History of my eyes

Starting school for me was life changing in many ways. My grade one teacher made an observation that would have a major impact on our family and my life. Miss Taylor noticed I was having trouble seeing the blackboard and called my parents to tell them I was ‘squinting’ at the blackboard and she thought it would be worth having my eyes tested. The eye specialist mum and dad took me to see was Dr Lamb, and he diagnosed cataracts. It was an unusual diagnosis for a child my age and to this day there is no explanation why I had cataracts. No one else in my family had eye problems.


I had surgery to remove the cataracts from both eyes and during the next ten years a number of surgical procedures were needed to enlarge the pupil. These were called ‘needlings’ and required me to stay a couple of days in hospital. I have a very clear memory of being in the playroom at Princess Margaret Hospital at the time of one of the cataract operations. Dr Lamb came to see me and told mum I could go home. When she told me I was very upset as I was on the rocking horse and didn’t want to leave!


After my initial surgery I started wearing very thick ‘coke bottle’ glasses and wore these for the next 25 years. The glasses from my childhood belong in a museum. This was during the 1960s and 70s and my glasses were not the lovely cool and discreet looking ones we wear now! These were my ‘Dame Edna’ glasses because that was what they were like! Mine were very thick and very heavy and I still have the indent on my nose from those early ones. Of course wearing my thick glasses in those days led to me being teased a lot at school. The most common names were ’four eyes’ and ‘frog eyes’ because my highly magnified glasses made my eyes look huge!


Of course I always had to sit in the front of the classroom to see the board and that didn’t make me feel ‘special’ at all. I felt very self-conscious from a young age and was a shy and introverted child and teenager. I hated playing sport at school because in those days winter sport was hockey and summer sport was softball. That meant hard balls being thrown very fast or hit very hard and as I was not the most coordinated person in the world all I remember is how terrified I was of being hit in the face and having my glasses smashed! I did play netball and didn’t find that as terrifying as the other games. Swimming carnivals were a nightmare as of course without my glasses I couldn’t see very well, and that is probably why I was often last in my races - I couldn’t see the end of the pool!


Dr Lamb retired when I was in my early teens and I was then under the care of Dr Michael Walsh. At various times during my teenage years he suggested we try contact lenses but these experiments didn’t go well. They were always uncomfortable and I never adapted very well to wearing them and my parents eventually decided they were not for me. During the mid-1980s Dr Walsh talked about cornea transplants and how he thought my eyesight problems would make me a suitable candidate for the surgery but for me it was just too scary and I kept saying no.


In 1989 I finally gave in and agreed to see Dr Barrett at the Lions Eye Institute at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital and hear what he had to say, but I wasn’t going to do this! The minute we met I knew this was for me and was put on the waiting list for a cornea transplant.