Independence

When I lost the vision in my right eye I spent a lot of time in bed feeling sorry for myself.

‘What’s the point in getting up? I’ve got nothing to do, I can’t see anything, I can’t read, I can’t go out or do anything.’

One of the first steps I needed to take was to get some independence back.

I dragged myself out of bed and as we had some shopping to do, called a friend for a lift to the Hyperdome. While we were walking around the shops I felt unsafe as there were a lot of people around and I couldn’t see them until they were fairly close to me and this didn’t give me a lot of time to get out of the way. I was in this fog where suddenly someone would appear in front of me.

At my next appointment with Dr Kate I told her how unsafe I felt and she suggested getting a walking stick and either paint it white or put white tape around it and take that out with me because I didn’t look like I was in trouble when walking and people wouldn’t be aware when they’re walking towards me that I couldn’t see them. She said that with a white stick, people would notice the white stick and hopefully get out of my way and make it a bit easier.

It was then time to try and exert my independence again and I decided to go out by myself and catch a bus home from the doctors. My sister was horrified. ‘How can you put yourself in danger?’ I wasn’t going to be in danger. I am a bit of a control freak and I had lost control over most of my life but it was time to start taking it back. My excursion would be organised with military precision. Phone calls were made to the bus and taxi companies and I was set. I knew exactly what bus stop to be at, what bus to catch and where it would take me. Whatever roads I needed to cross had traffic light crossings or an underpass so that would be ok. When the first bus arrived I checked with the driver to make sure it was the right one. One problem I had not thought of was that the driver did not realise I could not see very well and took off before I was seated. While I was walking down the aisle looking for a seat I nearly fell into the laps of other passengers. When I sat down I cried. Who was I kidding that I could go on these outings by myself? Changing buses at the interchange was a bit challenging as there were a lot of people rushing around and I had to be very alert to ensure I caught the right bus to get me home. It was all a bit scary but I did it and arrived home safely. I was exhausted and my eyes were tired from straining to see. I overdid it a little!

This outing was organised as most of my life had been. My poor eyesight had required me to be organised. Going to the beach before I had my transplants was tricky. I always had to go with friends or family, make sure I knew exactly where my towel was and where my friends were in the water. If I lost sight of them I was in trouble. I would try to sit near a bin, a lifeguard area or a bright beach umbrella, a spot that was easy to find again. I grew up in Perth and Scarborough Beach was the place to go. Unfortunately for me it was often quite rough and if I was dumped and came out of the water by myself I was in a bit of trouble until my friends found me.

Catching buses was always a challenge. I had to wave down lots of buses I didn’t want, as even with my ‘coke bottle glasses’, it was still hard to see numbers on buses, particularly if it was dark. If I stayed at a friend’s house or in a hotel I had to check the hot water taps in the bathroom before I hopped in the shower, simple things like knowing which bottle was shampoo or conditioner and always knowing where my glasses were when I went to bed! Simple things most people don’t even think about. Maybe this is why I became the control freak my family tell me I am.

Simple tasks around the house were getting difficult and we needed ideas to make them easier. Peter and I visited Vision Australia and we were able to purchase some aids to help and my favourite was the water buzzer. Making coffee in my stainless steel plunger was dangerous as I couldn’t see the water filling the plunger and would put my face really close. This was a little bit dangerous and only a matter of time before I would splash myself with boiling water. The buzzer sits inside and buzzes when the water level is right. I loved it. We found lots of ideas about using contrasting colours in the kitchen and for when I was out and about.

I didn’t have a choice, I had to call in help and that didn’t sit easily with me. I did start calling on friends and neighbours to drive me. They were more than happy to help and we ended up having some great days out. I went to Floriade a couple of times as both the girls were performing in their school bands. I was able to move comfortably around the flowerbeds and to the stage area where the girls were performing. It was a bit disconcerting having lots of people walking around and I walked slowly and kept my eyes on the ground so that I could deal with the changes in the terrain and watch where I was walking. It was difficult in the shop area because it was darker in there. The performances were fabulous and Emily was in the front row on the stage so I knew where she was. Caitlin was at the back of the stage for her performance and I couldn’t see her.

I certainly suffered for my days out. My eyes were very sore after straining to help me see and the result of going out and trying to see meant I suffered headaches for a couple of days afterwards. Then it was off to bed for a couple of days to wallow in self-pity. There weren’t too many of those days but I needed to be aware of the strain my eyes were under.

Getting about with low vision

I couldn’t see that light at the end of the tunnel, literally – I couldn’t see very much at all. When I went to the eye specialist and looked at the eye chart, there were days I could make out the top letter of the chart and some days when I could not. When I looked through the pinhole, I could actually see four or five lines on the chart, which was amazing. That meant once Dr Con fixed the corneas my sight should come back. I wasn’t able read any more. I was able to read the headlines in the newspaper and if in good light manage some large print books. Unfortunately, that meant suffering with headaches for a couple of days. I listened to audio books and the radio. Peter and the girls read to me anything they thought would interest me. My family wrote anything I needed in large print, although the large print needed to be very large! I still pretended to do the housework. One of the benefits of not being able to see well was not being able to see the dirt in the house - therefore it did not exist!

When we moved there were new challenges. Going to the supermarket took a long time. I didn’t know where anything was and as it was a small independent supermarket there weren’t a lot of familiar brands on the shelves and of course it was set up very differently to the large Woolworths store I was used to. I had been shopping at the same store for years and knew where everything was so even with my lack of vision I was still able to find the items I needed. Not anymore!

I often walked down to the pub in the village to collect our mail but only on days when it was not windy, because when it was windy I was not able to hear cars coming. I stopped going for a while after the day I saw my first snake. Luckily it was on the side of the road and heard us coming and was disappearing when I saw it. I always walked with Madeline on the lead as a couple of times she had run off to investigate something and I could not see her. Luckily the day we saw the snake she was on the lead, as she was very interested in having a look.

As we got to know people they discovered that my vision was poor and they were surprised they hadn’t noticed. I was pretty good at covering it up. When we were out in public I just said hello to everybody – I had no idea who they were or if I knew them or not but people just assumed that I had seen them. I had the girls or Peter with me most of the time and they would whisper in my ear, ‘that’s so and so’ or tell me who was coming towards me, who was in the group, that sort of thing. One of the locals said to Peter.

'I’ve just heard your wife can’t see, you would never know.’

Everyone was really supportive and helpful and I appreciated it so much. I could stop bluffing which was a relief.

