reputation | care | excellence

A PATIENT STORY

Glenys sees life through a lens

Eye surgery has given a Hampshire mum a new lease of life. Glenys Cookman talks to Sarah Cole from the Southern Daily Echo.

At 35, Glenys Cookman felt her life was falling over. Failing eyesight stopped the mother-of-two from working or ever venturing out at night. As things got steadily worse, she became convinced she would be totally blind by the age of 50. But now, a pioneering eye operation has transformed her life.

From a -23 prescription, the most serious case of short-sightedness her consultant had ever seen, she now has virtually 20:20 vision. Glenys, of Valley Park, Chandler’s Ford, has thrown away her thick bevelled spectacles after undergoing implantable contact lens (ICL) surgery.

ICLs are similar to traditional contact lenses but are placed inside the eye rather than on the surface. The lens works with the eye’s natural lens to change the way light is focussed on the retina.

Recalling how things used to be, Glenys said: “The only way I could see was by wearing glasses with such thick lenses that they needed to be bevelled and left my eyes looking very odd. “I was so self-conscious that I would only wear glasses with sunshades over them so people couldn’t see my eyes. Then during the winter evenings when I couldn’t wear sunglasses outside, I just shut myself away and refused to go out. My normal life virtually ended at 4pm in the evening because of the dark. It was very traumatic. I really was a prisoner in my own home because I was also unable to work. It was absolutely awful and I felt my life had ended.”

Glenys, who lives with partner Paul Joyce and her two daughters Cara, 13, and Rachel, 9, had suffered poor eyesight from birth. As a child, she wore glasses from the age of five but swapped to contacts when she turned 16, when the thick lenses became ‘ridiculous’. But three years ago, she was forced to switch back to glasses following repeated eye infections. By then, Glenys could see virtually nothing if she took her specs off. The TV was just a blurred light, and if someone called at the door she was unable to make out their face.

Too embarrassed to wear her glasses in public, Glenys eventually pleaded with her optician for help – even if it meant paying for private treatment. She was given the number for consultant ophthalmologist Rob Morris, who, after a consultation recommended ICL surgery.

Glenys had her left eye operated on first before returning a week later to have the right one done. Each procedure lasted 15 minutes. “There was no pain and as soon as I sat up in the operating theatre after the first operation I noticed an immediate difference,” she said. “Suddenly the whole theatre had come into focus and I could see Mr Morris’ face. It was like a miracle.”

The surgery cost £2,200 per eye – but Glenys described it as the best investment she has ever made.

Just two days after her final operation, Glenys was back driving a car. She has now returned to work as a cook in a local school and can’t wait to go swimming again, as well as riding her horses without worrying about dust getting under her contact lenses.

Glenys said she would recommend the operation to others – as long as they were careful to chose the right surgeon. “It is important people know about this treatment,” she said. “It has changed my life and it can change the lives of others. “I had reached the stage where I was starting to accept that there would be a time in my life when I would go blind. Just look at me know.”

 

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