When she was six months old, Stephanie Goese was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma.
“I have really no vision in my left eye, and my right eye has always been the only one with vision,” says Goese, of Roseville, Minn. “It has always been a fear in my life of losing that one good eye.”
When she developed a cataract in her right eye, Goese’s cornea in that eye also failed, and she needed a cornea transplant.
“I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t work, I couldn’t help my kids with homework. My life was very solitary even though I was surrounded by friends and family.”
Although 95 percent of cornea transplants are successful, Goese’s first transplant was not effective, and she needed to have a second transplant with tissue recovered, evaluated, and distributed by Iowa Lions Eye Bank.
“It is a big act of trust that you put into your surgeon, to have part of your body removed and replaced with a part of somebody else’s, but the outcome can be incredibly life changing,” Goese says. “It’s a big scary step when you’re considering it, but in the end, I’m so glad I did it.”
Now, several months after the second transplant, Goese is driving and doing everything that she wants to do.
“To be in my garden this summer made everything worth it,” Goese says. “To be out there and able to independently garden and not ask my husband if this was a weed or whatnot, to see that was a really big deal.”
Goese also is back to work as a nurse practitioner in palliative care.
“I was off work for about five months,” Goese says. “It was a really long time in the doldrums of winter and a lot of stress, but I’m so incredibly grateful to be back at work.”
Goese says it’s hard to articulate just how grateful she is to her cornea donor.
“Thank you never seems like quite enough,” Goese says. “I understand that biologically this is a small layer of tissue and thin layer of cells, but it has changed my life.”