During the first few months after we moved I felt very isolated and did wish I was back in the suburbs of Canberra. Even though by the time we left I had had enough of catching buses at least I could catch one to work or the shops. It was also easier to get the girls to the places they needed to go and they also became very adept at catching buses. If Peter was away we could still get around independently.

I did become a lot more patient as time went on and spent a lot of time waiting in doctor’s surgeries, waiting at the shops for whoever had driven me. I went to appointments in Canberra, Bowral and Sydney. I waited in parks, coffee shops, on street corners, on benches on the street – anywhere I had to because I had amazing people driving me around and if I had to wait for them to finish whatever they were doing that’s what I did. My friends would apologise for asking me to wait but that was just how it was. I remember sitting in the eye specialist’s waiting room one day when things weren’t going well and I spilt coffee on my t-shirt and burst into tears! The little things set me off!

We were lucky when a new bus service between Canberra and the coast started so that if Peter wasn’t around the girls and I could catch the bus to Canberra on weekends and during the holidays. This was a great help and we were able to spend some time with their friends and do some shopping. If I had an eye specialist appointment we could go in to Canberra and by catching buses and taxis we could get around ok. I even did this trip by myself a couple of times and although it was certainly a challenge I did it. I knew where I had to be and organised how I would get there. They were very long days though and I was exhausted after each day out as the strain of trying to see was sometimes too much. I did have a bit of a setback with my left eye on one of these days out and spent the day shopping with the girls while in excruciating pain as a piece of lens remnant in my eye was causing a few problems. It felt like my head was going to explode and I cried all the way home on the bus that night.

The bus also came in very handy one day when a friend in Majors Creek was very ill and needed to be taken to Canberra in an ambulance. Her husband was away and her mother was on her way from Adelaide. I went with her in the ambulance and managed to find my way around the hospital and to the bus stop in the dark to catch the bus home. Peter had phoned the driver and told him I would be there and that I could not see very well and the driver assured him he would make sure I got on the bus!

Impact of losing vision

Of course humour was a way of dealing with my problem. Madeline is a Golden Retriever and we joked that we would put a harness on her and go out together on the bus. She would love sitting under the table at cafes and restaurants. When we move I would have a white cane to take on walks and the tapping of the cane would keep the snakes away as I wouldn’t be able to see them.

A couple of days after I lost the vision in my second eye, we had a school arts performance to go to. Peter was away and the girls said it was ok not to go but I decided to make an effort and get there. We caught a taxi and went to the Chinese Restaurant near the theatre for dinner where the girls read the menu to me and ordered our meal and we had a chat about what was happening. They didn’t realise how serious this was going to be until I knocked over my glass of water on the table. The lighting in the restaurant was fairly dim and I didn’t see it. They helped me pay the bill and escorted me to the theatre. Once inside we sat with some of our neighbours who obviously missed their calling as comedians and threatened to move tables while I was in the toilet. Someone needed to come with me to the toilet, as I could not see which door was the ladies’ and which was the gents. During the next few months I walked into the gents a few times.

Cooking had also become a problem. I am not a very good cook and reading recipe books was no longer an option. Peter had always cooked for us as he was good at it and loved creating great meals but he was away a couple of nights a week. As I was unable to drive to pick up takeaway and had enough of the home delivery options we had to find a way to allow me to create something interesting for us to eat. The girls started reading recipes to me. This worked if someone was home when it was time to start preparing dinner. We found a way around this by having the recipe written out for me in very large print. The girls and Peter also wrote out phone numbers or account numbers and the credit card number, so that I could pay bills and order things over the phone. I was able to order some flowers for a sick aunt in Perth using this technique and was very proud of myself for being a little independent. My family were very discreet when dishes weren’t quite clean and put them back to be done again. They would alert me to the socks left fluttering on the line after the washing had been brought in.

One day when I went outside to hang out the washing I misjudged the step outside the laundry door. I fell down and luckily just missed knocking my head on the concrete step. I was lying there in my pyjamas, prone across the ground and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry so did both. I was home alone and lay there for a while before trying to get up and assess the damage. Within seconds of my phone call, my neighbour Annie was there and stayed with me for a couple of hours to make sure I was ok. This event was a bit of a shock as we all thought I had been doing ok.

This was a very difficult time for all of us. Peter had to do all the driving and he was back and forwards to Majors Creek to meet with the builder and council etc. He had to fit this in with work and all my doctor’s appointments. In normal times I would make those trips. He was extremely worried about what was going on with my eyes.

The girls were amazing in helping out and doing extra things that they didn’t plan on doing. During the school holidays we caught buses everywhere and they had to check timetables and make sure we were on the right buses. The day they came with me to Dr Kate’s surgery we spent most of the day catching buses to get there and back. They were great and didn’t complain too much.

I also had to give up my job. The day I went into the Museum to hand in my uniform and keys was a very emotional day and another change to add to all the changes I was making at the time.

One eye in working order

When I lost the vision in my left eye I was still able to go to work but it meant I had a long ride on the bus. My shift was four and a half hours but what was a twenty-minute drive in the car took an hour and a half on the bus and that was just one way. As I worked the afternoon shift this meant that during winter I was travelling home in the dark. Changing buses and walking home from the bus stop was a challenge. I had never been good in the dark but this was just plain scary. There were nights I arrived at the bus interchange to wait for my connecting bus and it was too hard. I found the taxi rank and caught a taxi home. Peter was able to pick me up most of the time and a few months into this saga I changed to a morning shift where Peter was able to drive me to work and I would arrive home mid-afternoon.

My job was as a tour guide at one of the major tourism institutions in Canberra and one of my duties was to meet and greet the visitors. When I was experiencing the double vision it was a bit scary as it was hard to tell how many people were coming through the door until they came closer. When a hundred schoolkids came in, it looked like two hundred! Making eye contact with my visitors was a bit difficult, as I couldn’t see them until they were very close to me. I became very good at recognising my colleague’s body shape or the way they walked, so that, much to their surprise, I could always greet them by name and when we had presentations at our team meetings I was reminded of my school days. To see what was going on, there I was sitting in the front row, right in front of the teacher – oops, presenter.

Some of the jobs at work were beyond me, working on the computer was not an option and as some of the areas in the museum were quite dark, these became no go zones for me as I struggled to see. My colleagues were very supportive but they also made sure I didn’t lose my sense of humour and we laughed a lot!

I was continually seeing the eye specialist who was assuring me all was going well and my eye was healing. The healing didn’t mean my sight was any better and I was still fairly incapacitated. As time went on the number of eyedrops I had to use increased. Trips to the eye specialist and all the eyedrops were costing us a fortune.

