I'm Jennifer Lee. Or as I am more commonly known-
- Mommy
- Wife
- Sandwich maker
- Personal Chef (my clients consist of picky eaters)
- Taxi Driver (No, I don't receive any tips)
- Boo boo fixer
- Stain Removal Expert
Oh and don't forget Mrs. "I need this done by tomorrow morning, please make it happen!"
You get the idea.
Outside of being mom, I am a wife to the most wonderful man in the world. His name is Billy. I met my husband 5 years ago and although I'm sure he begs to differ, for me it was love at first sight. Everyone always has an idea of what they think their life will be. Then life lands in your lap. Can you say reality check??? What's that old saying? Something along the lines of, "Life never turns out the way you plan." Or something of that nature. I can DEFINITELY say the life that landed in my lap, is SO not the life I had in mind, but can I tell you something? I wouldn't change one single day of it. Here's our story.
It was November 2011. My now husband was only my boyfriend at the time. (Why does that word always sound so high school? Like adults can't have a boyfriend or girlfriend?) Anyway, I specifically remember him waking up saying, "Man I need to go to the eye doctor, I think I'm getting old." And as every good woman should say, "You're definitely not old, it must be something else." (wink*) What he noticed was a little speck in his right eye. After seeing an Optometrist, they told him his vision was perfect. Things kind of got swept under the rug for a couple of months until it was brought up again. Billy started to explain to me that this speck was starting to grow. At this point, I took matters into my own hands and I found a very reputable retina specialist. A diagnosis was yet to be made and time was ticking as this not so little anymore speck kept growing. About 30 retina specialists all over the US, a couple of neuro-opthamologists (Yeah, I didn't know there was such a thing either) and a couple of neurologists later, my future husband was diagnosed with the first disease that would slowly make him go blind. The first diagnosis - Diabetic Retinopathy. Here's what the dictionary says.
diabetic retinopathy
n. Retinal changes occurring in long-term diabetes and
characterized by punctate hemorrhages, microaneurysms, and sharply defined waxy
exudates.
Of course I'll break that down for you! Basically the blood vessels in his retina grow abnormally, therefore causing the walls of his blood vessels to break and hemorrhage. Then the blood leaks into his eyes. (Yes, both eyes) In a healthy person, the light from the outside world shines in on the retina producing an image. Billys problem? Due to the blood in the eye, light can't reflect, therefore no image can be produced. Which brings me to diagnosis numero dos. (#2, for all of you non spanish speaking folks who are trying to figure out what the heck I just said) - Ischemic Optic Neuropathy.
Ischemic optic neuropathy (ION) is the loss of structure and
function of a portion of the optic nerve due to obstruction of blood flow to
the nerve.
That one is pretty self explanitory.
Fast forward to the part where we got married and lived happily ever after! Not so fast, we have a few bridges to cross first. My now husband, since Feb 2013, has been getting treatments for the past two years for these diseases. I have watched my husband sit in that doctors chair every 3-4 weeks getting a needle full of medication injected directly into the whites of his eyeballs. It does something to you watching his poor little handles clench the arm rests time and time and time again. I wish with my whole entire heart that God would allow me to trade places with him. Hardly a day ever goes by that I don't tell my husband, "If I could take your place I would." And every single time his response is, "I wouldn't let you." All I want is for my husband to be able to look at me and see my face. So far these treatments, have not been a success. Every single day the world around him closes in and gets darker. And every single day I feel like I have this huge giant clock staring me in the face telling me that I'm running out of time. We're now on our last option. At the beginning of the year my husband was accepted into a Stem Cell Treatment program in Bangkok, Thailand. I have spoken with a few people that have had first hand experience with this program. One person in particular, who picked up her whole family and went for her little girl. She has been my saving grace through this experience. We start treatment on the 24th of September and we will be there for 19 days. I will be blogging throughout the entire duration of this trip. Please check in daily for updated progress on how the Stem Cell Treatments are going. I know this story has been quite lengthy, and if there's any of you that have made it far enough to read this without falling asleep, I THANK YOU! The sole purpose of this website and this blog is for people who have had or are currently in our situation. I hope you find hope in knowing that you are not alone. I hope you can look to us as encouragement. I know there's days where you just want to quit, believe me I still do it everyday, but find it in you to keep pushing a little harder and dig a little deeper. Somewhere this all has to come to an end.
