Hello, my name is Wendy:
In 1987, when I was 21, I was having trouble with the vision in one
of my eyes as well as severe migraine headaches. I was taking a very
full college course load of 18 hours and wrote it off as physical
stress.
Several months later when the semester ended, I moved to Lafayette,
La. for summer work and decided I would embark on acquiring glasses.
The optician said it looked like I had a displaced
crystalline
lens, so I went to the ophthalmologist. He said it was either a
detached retina or a tumor!
Hysterical, I made an appointment
in Houston, TX. A wonderful surgeon there looked inside my eye and
immediately diagnosed me with a malignant melanoma.
I thought, "Finally, someone
that knows what's going on." And as an engineering student familiar
with the marvelous world of science and technology was not familiar with
the next part of his response to my question.
"Can you remove it?" He
said," Oh yes, I can remove it." I responded with amazement,
"You mean you can remove my eye and take the tumor out and put it
back in?!" He somberly said, "Oh no." "OH NO! So why
don't you explain it to me?!"
He then in very technical terms
told me I'd have to have my eye removed and be fit with a prosthetic!!
WHAT! This was not received well I promise you.
The next two weeks seemed an
eternity as we awaited the result of each subsequent test for other
cancer traces throughout my body. Whew, everything else was okay. So the
tumor was hopefully encapsulated within the eye with no stringers into
the brain....then the surgery.
I was not prepared for the
unveiling of what had been done. My thoughts were of cartoon characters
with huge miss-shapen eyes. That's what I believed I was going to look
like.
No one ever showed me photographs
during this process or told me exactly what would happen. Or maybe with
the trauma ongoing I wouldn't have believed them.
This was a three week time frame
from time of diagnosis to removal and it was a lot of information to
digest. At that time, a clear shell had been inserted into the socket
area on top of the implant.
The sutures within the socket
area were painful for a few days. About a month later, I returned to
Houston to an ocularist, who went over the process of shaping my new
artificial eye.
I have learned that these people
in general are kind, loving beings that God put here to help people like
me. Without him, I would have been a worse basket case.
At this time, I received a
smaller eye but larger than the clear shell I had and I proudly
displayed it upon my return to my summer home. It was BLUE and my eyes
are green, but I didn't care.
Then over the next year, the size
of artificial eye increased a couple of times (with a green iris) and he
painted a beautiful iris that matched my own wonderfully that I wore for
about five years.
For as positive as I am, this
loss was great to me. I was an attractive young girl, a cheerleader in
college, a highly visible and energetic person setting out to start a
career!
Now in 1998, I am a successful
independent business woman and respected professional and have had many
attractive men in my life from time to time.
There are still times however I
feel sorry for myself. Everyone does that though, don't they? I count my
blessings for being alive and was fortunate to find an ocularist that
could offer me patience and hope to get me through that trying ordeal.
I have had routine visits with an
oncologist in the twelve years since then also, which also ease the
tension of the unknown recurrence. So far, so good!
I had another new eye made in
1993 and have worn it until now and found another wonderful ocularist
closer to my home, Midland, Texas. He also has a prosthetic eye which
helps him identify with my own difficulties with the climate we live in.
Please feel free to contact me,
Wendy
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