I continued to go to work and we caught buses everywhere and the girls and Peter had to put up with my mood swings, which he assured me were getting worse. They were getting worse for a reason and to top off not being able to see very well I was menopausal and had some problems that meant a trip to hospital to have a hysterectomy! Peter was worried about leaving me in hospital when I couldn’t see very well and was going to have a major operation. I was very lucky and had a great roommate who helped me out whenever I needed a spare pair of eyes. My recovery was interesting as I spent a number of weeks at home before I could go anywhere.

We also went on a holiday back to Perth to visit family and friends. Our last trip had been a few years before and we thought that with the move and Peter’s change of job coming up it would be a good idea to go then as we didn’t know when we would be in a position to go again. This was a very scary trip for me. Our family and friends were aware that I had a problem with my eyes but were not prepared for how bad it actually was. I was pretty good at bluffing and not letting on how bad it was but in some situations it was blindingly obvious! I wasn’t driving at all and as we were spending a lot of time in the south west of Western Australia Peter had a lot of driving to do. We ate out in cafes and restaurants and reading menus was a problem. Peter and the girls had to show me where the toilets were and often take me to the door, as I wasn’t able to read the signs. If we were out at night, Peter or the girls had to hold on to me and tell me where I was stepping and how many steps there were and more importantly where the puddles were! One night we were walking to the restaurant at our motel and Peter forgot to tell me about the puddle. Luckily the restaurant was quiet so I took off my shoes and socks and dried them by the fire while we ate.

Little did I know that a few months later life was to change again.

It's my Birthday!

One of the best things about living in Majors Creek is the friends I have made. This afternoon we had afternoon tea with friends and neighbours.

Peter cooked up a storm and we ate, drank champagne and laughed a lot.

I love the new friends I have made here and today showed I have chosen well. There was lots of conversation and laughter. 

The story continues next week!

Settling in

Living in a small village was very different to the suburbs of Canberra! The girls were able to ride their bikes and go for walks and we knew they would be fine. Locals look out for each other and even though we were the newbies I knew that if I got into trouble because of my lack of vision someone would be there for me and we were certainly available to our neighbours if they needed us.

On the day I saw my first snake while out walking with Madeline, I was quite shaken when I got to the pub. One of our neighbours ended up driving us home and told me they were worried about me walking around with my lack of vision. I assured her that I would always have Madeline or someone with me after that. Our grass got quite long at one stage and I was obsessive about keeping doors shut and wearing gumboots or shoes when we went outside. I didn’t know how Madeline would react if she saw a snake and one day when Peter was moving some building material he came across a blue-tongue lizard. He got a bit of a shock before he realised what it was! Madeline was very interested. Our neighbours told us that the fact she was still alive meant she hadn’t come across one yet!

We slowly started to make friends and when we walked down the main street in Braidwood we were able to say hello to people we knew and this was really important. I still remember how I felt the first time I said hello to someone I knew at the Hyperdome after we had moved to Canberra. It was when I felt I belonged. One of our neighbours told us how he loved going into town to get the paper as it took him an hour and a half!

Living in the country during a major drought was an interesting time as everyone was obsessed with water and the lack of rain. We knew the area was in drought but living in the city it didn’t really mean much. There were water restrictions and we couldn’t water our gardens or wash our cars but we really had no idea what that meant out here. People who live in small country towns rely on rain for all their water. We watched farmers droving their stock day in and day out to find feed for them, let alone water. We have a 100,000-litre tank and when it was first built we bought some water to get us going. We had no idea how much rain we got in the early months of living here but we knew we felt left out of conversations regarding the amount of rain that had fallen around the area. We finally purchased our rain gauge and checked it religiously after any rainfall. During our first June here, we had 300mls! It was amazing. As we still were surrounded by dirt it was pretty hairy for us. We did spend a lot of time outside in the middle of the night making sure the trenches around the verandah were working. When the tank overflowed we couldn’t believe it. We had so much rain the overflow ran down the back paddock and created a massive puddle. Maybe this was the place to build a dam.

Eventually we started to plant trees and gardens. I am not a gardener but was very protective of my flowers and Madeline was not happy being kicked out of the dirt patches she liked to lie in.

As we were living in the country it was time to name our country estate! Home Malone was the working title for this project to move out here but the girls made it very clear this name would not appear on our gate! The quest for a name began. We thought about Malone Manor but Manor was on the gate across the road. We found out the names of some of the previous owners but nothing stood out. This area was a part of Falls

Farm and as we are in the ‘Falls Estate’ we thought about Falls Cottage. We saw some beautiful rainbows when it rained and we thought of Rainbow Cottage. Who knew it would be this hard to find a name? We discovered there is a house in the village called ‘Misthaven’ and one called ‘Misty Ridge’. Majors Creek is often shrouded in mist and a friend suggested ‘Misty Meadows’. We loved it and now have the name on our gate!

Weatherwise we often get the four seasons in one day! It can even be sunny and lovely here and foggy in Braidwood or visa-versa. We learned early to throw a jumper in the car all year round. We even get snow out here! The day it snowed heavily was fantastic. Peter was away and when I opened the curtains in the morning I thought we had a heavy frost. I called the girls and we went outside and realised this was no frost! The poor bunnies hutch was struggling under the amount of snow on its roof and I had to get a shovel and clear it. The girls were getting a lift to school that day and unbeknown to them the bus couldn’t get through but they had an amazing experience driving to school in the snow. As for me the power went out and as our house is fully electric I had no heating, could not see much and therefore went to bed. The power was off for about five hours and during the morning some friends dropped over to see if I was ok. I assured them I was going to stay in bed and they went off to check out the snow around the village. It was very exciting!

We were getting used to this new life and even with my problems we did ok. It meant we had to plan things and be organised but that was how I ran most of my life anyway. Emily joined the local soccer club and Saturday mornings became our main social event as we got to know the other girls and their parents. Caitlin and her friends also hung out at the soccer fields and it was a great way to meet people.

I joined the local VIEW club and enjoyed my monthly meetings with the ladies. Our neighbours would pick me up and drive me and it was a great way to get to know the local ladies.

Friday nights at the Majors Creek pub were the place to be as lots of locals went that night. We would pop down for a drink and a meal and end up staying for hours chatting on the verandah with our new neighbours.

When our friends came out from Canberra they were blown away by how pretty and quiet it was. They loved our house and realised we did not suffer from a lack of modern conveniences out here. I even cooked scones for our visitors. You could see the terror on their faces when I announced. ‘I have made scones!’ I got out the good crockery and cutlery, whipped the cream and scooped out the jam. Then came the moment when they had to eat. The scones were usually rubbery and overcooked but to their credit our visitors ate one or two and made appropriate noises about how wonderful it was to see me turning into Country Woman! 

