Why the ICE Syndrome Eye is Worth Fighting For & My Story of The Red Laces of a Baseball

Dreaming of Palm Trees & Beaches on this cold Kansas day!

  
First - a quick update.   I saw my glaucoma specialist today.    Pressure in that right eye?   16!   WOO HOO!    I don't go back until May - and the next appointment with my cornea doc is in April.    That means I have THREE WHOLE MONTHS before I see another eye doc!   Not only that, but I will have gone at least one year since an eye surgery!   Another WOO HOO!    Not all is rosy - my right eye had difficulty picking out the large letters this morning.   But I'm used to that and my cloudy double vision - for which there are no simple answers.  But for today, it's a look above and a whispered "thank you".

Which leads me to my topic for today....

WHY THE ICE SYNDROME EYE IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR.....

Trust me, I have struggled at times with just wondering why I bother to go through all the stuff I do for this ICE eye.  Surgery after surgery, appointment after appointment, medication changes, side effects, pains, aches, irritations, ups and downs - it IS a long continuous journey with many twists and turns - and it does get tiring.     Several years ago I  read online of someone who had her ICE eye removed so she wouldn't have to deal with the hassles.  "Wow", I thought, "A little drastic, but I understand".   Since then, I've heard more comments similar to this.   

Through the 13 years I have lived with ICE, I have fought, I am fighting and I will continue to fight for this ICE eye.   Here's why.... 

1) A couple of you have written me indicating that you have bilateral ICE - ICE affecting both eyes.   For you, my heart goes out to you and I think of you often.    You are an inspiration.     

2) While most of us experience unilateral ICE - affecting just one eye - who knows if ICE may eventually attack the other eye.   I don't worry about such possibilities, but it's enough to make me fight through the issues I have with my ICE eye - to give it the best chance I can for vision down the road.    

3) Vision technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 10 years.  And while little research is being done on ICE, there just might be a good solution for us soon.  Hang in there.       

4) What if an injury is sustained in the healthy non-ICE eye and vision is impaired or lost?  Once again, not something I worry about but I am conscious of it.   If you are like me, it is so easy to say "BUT that won't happen to ME".   And here's my story of the Red Laces of a Baseball.

 Almost two years ago I was attending my son's baseball tournament in a small Missouri town.   The fences along the sides were low.   It was a hot humid day - and I got up out of my lawn chair, reached into our cooler for a bottle of water and I heard the ping of a metal bat.    I looked up and believe it or not, no more than two feet away from my left "good" eye were the red laces of a hard hit foul baseball.    It was one of those moments where time stood still and the split seconds seemed like minutes.   I ducked and disaster was averted - although it took a while for me to catch my breath.    A lesson.  It can happen.

Yes there are problems - but there is much to be thankful for.   In many ways, these experiences have been a blessing in disguise.    As sick as my eye is, in the evening when the television is on and when I close my good eye, I can still see moving images.   If something happened to my good eye, wouldn't I consider those moving images to be a blessing?  Shouldn't I consider it a blessing now?    Yes, this blessing - this vision - is worth fighting for.   You never know what the future holds.   

Sometimes it just takes the red laces of a baseball to remind me.