Blue Skies by Catherine Anderson Read Free Book Online

“it only seems wise to call the doctor and ask how a fetus might affect your eyes. Lattice dystrophy is such a rare disease, you just never know.” She quickly tacked on, “Not saying there is a baby, mind you. You’ll just be covering all the bases that way.”
    “Right.” Carly cautiously straightened again. The flush lever on the toilet tank swam in her vision, its metallic glint creating a brilliant, dancing orb. “My focus is all out of whack.”
    Bess leaned over to push a hank of hair from Carly’s eyes. “That help?”
    “No.” Carly pressed her fingers to the base of her throat, closed her eyes, and took several shallow breaths.
    “I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about,” Bess said. “The doctor told you to expect bouts of blurry vision for several months.”
    Carly nodded, recalling the doctor’s warnings that the visual aberrations would frequently incapacitate her for at least three months, making it almost impossible for her to hold down a job or function normally. That was why she’d scheduled the first surgery, called superficial keratectomy or SK, for late May, so the blurry vision and other visual problems would be mostly over before school started in September. Later, because the improvements brought about by SK didn’t last forever, she would probably need another operation.
    A few minutes later Bess led the way to the kitchen, dialed the number of the corneal specialist in Portland, and handed Carly the phone. When the doctor got on the line, he was not pleased to hear that Carly could be pregnant.
    “If you were planning to have a baby, you never should have had the first SK,” he said. “Pregnancy can adversely affect lattice dystrophy and shorten the effectiveness of the procedure.”
    Carly’s eyes throbbed from the recent bout of vomiting, and all she could think to say was, “I see,” which seemed stupid, given the circumstances.
    Merrick sighed. “I should have stressed the dangers of pregnancy more strongly. During one of our talks, you gave me the impression that you weren’t sexually active and pregnancy wasn’t an immediate concern. I planned to go over the long-term instructions in more detail during your six-week checkup.”
    Carly remembered the conversation to which he referred, and he was right; she’d told him that she wanted to be able to see while she was attending grad school so she could have a more normal social life and possibly start dating.
    “Circumstances change,” was all she could think to say. “I didn’t plan the encounter, Dr. Merrick. It just—sort of happened.”
    “I see.” Papers rustled at his end. A brief silence ensued. “If you are pregnant and your condition shortens the life of the SK, I will strongly advise against your having a second procedure until after the child is born.”
    Carly’s headache made it difficult to think. “Are you saying I might go blind again before the baby comes, and you won’t be able to do anything?”
    “If you are pregnant, and the first SK fails quickly, it’ll be a strong indication that your lattice dystrophy will have an adverse effect on any follow-up procedures done during the pregnancy. You can only have so many superficial keratectomies and corneal transplants. Why waste an entire series at a time when your disease is running rampant? You’d be throwing away years of sightedness.”
    Carly understood his reasoning; she just found it difficult to accept. “I definitely don’t want to have more surgeries done while I’m pregnant if they’re just going to fail. That’s why I waited so long to have the first operation, so I’d be sighted when I entered the workforce. I’ll want to see as long as I possibly can.”
    The doctor cleared his throat. “At this point, you’re not positive that you’re pregnant. Correct?”
    “Correct.”
    “It might be wise to go in for a blood test. They’re accurate before a missed menses.” She heard a thump at his end of the line and then the