- Mommy
- Wife
- Sandwich maker
- Personal Chef (my clients consist of picky eaters)
- Taxi Driver (No, I don't receive any tips)
- Boo boo fixer
- Stain Removal Expert
Oh and don't forget Mrs. "I need this done by tomorrow morning, please make it happen!"
You get the idea.
Outside of being mom, I am a wife to the most wonderful man in the world. His name is Billy. I met my husband 5 years ago and although I'm sure he begs to differ, for me it was love at first sight. Everyone always has an idea of what they think their life will be. Then life lands in your lap. Can you say reality check??? What's that old saying? Something along the lines of, "Life never turns out the way you plan." Or something of that nature. I can DEFINITELY say the life that landed in my lap, is SO not the life I had in mind, but can I tell you something? I wouldn't change one single day of it. Here's our story.
It was November 2011. My now husband was only my boyfriend at the time. (Why does that word always sound so high school? Like adults can't have a boyfriend or girlfriend?) Anyway, I specifically remember him waking up saying, "Man I need to go to the eye doctor, I think I'm getting old." And as every good woman should say, "You're definitely not old, it must be something else." (wink*) What he noticed was a little speck in his right eye. After seeing an Optometrist, they told him his vision was perfect. Things kind of got swept under the rug for a couple of months until it was brought up again. Billy started to explain to me that this speck was starting to grow. At this point, I took matters into my own hands and I found a very reputable retina specialist. A diagnosis was yet to be made and time was ticking as this not so little anymore speck kept growing. About 30 retina specialists all over the US, a couple of neuro-opthamologists (Yeah, I didn't know there was such a thing either) and a couple of neurologists later, my future husband was diagnosed with the first disease that would slowly make him go blind. The first diagnosis - Diabetic Retinopathy. Here's what the dictionary says.
diabetic retinopathy
n. Retinal changes occurring in long-term diabetes and
characterized by punctate hemorrhages, microaneurysms, and sharply defined waxy
exudates.
Of course I'll break that down for you! Basically the blood vessels in his retina grow abnormally, therefore causing the walls of his blood vessels to break and hemorrhage. Then the blood leaks into his eyes. (Yes, both eyes) In a healthy person, the light from the outside world shines in on the retina producing an image. Billys problem? Due to the blood in the eye, light can't reflect, therefore no image can be produced. Which brings me to diagnosis numero dos. (#2, for all of you non spanish speaking folks who are trying to figure out what the heck I just said) - Ischemic Optic Neuropathy.
Ischemic optic neuropathy (ION) is the loss of structure and
function of a portion of the optic nerve due to obstruction of blood flow to
the nerve.
That one is pretty self explanitory.
Fast forward to the part where we got married and lived happily ever after! Not so fast, we have a few bridges to cross first. My now husband, since Feb 2013, has been getting treatments for the past two years for these diseases. I have watched my husband sit in that doctors chair every 3-4 weeks getting a needle full of medication injected directly into the whites of his eyeballs. It does something to you watching his poor little handles clench the arm rests time and time and time again. I wish with my whole entire heart that God would allow me to trade places with him. Hardly a day ever goes by that I don't tell my husband, "If I could take your place I would." And every single time his response is, "I wouldn't let you." All I want is for my husband to be able to look at me and see my face. So far these treatments, have not been a success. Every single day the world around him closes in and gets darker. And every single day I feel like I have this huge giant clock staring me in the face telling me that I'm running out of time. We're now on our last option. At the beginning of the year my husband was accepted into a Stem Cell Treatment program in Bangkok, Thailand. I have spoken with a few people that have had first hand experience with this program. One person in particular, who picked up her whole family and went for her little girl. She has been my saving grace through this experience. We start treatment on the 24th of September and we will be there for 19 days. I will be blogging throughout the entire duration of this trip. Please check in daily for updated progress on how the Stem Cell Treatments are going. I know this story has been quite lengthy, and if there's any of you that have made it far enough to read this without falling asleep, I THANK YOU! The sole purpose of this website and this blog is for people who have had or are currently in our situation. I hope you find hope in knowing that you are not alone. I hope you can look to us as encouragement. I know there's days where you just want to quit, believe me I still do it everyday, but find it in you to keep pushing a little harder and dig a little deeper. Somewhere this all has to come to an end.
HERE'S A SIMULATION OF WHAT BILLY GETS TO LOOK AT EVERYDAY.