I didn’t know the eye specialist who worked on my eye and administered the intravitreal treatment at that private eye clinic at Osu also worked at the Korle bu Eye centre.

The magnificent eye

Fiifi Mensah Opinion Nov - 19 - 2015 , 14:25

“In the past three months, I have come across so many eye clinics, eye doctors, ophthalmologists, optometrists and people with various eye diseases, afflictions and visually challenged people.

I have also been researching literature on the eye and its magnificence, how it works, the various diseases that afflicts this complex optical system that receives light and converts them into vision.

It is not a small undertaking. I have just touched the tip of an iceberg.

Its study is a job for the professionals. My research into the magnificence of the human eye, its problems and diseases have enabled me to comprehend the travails of people struggling to understand their various eye afflictions.

Nowadays, when I come across a visually challenged person, I observe him or her critiically and try to empathise in view of what recently happened to me.

The eye

The statistics on the ailments that affect this slightly less asymmetrical globe which is about an inch in diameter is frightening worldwide. There are about 39 million blind people and 285 million people have low vision and impairment. What galled me was that up to 80 per cent of the world’s blindness is avoidable and that 90 per cent of blind people live in low- income countries.

The problem

A cursory eye examination at an eye clinic sent me on this odyssey to an eye specialist who diagnosed diabetic retinopathy on my right eye.

This eye specialist then sent me to an ophthalmologist at a private clinic, who after administered some painful intravitreal injections that led to the eye being infected or having endopthamitis.

Endoptalmitis is a serious infection and inflammation of the tissues inside the eye due to infection by bacteria or fungi. Mostly, it occurs after penetration of the eyeball from trauma, surgery or spread of an external eye infection into the eye. It is among the most serious complications of eye surgery.

This ophthalmologist then sent me on, perfunctorily to another private clinic to have vitrectomy surgery to deal with the infection which had rendered the right eye not getting any light.

This top-notch clinic’s price to treatment of the condition was prohibitive, an assault on my already weakened financial condition and I baulked and started looking for other cheaper alternative treatment. It has been a long painful journey.

In the process, I have seen so many eye doctors and at one period, I was using five eye drops to try and reduce the infection and the painful inflammation of the eye. Some of the eye drops that readily come to mind include Combigan, Auropent,Normo tears, AIcon and Vigamox.I have since August endured all kinds of pain and depression and a deep longing for my old state.

I had good vision before I went in for this surgery. What also interested me as the prohibitive prices that the ophithalmologist at the private hospitals were charging before they tackle some of these eye problems.

Role of religion

Another area of interest is the role of religion in this saga. When a relative heard about this issue, she called her pastor to come to my house with virtually gallons of oil to pray for me to fumigate my place against all kinds of spiritual attacks and to fast for some days.

I don’t know how to fast and the last time I did some serious fasting was some 10 years ago when I did that in solidarity with a muslim colleague during one of their fasting periods. Another relative also tried to implicate other relatives in this pure venture of an eye procedure that had gone wrong.I have chosen to ignore other bizarre connotations and innuendos. Oh. oh. Even one of the eye specialists asked me to excuse myself from my Sunday work and go to church, read the Bible and also read Pastor Chris’ books for inspiration, and knowledge. I am yet to do so but deep within me, I know I will do it.

Eye diseases

Along the line, my vocabulary has been enhanced by the names of eye diseases such as retinitis, retina detachment, diplopia, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, decreased, distorted and double vision, myopia and macula degeneration.

I had been seeking for a place within my means to come to grips with this inhibitory menace and move on. So the new well-endowed eye clinic that had been opened at the Korle Bu Hospital came in handy and I went there after my company’s doctor had referred me.

Korle Bu

When I got a reference to the Korle bu eye care centre, I didnt know the eye specialist who worked on my eye and administered the intravitreal treatment at that private eye clinic at Osu also worked at the Korle bu Eye centre. So I was overwhelmed when I found him there. What even irked me was when I was asked to go and do some tests at that same private clinic where my ordeal started.

I have not gone there to do the tests and will not. I have also not gone back to the Korle bu eye clinic. I just hope to get this terrible condition treated somewhere, some place or go and see an ocularist