Our family grows

Peter and I both liked the idea of living in the country but the reality was we were city born and bred. We knew nothing about looking after two acres of land. We had never built a house before. The girls were going to go to a small country school. What if they hated it? We were 100 km from Canberra and our very comfortable life. Peter had a new job and I couldn’t see much. What were we thinking?

Our first few weeks here were interesting. We moved a couple of days before Christmas and the TV didn’t work and the washing machine died. It was also very cold and we had no curtains until we found some old ones and taped them to the bedroom windows. Buying curtains was fast tracked and it was lovely to close the house up on a cold summer night! The house was surrounded by dirt and when it started to rain we had to go out in the middle of the night and dig trenches around the verandah to stop the water coming in. The girls were unhappy and feeling isolated and we had many trips into Canberra to see their friends and bring them out to visit for a couple of days in the country.

As the weeks went by we started to settle in. We met more of our neighbours and when I was able to wear a contact lens and drive for a few weeks we went to the Braidwood pool and the girls met some local girls. We went shopping and bought the things we wanted and needed for the house and as time went by the house became our home.

As the house wasn’t quite finished our gate had not been put back up and there was no way of keeping our dog Madeline in when we went out. We tried tying her up on a long rope and using her car harness to make her more comfortable than having a rope tied on her collar. We had to go out for a few hours so into the harness, tied to the rope, lots of water and a bone. She was set and off we went. When we arrived home she came running to greet the car – how? Maybe someone had been over and let her off? Maybe we didn’t put the harness on properly? No – she was a very clever dog and didn’t like being tied up. This had happened a couple of times and we finally figured out that she had pulled the rope tight and wriggled out of the harness backwards. How clever was our Miss Houdini? Tying her up wasn’t going to work but as she was a dog who didn’t wander we decided each time we left to give her a big juicy bone to keep her occupied. We were very lucky with her and discovered that each morning she went for a walk to say hello to each of our neighbours and then came home. That’s as far as she went so we felt comfortable leaving her alone. Little was she to know that her days as the only pet in the house were numbered.

The minute we moved out here the conversations started about which other animals would come to live with us. We needed to get something to eat the grass but we needed to do some fencing and of course put the gate back before that could happen. The girls were also putting pressure on to get another dog or two and had the support of their dad. The argument was that two dogs would keep each other company and not annoy Madeline too much. This argument had merit but I didn’t see the need for three dogs.

We went into Canberra one weekend for a couple of birthday parties and spent the weekend there. We all went and were staying with friends around Tuggeranong. Even Madeline had a sleepover with friends as the kennel was fully booked and there was my argument. What do we do with all these animals when we want to go away? It would cost a fortune to put all the dogs in the kennel and what about the rest? We would need to find someone to come and housesit.

We had this conversation in the car on the way to Canberra and we arrived at Teresa’s house for her party and surprise, surprise we left with two pet rabbits! Rabbits were never on the list of animals on request! What happened here? Teresa had some baby bunnies and yes they were very cute and the pressure was on all through the party to bring one home. It was 3 to 1 so what hope did I really have? Ok, we had to find somewhere for them to live, what do they eat and who would take responsibility for cleaning their house? Emily totally fell in love with these little cuties and I was telling the partygoers how my CWA cookbook has lots of recipes for rabbit stew! So the rabbit we were getting became Stewie! But wait there’s more! Stewie would be very lonely by himself and before I knew it we had Louie as well!

Teresa assured us they were both boys and I told her that if they weren’t the offspring were going straight back to her house!

Time to move

We moved into our new house a couple of days before Christmas and spent the holidays unpacking, buying all the things we needed and learning what it meant to live in the country. The weather was awful. It was cold and foggy for the first three days and we could not believe that this was Christmas in the country. We put up temporary curtains and used the heater instead of the air conditioner! The washing machine died and I had to wash everything by hand. The TV also didn’t work and as it was the Christmas holidays we could not get someone in to fix it for two weeks. Needless to say the girls were not amused. This was it, we had moved to a small village in the country, had no idea what our new life was going to be like and there was so much work to do around the house. We knew no one, I could not see very well and did not know how we were going to manage when Peter went back to work?

The magnitude of what we had done hit me one night when I was having a chat with a very unhappy Emily. The house didn’t feel like home. It wasn’t the house she had grown up in and she didn’t want to be here, away from her friends and the life she knew. What were we thinking? We had changed our whole life and moved to a lifestyle we knew nothing about. We took the girls away from their friends and the life they grew up with. It was easy to say to them. ‘We will keep in touch with your friends.’

The reality was a bit different as I was not able to drive, Peter was away a lot and their friend’s families were just as busy as we were. They did phone their friends, talk on MSN and write letters. We did try to organise for them to catch up with their friends whenever we were in Canberra and during school holidays.

It was important for us to move to Majors Creek at the time we did because of the kid’s school age. They were going into year seven and nine at school and we thought it would be easier to move then rather than a year or two later when they were getting into senior years of high school. The girls had been quite positive about moving until a couple of months before we were due to leave. They were getting upset about leaving their friends, going to a small country school and not knowing anyone. We did our best to reassure them and we took them to the school for a meeting with the deputy principal. He showed them around the school and told them how the school operated and they came home from that meeting feeling a bit more relaxed. As we went out to purchase their uniform and all the other items they needed we were very aware to let them be in charge of the purchases they made so that they were comfortable with everything they bought. We left them to it at the Hyperdome with a large amount of money and a very long shopping list. We went off to an eye specialist appointment and met them a few hours later. They had done very well and were ready for school and had bought lots of items to decorate their rooms.

The kids in Majors Creek are picked up by a school bus and the bus stop is at the end of our street. On the first day we offered to drive them but they wanted to go on the bus. We insisted on walking down with them but were given strict instructions not to be at the bus stop when they came home. Peter and I were a bit anxious during the day, as we knew if they didn’t like school we could be in a bit of trouble. They finally came home and were very chatty about the bus, the school, their teachers, some girls they had met and we knew they were going to be ok.

We did it all. We sold our house in Canberra and built a new one, Peter changed jobs to one where he travelled a fair bit, I could not see very well and took leave from my job, the girls changed schools and we left the city and moved to the country. All of these things are at the top of the list of the most stressful times in our lives and we did it all at once! I was on an emotional rollercoaster with my eyesight drama and dealing with the changes this made to my life and I was menopausal! When we decided to move my sight wasn’t great but we never dreamed it would get worse and I would be nearly blind by the time we moved. We were sure this was the right move for our family and I guess time will tell.

