If anyone told me years ago that in the year 2020, my husband would go blind and then oh, there is a global pandemic and we would be quarantined at home for months… all while being pregnant with baby #2, I would think they were crazy. But here we are!
For us, this chaos began on our 4 year wedding anniversary. On March 11, Kit began to notice that the “floaters” he was seeing in his left eye for a few days would turn into total blackness. He described it as feeling like a black curtain in his eye. After seeing our amazing friend and optometrist, she referred Kit to see a retina specialist later that evening. We actually had our 14-week OB appointment that afternoon, then proceeded to the specialist. So being at our 3rd doctor’s office of the day, you can imagine we were so drained. After finally getting called back to a room (he was the last patient being seen that day), a few minutes of poking and magnifying Kit’s eyes, the doctor gave us shocking news: he had retinal detachment in his left eye and a retinal tear in his right eye- both of which had to to be treated right away or else yes, he would go completely blind. The retinal detachment in his left eye meant that he would need to go into major eye surgery within a few days. Both of us were trying to hold back tears and process this information, and so many thoughts we had. Would Kit’s vision return? It was not a guaranteed thing. How would we afford this? Needless to say, we were so unsure of how to deal with all of it, but we just proceeded to follow the guidance of the doctor and to leave it in God’s hands. The very next day, Kit was scheduled for retinal detachment surgery. We were told that because he would have a gas bubble inserted in his eye to reinforce the retina to reattach and heal onto the wall of the eye, he would have to lie face-down constantly for one-week straight. This would be such a strain on our life. Kit would be out of work for weeks, and he was restricted from flying and traveling to any different altitude that may cause the gas bubble to burst and/or retina to detach again. There were so many fears and unknowns.
Right then, God seemed to work his magic on us. Covid-19 became widespread and forced us into stay-at-home orders, further closing Arizona schools for the rest of the year. Kit would be spared from missing work the days he was supposed to be on medical leave and then return to work doing distance learning from home when he was cleared. I continue to work, but the Cardiologist office I work for put me on very part-time basis in order to limit my exposure to the virus since I am pregnant. The world was turned upside down before our eyes, but for us, in a sense it would be a dream come true. We could spend every day together as a family.
It is 2 months post-surgery today and thank goodness, my husband’s vision has returned and according to his doctor, his eye has healed better than expected. We are still in the midst of this scary pandemic, and we miss our family and friends like crazy. Keluna, with the socialite, high-energy that she has misses playing with friends at daycare and at church and is absolutely tired of spending day in and day out with us. We miss dining at restaurants, browsing at Target for things we don’t need, or simply strolling the grocery aisles in peace with no fear. But this situation we were put in has really put our lives into perspective. It made us appreciate all the little things and further motivated us to do everything we can to live our life to the fullest even in the confines and restriction of our humble home.
In quarantine, I decided to put my best foot forward and finally launch this blog that I have been striving, but failing to start for years. I’m vowing to throw all excuses out the door. Life is so delicate, and we don’t how much of it we have left. Our toddler is growing and changing every single day before our eyes and soon, we will become parents of two. There is no better time than now to start turning our million dreams into reality. And we hope that you will join us for the ride!
