The eye tissue I have been given for this life

"Your cornea grafts are doing remarkably well considering that they are 24 years old and 10 years old, respectively," said Dr. S.

I went to see the cornea specialist today to determine if there were any major problems with my corneas and, in particular, any further signs of rejection of the corneas. I guess the good news is the grafts are doing fine.

Here's the reality: Because of astigmatism, my cornea tissue, whether it's my own tissue or the grafts, has always been thin. And as I have been getting older, I have noticed more irritability in the eyes and loss of visual acuity especially in distance vision. This may be due to the fact that my body has finally developed allergies and my eyes, in particular, have reacted to air-born allergens. The thinness of the cornea tissue and my eye's allergic awakenings are factors to why my visual acuity is diminishing.

In astigmatism, the shaping of the cornea constantly changes. At least, that's my problem. In discussing astigmatism in cornea transplant patients, Dr. S. has suggest several approaches to help me. They are:

• Eye Drops to keep the eyes moist and combat the air-born allergens.
• The wearing of contact lenses to try to coerce the corneas to maintain a proper shape.
• and, perhaps more eye surgery (either transplant and laser surgery) ten to fifteen years down the pike.

Right now, I'm on eye drops. We'll start there and see what happens after the next six months when I'm scheduled to see Dr. S. again. I'm a little hesitant with the contact lens idea because I know hard contacts can promote scarring on the corneas and I'm not sure whether soft, gas-permeable lenses will work in my case.

So, there you have it. The next six months will be interesting and full of suspense for me. We'll see what happens.