Surgery begins

Because there was so much going on my sister and brother-in-law flew over from Perth to take me to Sydney. They were pretty shocked when they saw me and realised how bad my eyesight was.

When we arrived in Sydney we went for a walk and it was pretty scary as there were so many people around and I kept walking into people and being pushed around. My operation was early next morning and I was a mess. I was so scared about what would happen during the surgery and what the outcome would be. I didn’t sleep much that night, which I am sure was not the perfect preparation for eye surgery. My operation was called a vitrectomy and was going to clear away a blockage that had been building up for years and wasn’t diagnosed until it was at a point where it was blocking my vision.

Dr Chang was very pleased with how the surgery had gone and I was amazed at how I felt. It was very weird being awake. When my cornea transplants were done it was under general anaesthetic and I don’t remember any part of it. This time I could hear the doctors and nurses talking and answer the questions they asked me. We left the hospital two hours after we arrived and went back to our hotel where I slept all day.

The next day I was very ill and in a lot of pain. I went to Dr Chang’s rooms for my post-operative appointment and spent most of the time throwing up in the toilet. The pressure in my eye had risen dramatically and the side effect of that was that I was very sick. When he put eyedrops in my eye the pressure started to drop but it took a while for me to feel better. We had checked out of our hotel and were about to head back to Canberra and there I was throwing up in a plastic bag on the streets of Sydney and not one of the people walking by batted an eyelid. It was obviously a common sight! I slept all the way back to Canberra and then spent a couple of days recovering at home.

It was great to be able to spend some time with Vicki and Lyle and we took them to Majors Creek to show them our house and our new village. When they left I was amazed that they came all that way for a couple of days to look after me. I will never forget what they did.

My recovery went really well and then it was time to move. I was very incapacitated and seriously wondered how I would manage living in the country. I was feeling very insecure moving away from Dr Kate and was scared about being isolated in Majors Creek and not being able to drive myself anywhere.

Preparing for surgery

Before we moved I had my first operation on the road to restoring my sight.

Dr Kate had given me the names of two surgeons in Sydney who she thought would be able to help. Within a month I had an appointment with both doctors.

When I met Dr Chang he explained that when the initial cataract surgery was done some remnants of the lens were left behind and over the years they had calcified into a large piece. This blockage was now affecting my vision. My specialist had been telling me over the last ten years that it was very difficult to see the optic nerve in my left eye because the tissue was so thick. There was a blockage, which had gone undiagnosed, even with this current drama. When I next saw Dr Kate and read the eye chart with the left eye, I could just make out the ‘a’ on the top of the chart, not anything else. With the right eye I could actually see the ‘a’ the ‘o’ and the ‘e’. That’s two lines!

A couple of weeks later I met Dr Con Petsoglou, and as with Dr Barrett in Perth, the minute we met I really liked him and knew he would fix this. He was amazed at how I had managed with so little sight for so long and had spoken with Dr Chang and they agreed that Dr Chang should do his procedure and when the eye had recovered from that surgery he would look at doing another transplant. Dr Con wanted me to wear a contact lens for a few months before he operated to give him an idea of what vision he would be able to achieve with another cornea transplant.

I was quite teary for most of the day after Dr Con’s appointment. At last something positive was going to happen and hopefully a little vision would come back after the first operation. It had been very difficult waiting for these appointments to see what the two surgeons had to say. My head was preparing to hear bad news but hoping for good news.

The optometrist Dr Kate recommended was very helpful and within weeks I was trying a new contact lens for my right eye. My optometrist put the lens in and told me to wander around the shops, have lunch and come back after a few hours to see how it felt. It felt wonderful. I phoned Peter and yelled into the phone, ‘I can see, I can see.’

I didn’t see well for very long. Soon it was time for my vitrectomy and Dr Chang didn’t want me to wear the contact lens again until a couple of weeks after my surgery. Even though the contact was for the other eye he did not want to risk any kind of infection.

When I rang Dr Chang’s office to find out if a date had been booked for me, I was told my surgery was booked in for the 13^th December! That was the day the removalists were coming. Perfect timing! While we were talking the booking officer felt sorry for me and found a cancellation – the next week. ‘Could you be in Sydney next Thursday which was the 23^rd November?’

‘Yes, I will be there,’ was my reply, having no idea how, but it would happen.

Before Christmas we had to move out of our house and find somewhere else to live for a couple of weeks, move into our new house and head up to Sydney to have some eye surgery. There is never a good time for all of this stuff but I wasn’t going to say no to the surgery.

Transplant Games in Canberra

This post is not part of the story I have written but because I had a very special experience today I want to share it with you.

I went to Floriade in Canberra today to attend the opening ceremony and parade of competitors in the 12^th Transplant Games.

I was blown away by the spirit and friendship I witnessed today.

A friend of mine is involved in these games as her husband is a kidney transplant recipient and it was Tahlei who first told me about them. Nick has competed in the games for many years now.

A lone piper led the parade and I was teary as the competitors marched past me but cried when the donor families marched past. I was surprised by the emotion I felt.

All of the competitors have had a transplant of some kind and these games are a celebration of their second chance at life. The Governor General Ms Quentin Bryce opened the games and encouraged us all to DISCOVER the facts about organ and tissue donation DECIDE about organ and tissue donation and DISCUSS your decision with family and friends.

It has been twenty years since my first cornea transplant and over three years since the surgery to remove them. At that time I went through a very difficult grieving process. My transplants were life changing for me and when I had the surgery to remove them I felt that I had lost a major part of me. I felt I had let my donor down as after so long my body had rejected the transplants. I know that was pretty irrational thinking but that was how I felt as the time.

I feel very strongly that tissue donation is as important as organ donation but doesn’t always get same attention in the media.

I wrote about my story and why I thought corneas were as sexy as hearts, lungs and kidneys and had the privilege of being published in 2007 in an anthology of transplant stories – mine was the only cornea story in the book!

I watched people of all ages today dancing and singing to the rock band at the concert following the ceremony. They were enjoying themselves so much I want to remind you all to DISCOVER, DECIDE AND DISCUSS!

Camping

When our offer to buy the land in Majors Creek was accepted we had to decide what we were going to do with it. As the Anzac Day long weekend approached, Peter suggested we go camping on the block – and I agreed! I am not a camper. Peter and the girls have been going camping for years. He started taking them to Folk Festivals when they were still in nappies! They all loved it and on the few occasions I went with them I was given strict instructions that camping was different to being at home and they had their own camp rules and I had to learn to live with their rules while at the campsite.

