Saturday, March 31, 2012

Life Update

Some of you may be reading this because you were directed here after I posted my YouTube video. Some of you will be like, "I have no idea why you're updating me, I barely know you." Let's start from the beginning shall we?

Before there was Amy's Beauty Basics, there was amylynnxo on YouTube. I was a regular and avid poster and follower of all things beauty on YouTube. I posted tutorials of looks I used to wear on the regular. Then something changed. I began having some issues with my vision, I just couldn`t quite place what was wrong. I went to 3 different specialist before I was informed I had "presumed ocular histoplasmosis" and it was unclear if I would ever see out of my left eye again. That news sent my world crashing down; I was 21 at the time and your telling me I'm legally blind in one eye. After I stopped letting myself get depressed and feel sorry for myself, I decided I would see what we could do to potentially fix it.

The next few months I underwent a series of intra-ocular injections of Avastin, a medicine generally used in Cancer patients to shrink the size of their tumours. I had a mass of blood vessels in the middle of my retina, the doctor thought this might be the cause of the blindness. A couple hundred dollars, half a dozen injections and a whole lot of discomfort later, the mass had shrunk a bit but my vision had yet to improve. The doctor presented me with the next step in treatment, eye surgery. May I just inform you now that when you under go eye surgery, you're wide awake? I'm sure most of you feel just as awesome as I did about that.

I had the surgery in August of 2011. The doctor informed me that there was a 3 month recovery time during which we would like see no improvement to my vision. Three months came and passed with no good news. We made another appointment for another three months later in hopes that something would happen.

Well, as you may have guessed I just had my 6 month post-op appointment. The news wasn't anything I hadn't realized already. My vision hadn't improved, but hadn't gotten worse. We've done all we can do. It seems pretty blunt and hopeless, but I do hope that one day in the future medical advances will allow me to see with my left eye again. Until then, I will live as I have been these past few months.

It is getting better. Living with my vision impairment, that is. When I was fist diagnosed I used it as an excuse to stop doing things I loved to do, to stop living. Which is why I stoped making YouTube videos. I am getting better at functioning, so hopefully one day soon I'll be able to produce a brand new make up tutorial!? This seems like a very attainable goal. I can't do things as "perfectly" as I used to, or would like to, but I think I'm doing damn good for what I have.

So there's my little explaination and update. :) Hope everyone else is well, and thanks for taking the time to read this!

Love you!
xx, Ames

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