Home // Corneal Recipients // Katrina Adsit

Katrina Adsit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m a 36-year-old mother of two from Stevens Point, WI. In June of 2023, I developed what I thought was a mild irritation from wearing contact lenses. My symptoms began after a day of kayaking and started out as a dull ache in my left eye with some light sensitivity and tearing. I took my contacts out immediately thinking that this would help, however, after a few days, when things were not getting better, I made an appointment with my eye doctor.

My eye doctor prescribed a steroid eye drop and an antibiotic and told me that things would likely start to improve within a few days.

Unfortunately, things continued to worsen even with those drops, and eventually I was sent to a corneal specialist for further evaluation (I actually saw several specialists during this time) but my pain levels continued to worsen and I began to lose vision in my eye. After 7 excruciatingly painful weeks, a series of doctor appointments and a slew of prescription eye drops (that weren’t helping), I was told I may have something called Acanthamoeba Keratitis.

Acanthamoeba Keratitis is rare but serious infection caused by a single celled organism found in sources of water and soil. (Contact lens wearers are more susceptible to developing this kind of infection as contacts can create micro abrasions on the cornea which allow the organism to make its way into the eye.)

At this point, things were so bad, I was no longer able to drive and had to take an emergency medical leave from work. My husband and I traveled the almost 2 hours to Madison WI to receive treatment at UW. UW was able to complete further diagnostic testing and actually diagnosed me with a corneal fungal infection.

I began treatment for this immediately and continued to travel to Madison for weekly (and sometimes biweekly) appointments.

However, after a few weeks with no real improvement, another set of diagnostic tests had to be completed and these were sent to Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN.

Those tests revealed that I actually had both a fungal infection AND Acanthamoeba Keratitis. This resulted in another change in treatment with even more eye drops.

I spent months laying in the dark in the worst pain I’d ever experienced, needing to put multiple drops my left eye every 2 hours though out the day. I was unable to stand any source of light which made doing pretty much anything near impossible (especially in the middle of summer). It was a very isolating and difficult experience and I struggled to keep up with my mental health.

Finally, with the right diagnosis and on the right medications, things did start to get better. The pain eventually subsided and I was able to go back to work and started putting my life back together.

I still continued treatment for several more months to ensure the infection was gone- but in turn, was left with significant scarring over my left cornea.

In July of 2024 I received a full thickness corneal transplant at UW Surgery Center.

I still have several stitches left in my eye (13 to be exact) and while my vision is still not perfect, my cornea is clear once again and the scarring is gone.

I am so thankful and appreciative for the chance to see again and will forever be grateful for my donor and their family.

I’m also extremely thankful for the Lions Eye Bank of WI and all the amazing work they do to help restore sight !

I know that’s a long story , but it’s my crazy eye experience- feel free to use what you think is appropriate if you’d like!

I also attached two photos: one when my infection was at my worst in August of 2023, and another right after my surgery!

Thank you- Katrina Adsit