The first time I went along they took me to a caravan park down the coast. As we drove in I thought it looked quite nice and I would be happy there for a few days. There was lots of green grass, a pool, games room and kiosk for ice creams. We were then directed to our campsite in the area put aside for camping with dogs. Yes, our dog Madeline, loved going camping too and unfortunately for the family our campsite was not on the grass but in the dirt. I spent a lot of time with a glass of wine by the pool. Luckily the amenities block was clean.

I agreed to go with them to a folk festival near Wagga Wagga and Peter decided it was probably best if we stayed in a caravan in the caravan park. He didn’t think I would cope camping in the showgrounds where the festival was being held. Clever move I thought. The amenities block was close by and clean too. Being able to go home each night to a caravan was more my style than into a tent. It turned out to be a fairly uneventful weekend, the music was wonderful and we met some lovely people.

 

My next invitation was to a folk festival in Cobargo. ‘We would like you to come and you will enjoy the music.’ I agreed. We set off and were about an hour and a half from home when Peter quietly mumbles, ‘oh sh ... ’

‘What is it?’ I ask.

Car trouble flashed through my head; we were packed to the gills, had the dog, two young kids and were miles from anywhere. ‘I think I have left the tent poles home,’ Peter quietly told me.

‘You’ve left the tent poles home!’ I couldn’t believe it. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘Let’s keep going and we can buy some rope or maybe some poles in Bega.’

All I could think about was if we couldn’t camp it was a long drive home and we couldn’t go to a motel because we had the dog.

We arrived in Bega and couldn’t buy any tent poles but did buy some rope and Peter thought we could probably figure something out when we got there. We arrived at the showgrounds where the campers were and he was able to rig up the tent as we camped underneath a shelter. As soon as we arrived I opened the esky and a bottle of wine.  As I sat in the sun with my wine, the campers next door came back and commented on how early I was getting into the wine.

‘It has been a long day,’ was my icy response, and they left me alone after that. Peter rigged up the tent and it was fabulous. We had a great weekend, the views were beautiful, the music was great and a good time was had by all! Didn’t mean I was in a hurry to go again.

We did find a great camping ground at Wee Jasper and I did have some great experiences with them. We camped by a pretty creek, there were lots of trees and green grass and a fairly clean amenities block. I did enjoy the lifestyle at the camping ground. I was able to sleep in as long as I wanted, Peter did all the cooking and I helped wash up the few dishes we used. I took my coffee plunger and learnt how to use the camp stove to boil the kettle and enjoyed sitting under the trees drinking coffee, reading a book and eating the abundance of treats we took. There was no housework to do, the kids happily went off to explore or sat around reading or playing cards or other games they had packed. Peter and I were able to sit quietly outside with a glass of wine or two in the evening. I was getting used to the camping thing. We even went there twice and I enjoyed each time.

So back to the Anzac Day trip. When we arrived in Majors Creek the cows were roaming the land and we decided it would not be a good idea to camp with them. We set up camp at the local recreation ground - toilets, water and no cows.

We met some locals as we wandered around the village and there is certainly a mix of those who have historic ties and those who just fell in love with the place and never left. The camping didn’t go too badly either which Peter saw as a good sign although on the last night it was very cold and during the night I woke up freezing and very uncomfortable. The bloody air mattress had a hole in it and had deflated just on my side! I was sleeping on the ground and was freezing. It was drizzling with rain outside and was very dark because we were in the country and there were no suburban lights to help me find my way to the car where I thought I might sleep. I must admit I threw a tantrum and if I could have driven home there and then and left them all to it I would have. There was no way I was ever going camping again!

For the next year’s ‘Music at the Creek Folk Festival’, we decided to camp on the block. Yes camp! Peter purchased a proper camping toilet with a shower tent to put it in. It was certainly an interesting experience and the air mattress behaved itself. It was freezing at night and raining but Peter and the girls didn’t seem to notice as they created a bonfire down on the back paddock and toasted marshmallows on the campfire. I went back to the tent and tried to get dry and warm.

We camped again the following year but this time we camped in the house. It was nearly finished and much warmer than a tent.

I haven’t been camping since and don’t feel the need to as I have my house in the country and I am quite happy camping there!

Moving to the country

When we purchased the land we had to decide what to do with it. Our first thoughts were to build a small cottage and use it as a weekender. As we spent more time out there we wondered why wait? Let’s move now! If we could possibly get there within two years our kids could go to the local high school. They would have a country upbringing during their teenage years. The district was growing and we could be involved in what was happening in our village. A bit naïve and idealistic but let’s give it a go. We could always sell up and move back to the city.

As for this move to the country, my friends could not believe I was going to do this. I was not exactly Country Woman material. I didn’t like cooking and was not very good at it. I couldn’t knit, sew or make jam and didn’t even know how to make scones! My girlfriends were in shock because my plan was to retire to an inner city apartment where cafes and restaurants were on my doorstep allowing me to go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner and there would be no gardens to worry about. There was talk of building a chook pen and buying a couple of cows. Oh my god, I was scaring myself!

We knew nothing about living in the country. My only knowledge was from holidays at my Granny and Grandad’s farm when we were kids. My sister and I would get up early and go to the milking shed with Grandad. Granny would have the wood stove going and cook lots of delicious cakes and scones and Dad would always take us to the outside toilet in case there were spiders in there. I did religiously watch A Country Practice and Blue Heelers and learned about village life from Midsomer Murders and Heartbeat! We would need to be more organised as the local shops are 16 km away and the Hyperdome 100 km. There is no take-away food delivery in the village and I refused to think about the dirt roads and wildlife!

Luckily we only have about 500 metres of dirt road to drive on. The fact that we have two acres of land with nothing on it and we needed to plant trees and create gardens was not even on my radar. There is lots of green grass as our land has been a cow paddock for decades. Our neighbours have beautiful properties with gorgeous gardens. We saw the photos of when they started on their bare blocks and eventually ours will look like theirs with lots of trees and gardens – in about twenty years time maybe!

Our land is on what used to be Falls Farm and there is a beautiful waterfall not too far away. I have only been down to the Falls once and will not be going again. Our real estate agent took us down there when we were looking at the land. Peter and the girls had been many times when they were camping but I had not had that pleasure. Walking along the narrow dirt track where you had to fight your way through the overgrown bush on one side and make sure you didn’t fall over the cliff on the other side was not my idea of fun.

When we started the process of figuring out what type of house we wanted we had no idea. Would we go for transportable, relocatable or kit home or have a house built? We spoke to the bank, builders, the council and looked at every web site on the internet and were bombarded with brochures in the mail.

