Glad to hear you're doing better Peaches! Hope it clears up MUCH sooner than Memorial Day.

Does anyone know what the threshold is for being ineligible for LASIK?

Thanks Honeykiss. You're so sweet! :)

It feels comforting to have so many family members and friends (both real life and cyber) praying for me and wishing me well. I really appreciate it.

I am glad things are headed in a more positive direction for you. Hope to see you out and about soon. As always, let me know if you need anything ;).

Peaches!!!!!!!!

I am praying you get better real soon... haven't been around much..so when i saw this i was super worried!

hope everything turns out ok.. you seriously gave me a BIG wake up call.. i have been wearing contacts since 6th grade and basically am blind as a bat.im -8.00 in both eyes.

i usually always take off my contacts before the shower, but i pop them right back in afterwards, which im sure traps some water.. im also very guilty of not changing my case and cleaning it as best as it should be. i have been noticing signs that my vision is decreasing again which i am not happy about.. i was hoping for my perscription to be stable for a year or more so that my doctor would consider me for lasik. thanks for making me realize how serious eye care really is.

i hope you make a speedy recovery and find some cute glasses too ;)
keep us updated

Bump
 

P-n-C,

Where are you? Are you OK?

You sound like me!


Aww, Peaches, I hope you are doing better... I'll say a prayer for you!

thanks for the bump russ. peaches popped into my mind this weekend and i was wondering how she is. can anyone give us an update?

Thank you for thinking of me and for the well wishes. I'm here in NYC, using my drops, and going to the eye doctors. I have been staying offline lately because of my eyes and vision. I am extremely light sensitive so I sometimes have a difficult time reading the computer screen.

I have good days and bad days. For a couple of weeks, I was having mostly bad days filled with sleepless nights and severe eye pain. Now most of my days are pretty good: I usually sleep through the night and only have mild to medium eye pain. I'm making small improvements daily.

The good news is I am responding so well to the eye drops that they decreased the dosage. I can now go to the doctor every other week instead of weekly. This will be my first doctor-free week which is nice. The cloudiness in my right eye disappeared, and my vision is improving although everything still looks blurry.

The bad news is it will take at least year of treatments. I was hoping the doctor was exaggerating when he said this, but he was not. This acanthamoeba is a very difficult parasite to kill so this will be a long recovery period. These drops are toxic and can cause pain and other problems with the corneas. Unfortunately, they are the only drops that can kill this parasite. The doctors are optimistic, but they still can't tell if I will need a cornea transplant. I hope not.

We'll be thinking of you. Try to drop in whenever you can to let us know about your progress.

Peaches...glad to know that things are going better and the doctors are optimistic...
you will be in my thoughts and prayers.... keep us updated when you can..


lots of love
;)

((((((((((((((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))) to Peaches!!! I am only a phone call away if you need anything!

peaches, thanks so much for the update and glad to lear that there is improvement!! you will continue to be in my thoughts and prayers.

Thank you everyone. I saw winneythepooh last week so she got to see what a mess I am up close and personal. I was sitting in a row ahead of her and didn't even recognize her. Yeah, my vision is bad.

I went to the doctor on Tuesday. I want to buy new prescription glasses, but my vision keeps changing so I will wait until the next appointment. They tried to figure out my prescription, but everything was blurry. I was a +7.0, but when this is finished it might stay the same or go up to a +9.0.

I have more inflammation in my right cornea than I had two weeks ago so that eye is blurrier. My vision with glasses in my left eye is 20/25 since I have little inflammation. I think that the pain has either gone away, or I have grown accustomed to it. The doctors are optimistic and so pleased with my progress that I don't have to return for three weeks. We're on the right track, but it's a very long track.

Here are two article that describes people with acanthamoeba although I didn't get it the same way that they did.

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1826162005

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/...05-663612.html

By Popular Demand An Update
 

I saw another cornea specialist last Tuesday since mine was on his honeymoon. I had seen him early in my treatment in July. He said that my eyes are healing nicely, and right now he sees no reason for my vision to change permanently. I just need to be patient and use my eye drops. I am using three drops every other hour about 15 to 20 minutes apart which adds up to about 24 drops per day. I also have to dilate my right pupil every other night so the inflammation won't cause any permanent damage.

With correction, my vision in my left eye is about 20/25, but my right eye fluctuates between 20/30 and 20/35 which might be a result of the dilating drops or the inflammation. I was able to get a prescription for eye glasses which is the same prescription that I have had since I was 10 or 11. It looks a little blurry, but it is the best that they could get at this stage in my condition. Fortunately, I have very little pain. I am still sensitive to light especially after I use my drops, but sunglasses help. I really love the fact that sunset is getting earlier every day. Rainy days are the best for my eyes.

This cornea specialist wants to get a microbiologist involved in my treatment. In January they will take more cultures and see what progress I have made and if I still have acanthamoeba. The problem is this parasite can only be seen with a confocal microscope, and even that is not 100% accurate. I already had that test once, and it was inconclusive so a microbiologist is the way to go. I hope that this will be out of me in January.

The worst part about this is how expensive the medicine is. Most of my drops are chemicals specially compounded for me. They don't have FDA approval so they aren't covered by insurance. I have spent about $4,000 so far and expect to spend at least twice that before this is over. It just makes me wonder what happens to people who cannot afford this treatment.

So now on to important things. I plan to go shopping for eyeglasses this week. I want to get something cute and fashionable and not too expensive since my prescription still might change. Any suggestions about where to go and what to get?

Yikes! I just read this entire thread and it was a total wake-up call for me. I've been wearing soft lenses for about 4 years now (my vision isn't too bad yet, thankfully!) and I had no idea such severe infections existed! I hate wearing my lenses in the water though, but I'll be super careful from now on!

Good luck to you...this doesn't seem like an easy ordeal to go through.