I used to love gardening a lot. One Monday morning in April 2004,after a weekend of hard gardening work one of my eyes felt slightly itchy. I did not take much notice. By the next day the itchiness intensifie, the eye developed redness any felt a bit sore, similar to conjunctivitis. I washed it with salty water and applied some mild eye ointment around it.
By Friday when I woke up it had become unbearable. Before my young people left for university they said to me firmly “Mummy if we come back and meet you in this condition we will take you to the hospital.” Later that morning when the pain had intensified and vision was very poor, I summoned the courage and went to the Accident and Emergency Unit at Croydon University Hospital. After doing lots of examinations, I was sent for a chest X-ray, given pain killers, drops to use over the weekend and told to report back on Monday. The assurance given was that once the X-ray result was received they would be in a better position to make proper diagnosis and recommend treatment.
Luckily the results were ready when I got there on Monday. I underwent intense examination by different doctors who I could tell were baffled by their observations. Being that I had only recently relocated from West Africa they asked lots of questions to get some historical background and medical history. I was given a set of eye drops, sent home and told to report the following day. Except this time I should come with an overnight bag in case I had to be admitted. When I got there on Tuesday they took one look into the eye and directed me to Admissions.
By this time my vision from that eye was similar to what a ‘black and white film negative’ (of yesteryears before instant camera) looked like. I was convinced I was losing sight in that eye. I was admitted for 9 days at Croydon University Hospital, the treatment both orally and intravenously, were intense, and the care was superb.
Before discharge, the brilliant Consultant whose name I will never forget and who I found out later was world renowned, told me that I was suffering from Toxoplasmosis infection of the eye. It is a condition that affects the back of the eye. The organism may have been remnants from a cat’s pooh that was in the soil and I must have rubbed my eye with a contaminated ‘gardening hand’ – the things not washing hands thoroughly can do as we are seeing with COVID-19 infections. He told me it can never be cured and it could flare-up from time to time so I have to take necessary precautions. Most importantly we agreed that since I know what to see and feel, when I start to experience them I should go straight to A&E.
I was given a bagful of tablets and eye drops to take home. The medications were so many and times to administer were quite varied. So I developed a medication time table and put it on the wall and used a timer as a guide. The tablets were many and though the doses were high, except for the steroids that caused puffiness on my face I took them all as specified and was lucky not to experience any serious side effects from the others. The first flare-up happened 6 years later in 2010 and subsequent flares-up every 2-3 years. In 2017 a Consultant warned me not to eat raw meat as research had indicated that the blood of the meat in a sufferer’s system could trigger flare-ups. I have since stopped tasting meat until cooking is complete.
Indeed Toxoplasmosis killed my joy of gardening. Once in a while when it is not windy, I wear protective glasses to do light work. Please google Toxoplasmosis and learn more. I say a big ‘Thank You’ to Croydon University Hospital for saving my eye and together with Moorfields Eye Hospital for facilitating regular check ups particularly when I am on the border line for Glaucoma. Have also since had successful cataract surgery done on that same eye. May the hands, minds and focus of all Surgeons continue to be blessed.Amen!
by Sylvia
from Wellbeing You