We decided a kit home would not be a good idea, as we knew nothing about building a house. Peter certainly discounted the idea of living in a shed on the land while we built the house, as he didn’t relish years of camping with me! We finally chose a builder and designed our country cottage. Majors Creek is a historic gold mining village and most of the houses date back to those days. We wanted a house which would fit into the village and decided to build a weatherboard cottage with a wrap around verandah and a tin roof. It would be a thoroughly modern house inside and we would have a long hallway and a large kitchen/living area and timber floors.

Peter drove each time we went to Majors Creek and he had to do all the paperwork for the purchase, development application, builder’s contract and all the purchases we had to make. He also had to fill out all the forms for my doctor and hospital visits. I had trouble choosing items for the house because I could not see them clearly. All the carpet looked the same in the shop and choosing paint and colours for the walls and roof was challenging. Choosing all our plumbing fittings was fun because they all looked the same to me!

We loved visiting our block. With all the chaos happening in our lives it was lovely to just sit on the grass with only the sound of the birds and the cows around us. It was often very cold and we would take our thermos of coffee and our blanket and rug up and enjoy the peace. It became harder and harder to leave each time and we could not wait to get started on our house. We would wander around and measure up everything and plan where the veggie patch and chook run would go. Watching our house come to life was very exciting. We camped in the house for the Folk Festival. We had walls and windows and part of the floor down and it was fun to set up the camp kitchen in the kitchen. The house was also a lot warmer than a tent!

Getting Help

The loss of vision in my ‘good eye’ was gradual and it wasn’t untiI I was finding it harder to be at work and do simple things like the grocery shopping that I realised I should do something about it. We made an appointment to see my GP as I wanted a referral to another eye specialist. My specialist was telling me my eye was improving but everything was getting worse and I was losing sight in both eyes. Dr Rowe was stunned at my lack of sight. He asked me to stand against the door and look over at the opposite wall, and tell him what I could see. I couldn’t see anything and then realised there was actually an eye chart there. He was shocked by my lack of vision and made an emergency appointment at the Canberra Eye Hospital. After seeing one of the doctors I left with my eye padded. During the last eighteen months whenever my eye needed to be padded, I had one good eye and could still see enough to get around but this time my vision was very poor and it was very scary. During the night I woke up with a very sore eye and ended up sitting in a chair for the night because I couldn’t lie down. Mid morning I took the pad off and my eye was red and watery and I knew I was in a bit of trouble. Peter rang the Eye Hospital and made an appointment with Dr Kate Reid.

She started making plans for me. A contact lens bandage was put on my eye to protect it and help it heal. She told me about an optometrist in Civic who has contact lenses which don’t actually sit on the cornea but on the white of the eye and that helps the cornea to heal and also helps with vision and gave me the names of two specialists in Sydney who she thought would be able to help. It was a really positive appointment and Dr Kate explained that the window to my right eye was damaged. The cornea surface will heal but there was some scarring that was causing the problem with the vision. Another transplant may be able to fix it, but that was something for the surgeon to decide. She explained that the left eye’s window was OK but there was a lot of damage behind the window. It is like a cork plugging up the line of vision, and surgery will be needed to unplug it. During the last eighteen months this wasn’t explained to me and I was under the impression my left eye cornea was healing after the graft detached.

I walked out of there feeling that a load had been lifted from my shoulders and I knew I had found my new eye specialist.

I took leave from work and then started to figure out how we were going to get through this. I was in a bit of trouble and needed to make some adjustments to my life.

While all my eye dramas were happening we were making big changes in our lives. We had decided to buy the block of land in Majors Creek, build a new house and sell up in Canberra. Peter changed jobs and he was going to be travelling a fair bit, we had two teenage daughters who we were going to uproot from the city and move to a small country village and I was menopausal and nearly blind. There is never a good time for this stuff!

Losing Vision

For years, Peter and the girls had been going camping at the Majors Creek Music Festival. When they came home from the first trip he told me how beautiful the area was. A couple of years later they invited me to join them. My response was ‘ok, but I’m not camping!’ My home for the weekend was a lovely B&B in Braidwood. Majors Creek was gorgeous and I understood why Peter loved it so much. I still wasn’t going to camp there. Each night I drove back to my beautiful Victorian bedroom, had a shower and was able to go to the toilet in the middle of the night without having to get out of the tent, take a torch and find my way to the portaloo miles away from the cow paddock Peter and the girls were camping in.

He came home from the festival a few years later and said there was some land for sale and maybe we should consider buying a block? We visited Majors Creek a number of times during the next couple of weeks and while driving down one weekend I noticed something pretty dramatic was happening with my eyes. As we were driving the lines on the side of the road were double and the cars coming towards us were a little strange with my eyes seeing one car on top of the other.

At an emergency appointment the next day, the eye specialist told me. ‘Double vision is not a visual problem - you probably have a cyst or a brain tumour. You need to see a neurologist.’

‘Oh my God, I am going to die!’ was my initial response.

This was a very scary time. I had an initial x-ray and an appointment with a neurologist. As nothing showed up on the first x-ray and my double vision was getting worse I was sent to have an MRI scan. One possible diagnosis was MS. We looked into this and told ourselves if this were the case we would figure out how to deal with it. I had two appointments cancelled because of problems with the machine and even though the time frame for all this was only two and a half months it felt like an eternity before my brain was given a clean bill of health and I was told there is probably something wrong with my eyes. By this time the vision in my left eye was really poor.

While I was seeing the neurologist and waiting to have scans, I was also regularly seeing my eye specialist and as I was not able to drive now, this meant catching the bus, which took two hours each way. The diagnosis I was given was that my cornea graft had detached but was settling down again. The surface of my cornea was continually in distress and was sore and I had lots of emergency appointments. The staff at the eye clinic would just slot me in when they heard my voice on the phone. My eye often needed to be padded for a couple of days to help it heal. On one really bad day I caught a taxi home and cried all the way home. The poor taxi driver was very concerned and helpful but I’m sure he was glad to deliver me safely into the care of my neighbours.

Eighteen months later I lost the vision in my ‘good eye’, and life became even more challenging. It was at this time that I started to record a journal of my experiences and emotions. When I started talking into the tape I was surprised by how emotional I was and knew my days of pretending that everything was ok were over.

Life with new eyes

The phone rang. ‘It’s Peter Malone from work.’ We both worked at the Civil Service Association of WA and knew each other vaguely. I tried to convince Peter it was too difficult to start seeing each other because of the work situation but he persisted and we started having lunch together. Soon we were heading out for dinner and the movies.

Our courtship was interrupted by the phone call from Dr Barrett. While I was in hospital Peter was a regular visitor and his support and care made my life much easier during the recovery period.

