fluid. If it disappears the fluid has eventually been reabsorbed. The danger is when the bubble appears but doesn't not go away. If that were to happen, it means the cornea has stopped functioning and Emily would need another cornea transplant as soon as possible.
So as long as the bubble continued to come and go, we could hold off on the transplant and hope that things would improve.
For the moment, we were cautiously optimistic since the bubble hadn't been showing up very often. I tried to not constantly look for it, because up until this point I was obsessing, looking at her eye every 5 min.
My heart was breaking because I knew her eye was failing. But at the same time I felt somewhat relieved that whatever was happening wasn't of an immediate concern. The panic I felt that day at the shore when I first saw it had subsided, but honestly it was always just under the surface anyway. Each time something doesn't look quite right with her eye, my heart jumps out of my chest and runs around bleeding all over the place...It's a vicious cycle I can't seem to escape from.
No comments:
Post a Comment