Cornea Transplant - looking through the eye of a donor

Three years ago I had a corneal transplant, in many ways it was a life changing experience. Because of an injury I received at birth I had known for many years that one day I would either be totally blind or have to have surgery. So, it came as no real surprise when the decision was made that the time had come for the transplant. The surgery is done as an outpatient, is painless and other than the fact that you are awake the entire time is pretty uneventful. The recovery time is hellish and seems to last forever. The stitches to attach the new cornea remain in your eye for a year or more and every time you blink you can feel them. Needless to say I made it through the surgery and recovery, while life changing this is not what changed me the most.
In order for me to receive a new cornea someone had to make the decision to be an organ donor. Yes, someone had given me the ultimate gift. Before death they made the unselfish decision to donate their organs so that others could have a better life.
When I was told that it was time for the transplant I delayed the surgery for several months in order to get my “mind” right. I am sure most of you will not understand the thought process I had to go through in order to accept this precious gift. All that I could think was – someone has to die so that I can see. While I was grateful that the procedure was available it was still not easy to come to the point that I could accept it graciously. This was not life or death surgery like a heart transplant and I think that maybe why it was so hard for me to accept – I could live with site in only one eye.
After much prayer I did receive the transplant and every day I am thankful to the person that made the decision to be an organ donor.
If you are not an organ donor please consider taking the necessary steps to become one. Thank goodness in death we will not need any of our earthly “parts” but there just might be someone that is still on this journey that does.

Remember Me

"The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.
"When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the Bed of Life and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.
"Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman.
"Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless pain,
"Give my blood to the teen-ager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.
"Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week
"Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a clay to make a crippled child walk.
"Explore every comer of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window.
"Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.
"If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all prejudice against my fellow man.
"Give my sins to the devil, give my soul to God.
"If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you.
"If you do all I have asked, I will live forever!"
-- by Robert N. Test.