A few months after my surgery Peter was going away for two weeks on business and would be away for my birthday. He had arranged for us to have dinner before he left at the ‘Loose Box’, one of Perth’s top restaurants. During dinner he gave me my birthday present – two tickets to a Jimmy Barnes concert that was going to be on while he was away. I was a huge fan and loved the present but while we were waiting for dessert he asked.

‘Will you marry me in January?’

The waiter bought over a bottle of Moet and Chandon for us and I discovered the staff had been waiting all night for him to pop the question!

When I walked down the aisle six months after surgery with my new cornea to marry Peter my vision wasn’t great but it was good enough to see him waiting at the end for me! I had always thought that on my wedding day I would have contact lenses which I had practised wearing for months or be wearing my glasses. It had never crossed my mind it would happen with neither.

It was a bit weird seeing our wedding photos. In all the photos from milestones in my life I was wearing my ‘coke bottle’ glasses and never in my wildest dreams did it occur to me that technology and wonderful doctors and donors would be able to give me a permanent contact lens.

I was still on the waiting list for the second operation when Peter and I wanted to move on to the next era of our lives and become parents. As we had no control over the timing and I didn’t want to be pregnant or have a young baby when the call came, weekly calls were made to Dr Barrett’s secretary Carole to check my progress on the list. I’m sure they bumped me up the list to stop me calling.

The second operation went as well as the first and as this was the second time going through this whole procedure it wasn’t scary at all. It was exciting and because the result was so good the first time there was never any doubt about the success of this one. For the first time in my life I had ‘normal’ vision. My friends and family watched as my confidence grew as I ‘came out’ from behind my thick glasses. I don’t know how but I had not realised the impact my low vision had made to the way I lived my life. It was a time of change!

We settled into our new life and lived in the little cottage Peter had purchased the year before. It wasn’t long before our family grew and we welcomed Caitlin in 1993 and Emily in 1994.

Having two children so close in age was a challenge and over the years we had lots of challenges and lots of fun. Because they were so close in age they liked playing the same games and similar toys. Dolls, prams and cradles were favourites. They loved playing on the swings and in the sandpit and of course made a mess whenever they could. One legendary story is the talcum powder incident when Caitlin was two and Emily one. I was doing something in the kitchen and after a while realised they were pretty quiet and went looking for them. I found them in Caitlin’s room and they were white – as was the whole room! A tin of talcum powder had been shaken all over them and the room. I didn’t know what to do - laugh or cry and decided to get the camera! We have a couple of great photos that we absolutely love of our talcum powder covered girls!

We travelled to Melbourne, Broome and Margaret River. These trips were major events and Peter got used to the amount of luggage we needed to take each time!

During a business trip to Melbourne in 1996 Peter was approached to apply for a job. It would be a great professional move for Peter and a chance for us all to experience living in a different city. The job in Melbourne didn’t eventuate but he was offered one in Canberra. We had been ready to move to Melbourne and Canberra was better – not such a big city.

The decision to leave family and friends at this particular time in our lives was not taken lightly but in the end we thought it was worth a try and if it didn’t work out we could always go back to Perth.

On August 7^th 1996 our family moved to Canberra to start a new chapter of our lives.

Cornea transplants change my life

It would be eighteen months before Dr Barrett called. Peter and I were heading over to Rottnest Island for the weekend. As I was on a transplant waiting list my doctor had a list of phone numbers to contact me. When we arrived there was a message from my sister.

‘Phone Dr Barrett.’

I couldn’t believe it when he said. ‘Matching tissue is available. Can you be in hospital Monday?’

I told him where we were and asked. ‘Do we need to come home?’

‘Stay and enjoy your weekend but we need you Monday afternoon.’

Oh my God, this was actually going to happen!

I phoned mum and my sister and then Peter did what every supportive boyfriend should do – took me to the bar at the Quokka Arms and ordered alcohol!

We spent the weekend wandering around the island and talking about what this would mean for both of us. We had been going out for a while and this event was going to be a turning point for us. We talked about the surgery and how we would manage my recovery. I phoned my boss to tell him I would not be in for about six weeks and I was sorry for not giving more notice. He knew that I would not have much time when tissue became available but like me had probably thought it would never happen.

Mum was not very happy about the surgery. She was frightened because this was a really big operation and she was worried I might lose the small amount of vision I had. This worried me too but I was in my thirties and my vision had been a problem for so long, and would continue to be for the rest of my life, it was worth trying something different.

My surgery was successful and each time the bandages were removed the doctors were very excited by the results. During my stay in hospital, the counsellors asked me.

‘How do you feel about the surgery being made possible through tissue donation?’

I have been asked this question a lot over the years. My response has always been.

‘I will be forever grateful to the family who during one of the worst experiences of their life made a decision which gave me one of the best experiences in my life.’

I still remember wearing ‘normal’ sunglasses when mum drove me home from hospital and I could read the number plates on the cars in front of us and see all the road signs! We were driving on the Kwinana Freeway and even now I can remember the thrill of that drive home. I had only had one eye done and was not wearing glasses. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like with two new eyes! There were a lot of follow-up appointments and mum drove me to the hospital each time. As we were often in the doctor’s surgery for a few hours we were both interested in the progress of other patients in the waiting room and there was one lady in particular who had her surgery the same day as mine. She was reading books and sewing while she waited. I wasn’t doing anything! I was too scared to put any strain on my eye at all in case I did some damage. I was not surprised when she suffered some setbacks with her recovery and I hoped she would take more care. Mum was very relieved my surgery and recovery had gone so well and Dr Barrett was very happy with my progress. Within months I was back on the waiting list for the next one and waiting for the phone call!

As the weeks went on it was important for me to regain my independence. I was very lucky with great family and friends around me to help during the early days after my surgery. Eventually I was able to do some limited driving and catch buses to work and my appointments. Going back to work was interesting as my job was in the Accounts Department and often I would put on my old glasses to manage some of the fine work I needed to look at. It meant I was out of focus a lot because my new eye did not need the glasses but the other one did!

One day, while on my way to see Dr Barrett for a check up, the woman who sat next to me on the bus told me about her daughter whom she was going to visit in hospital. Her daughter was having a cornea transplant the next day and they both were feeling a bit scared. She mentioned that Dr Barrett was her daughter’s eye specialist. I told her my story and how good Dr Barrett was and how well he looked after his patients. When we parted at the hospital she told me she was glad to have met me and I think it was then that I realised the importance of what had happened to me. The organ donor program was not only saving lives with the hearts, lungs and kidneys, it was changing lives by giving us the gift of better sight as well!