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Apologies in advance, this will be a long post. Family history first: My mum, sister and I have Congenital Cataracts. It runs through my mum's side of the family. Back when sis and I were about 5 they decided to remove our lenses and we wore very strong glasses for many years. Thrn when I was about 15 they gave me contacts, my sister got implant lenses. All was well for about 20 years. Now: A few months ago I noticed that my right eye kept fogging up. My right has always been worse than my left. At first I thought something was wrong with my lens - they do wear out, but the problem didn't go away, so I went to my optician who has taken care of me all these years. After trying a few things, like leaving out my right lens for a month and changing the type of lens I wear, with no change, he decided that it was time to refer me back to the original team who used to care for me when I was a kid. I saw the doc Thursday. Now for some Eye Biology 101: Fliuid enters the cornea and is pumped out again by cells at the back of the cornea, and the fluid can also evaporate through the front of the eye. There are a finite number of these pumping cells, which degenerate over time. They do not replenish... once they're gone, they're gone. The doc told me that when I had the surgery all those years ago they removed a load of my cells. This means that I had even less than normal to begin with, and over the years as my other cells have degenerated, the ones left behind are gretting less and less able to pump the fluid out. The fluid then hangs around longer in my cornea and it's this that is causing the ffoggyness. He told me that in time I will need a cornea transplant. We don't yet know when as it depends on how quickly my remaining cells degenerate. He took an ultrascan of my eye, to see how many cells I have, and in six months he will take another and compare the two to see how quick things are changing. A few weeks ago my sis had a transplant for the exact same problem. She had two years from diagnosis to surgery. Now, I have to wait.... :(
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