The Eye

Yep, just when you thought this roller coaster was starting to coast! Shaney yet again threw a spanner in the works.

Last weekend, on our wonderful weekend away, Shane started to report some visual disturbances. On Sunday, he awoke with an eye bright red and bulging out of his head. It was painful initially, but mostly because he kept rubbing it. As soon he stopped, there was no more pain.

So on Tuesday during his regular visit to his Haemotologist, he mentioned his eye. Dr Curley mentioned that he could see some "floaters" in his eye, but thought he'd send Shane to see the Opthalmologist (eye specialist) for further investigation.

The result: An eye virus.

Who gets a virus in their eye?

Clearly Shane does.

This picture to the right is his right eye. You can see the large patch of white and small clumps of blood vessels around it. This is the viral infection. You can also see how fuzzy the picture is. This means there's a lot of white blood cells "floating" around Shane's eye. This picture was taken on Tuesday when shane's eye pressure was 35 (optimal range being 10-21).

 This picture to the left was taken today. The infection is still present in the same surface area, but the picture is clearer, and from some of the other tests, the Dr can tell there has been some improvement in the thickness of this matter and a reduction in "floaters". Eye pressure today was 19 - finally within normal range.

This picture isn't very clear, but if you look closely, Shane's pupils are different sizes! He has to take some drops each day that prevent him from dilating his pupils to prevent any scaring of the eye tissue. He's just a little freaky to look at!

The virus is a re-activation of the Cytomegalo virus (CMV). If you remember, CMV reared its ugly head just as Shane was due to be discharged back in January.

CMV is treated by Gancyclovir, administered through IV. This treatment is needed for 2-3 weeks depending on how the virus responds.

This means, Shane was admitted back into the RBH, and had another PICC line put into his arm. He is still there today, but we're hoping he may be released early this week, with a pump to take home... Again.

Shane is also seeing the Ophthalmologists daily. Some of these photos are of the equipment they use. Very technical!  


 I thought we had been in just about every ward in the hospital by now. But no, this time, Shane has made it into Wattlebrae - Infectious Diseases. This is due to his VRE. He has a room to himself there, so he's not exposed to others, but the tea room there is open to anyone staying in infectious diseases, which is not ideal for a transplant patient.

Fortunately, Shane has been able to come home on day passes for the last few days. This makes meals much easier for us. Shane is unable to eat the hospital food (how long could you survive on that crap?), and without access to a tea room, it makes life quite tricky for us!

The most stressful part of the week was wondering if he was going to be able to make it to our friends wedding on Friday. He was able to come to the ceremony, but I had to take him back to the hospital for his evening treatment. Thanks so much to Lozzy who became Shaney's doppleganger for the evening! You did a wonderful job channeling "Shaggytron"!

A big congratz to Robby and Katie on their special day. It was a great wedding and really reflected your warm and relaxed personalities! Hope you have an amazing time on your honeymoon!

xx