2010

Impending blindness doesn't By Cheryl Owens Appeal Staff Writer ''I

Blaylock said that twen– ty years ago. the cause of the disease was not known. but now. dO<'tors believe it rna) be ~neti<·. "We haYe ti-aced mine on my mother's side to other people. one older, one youngt'r." Blaylock says. "I'm the one that had the most problems, eye rub– bing, allergies and environ· menL .. increased light sen– sitivity, which I suffer from now." Blaylock rememlfers ha\'ing trouble driving at night when she was in her

brake shoes for this em·''? \Yell. I wa" slumming on the brake.c;, I was pcti·ified." Aftl'r she was diag– nosed, the intense pain kickE.'d in almost immE.'di– atelv. she snvs. 'The cornea was coning and there was tremendous pain, keeping hct· from get– lingout in thC' light. "During this time I got married, fout• ycut·s latet· I became pregnant and went into a hormonal Hhift I hat caused my l'ight eye to I'Up– ture," she recalls APboneCall

ht1d cataruct surgt>ry in Hl!l6, and in 1997 both of my cornea tran:.– plants buckled, causing a \Win– kle," she says. "Jn 1999, as I was singing in church. I g-ot •·cady to finish and I tn1·ned to walk and only saw while spots. It would come and go, but in one eye it stayed," she says. "I thought ro myself . 'nell this is it. ' I knew it was

7

The eyes are t!Jc win–

dow to the soul.

This sayin~ ma~ ha.Ye a truer meaning to tho~c who are fortunate enough know Vicki Blaylock of Nc\\ion. Blaylock has 'ke1·ata conus', a disease affccling the cornea of the ew. "I was first dia!.,~OSC'd in 1982 when I was at D<'itu State," Blaylod\ told the Newton Lion's 'lub lust week. "My disea"e ottaeks the cornea of the eye muking it go into a cone shupC', like the end of u foothall." She went to fin- dortors that year before being- find– ing one who could help her. One '

I never give up Vickie Blaylok

coming and I am going blind, and the best place to go blind, I guess, was in church. That was when I found out I had glaucoma." Eyeing the Future In 2000, Vicki startt>d te1whing voice and music theory at Ecce. where she serves as the choral and vocal music direetor. "I was having trouble seeing the back of the classroom and ''as seeing bluJ·ry," she says. said. "I went to sec the doc·tor and told him he had to fix this. He said 'I told you you prolr ably wouldn't teach but about 10 or 13 years. so be tlumkful mtd go home.' "I got so mad. " she recalls. "I told him, ·r don't give up- I never have and never'' ill.' I \Hllked out of there determined to find help :somewhere." Rla~1()('k now weal'S pig– gyba ks, a type of mu.ltifo– ml lt•ns. "I litt•mllv have mirac·Jc <·yc sight,'' 'Blaylock said - "Tht> heartb•·eak of the dis– easf' iH T rn~y pass it down.

last year in college.

That fle(•cmber, she had She remembers 1-,retting a phone call from hct· doC'tor, saying that he had some g-ood news and bad news , "I told him to tell me the bad first." suyR Vi<'ki "He said, 'we m·c not doing )'OUI' tnmRplunl in the rn01·ning- Wt> !ll't' post– poning it for· a week," she says of the call. "The good new..; is the tissues of the coi'llNl they flew in from Tcxa.c;; t~t('d posithe three time fot• AIDS and we are not going to put it in yom· eye. That was WSU." Since then. she has had two transplants untl uses sh:•roid drops to kl~ep her from rejecting the ti·nns- plants. The steroids have ulso to hm·e surg-ery.

"I knew the town like the back of my hand. but could– n't sec the road well enough to turn in so I would slam on my brakes," she says. "My dad asked me, 'why do I have to keep having to buy

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