{"id":6478,"date":"2020-10-13T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T09:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/bibliotheek\/paul-lost-his-eye-when-he-was-hit-by-a-hard-ball\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T15:59:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:59:30","slug":"paul-lost-his-eye-when-he-was-hit-by-a-hard-ball","status":"publish","type":"library_pt","link":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/library\/personal-stories\/paul-lost-his-eye-when-he-was-hit-by-a-hard-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul lost his eye when he was hit by a hard ball"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2020-10-13T11:08:00+02:00\">13 October 2020<\/time><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2008, I met Dafne; we got married, and now we have three beautiful, sweet children. Two boys, Arthur and Simon, and a girl, Sanne. My hobbies are drumming, computers and gadgets, running, and working out. That is, when I have time for them, because with such young children, there isn\u2019t much time left besides my 32-hour-a-week job.   <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How It Happened<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had a blind eye. In early 2015, that eye became burning, red, and painful. After a year of struggling with that eye, I decided to say goodbye to it. I reached out to the OOG in OOG Association because my blind left eye was going to be removed\u2014at least partially. It\u2019s called an <a href=\"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/eye-removal\/eye-removal-surgery\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"717\">evisceration<\/a>.     <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Regular customer at Radboud<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve actually been a \u201cregular patient\u201d at Radboud UMC in Nijmegen since I was a child. I was born with severe nearsightedness\u2014which is hereditary\u2014(my right eye is -18.5 diopters with contact lenses, and with glasses, that goes up to -25). I\u2019m also colorblind. When I was four years old, I lost sight in my left eye after a hard fall, which caused the retina to detach. Surgery couldn\u2019t restore my vision, and my left eye went blind. That\u2019s why I grew up seeing with only one eye. Although this is normal for me, it certainly wasn\u2019t easy. Every year, the ophthalmologist examines my right eye, and sometimes\u2014as a preventive measure\u2014laser treatment is performed to strengthen the retina.       <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1995, the retina in my right eye also detached. Fortunately, they were able to repair it. Otherwise, I would have been blind by now. Over the years, my left eye has become lazy, dull, and developed cataracts. And then, starting in early 2015, I suddenly developed an eye infection on top of that\u2026    <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Online research<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After doing a lot of online research and deciding to have the eye removed, I reached out to the association. I really wanted to speak with people who had been through the same experience. My interactions with the people there turned out to be a real warm welcome. They were very friendly and helpful. The surgery was scheduled for Friday, November 27, and as it turned out, OOG in OOG was holding an <a href=\"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/what-we-do\/meetings\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1131\">Open House<\/a> the week before. Wonderful! I was welcomed, had some great conversations that day, and met some extraordinary people. It gave me strength ahead of my surgery.       <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have to be honest about the surgery. Of course, I didn\u2019t remember a thing, but when I came to, I was in a lot of pain and actually felt very nauseous for the rest of the day. I couldn\u2019t keep any food down. It wasn\u2019t until late at night that I started to feel better, and in the morning\u2014starving\u2014I devoured my breakfast. After that, things just kept getting better and better. My eye looked like I\u2019d boxed ten rounds against Regillio Tuur. In the weeks that followed, the eye was treated with ointment and cared for three times a day by the kind, attentive nurses from the home care service. Some of the home care nurses had never seen anything like this before. It was definitely a learning experience for them.        <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I now wear a prosthesis made by <a href=\"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/ocularists\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"843\">Fr\u00e9derique Bak<\/a>, an ocularist from The Hague. My symptoms have completely disappeared! It turned out that the \u201ceye infection\u201d was actually caused by a completely calcified, floating fragment in my eye\u2014the remnant of what had once been my retina.   <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Natural process<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My kids don\u2019t even notice the difference\u2014whether I\u2019ve taken out my prosthetic, am wearing an eye patch, or have my beautiful prosthetic in. That\u2019s how naturally the process went. Isn\u2019t that amazing! The only thing still going on is a bit of swelling in my eye, which means the prosthetic doesn\u2019t fit quite right yet. So we\u2019re not quite there yet, but I\u2019m glad to be where I am now. It\u2019ll be fine! It\u2019ll just take a little more time.       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I live with my family in Lent, near Nijmegen. I was born in Den Bosch and moved to Nijmegen in 1999 to take a job as a web designer at a company there. I\u2019ve been working at REA College Nijmegen as a web design instructor for 5 years now.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6482,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_daextauttol_enable_tooltips":""},"library_cat":[113],"class_list":["post-6478","library_pt","type-library_pt","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","library_cat-personal-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt\/6478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/library_pt"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"library_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_cat?post=6478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}