Saturday, March 12, 2011

Beating a Dead Horse

A Chilean friend of mine once said that they had no equivalent expression for beating a dead horse because Latinos don't believe it's possible to say too much on one topic. I have to agree.

I'm talking about my insanely dry eyes. I know you think it's a dead horse, but it's not. There's still plenty of life in my baby blues, just no water. Fortunately, when I open my eyes I can see. The problem is, I can't open them too often, which severely cramps my style. By 9 pm, they're toast and I have to go to bed. If we're having dinner at someone's house, like we are tonight, I have to recline on the couch with my eyes closed. Sometimes I drift off in mid-sentence, and I've been told I snore.

Not wanting to take this lying down, I've made inquiries. It looks like I have two options: use blood serum or get scleral prosthetic lenses. Blood serum sounds icky but it is said to work. A bit of my own blood would be used to make eye drops that would use my lymphocytes to counteract my donor's. I keep thinking they'd be red and I'd look like a vampire, but of course the red cells are removed.

I plan to discuss this with my doctor the next time I see her. She's been in Hawaii for three weeks.

2 comments:

Ann said...

I know of a transplant patient living in Switzerland who had severe GvHD of the eyes. Having the drops made from blood serum were the only thing to relieve it. He's doing fine now.

Ronni Gordon said...

I agree, you get to talk/write about your eyes for as long as you want. What a bummer. But the blood serum idea definitely sounds promising. Hope you get in touch with your doctor soon.