Page 85 - The Freckled Eye - Book

Dr. Phan came back by and then moved into a room right near my bed, where
she made a call. I listened to see if I could pick up on what was going on. As
I listened, it sounded as if she was talking about a radiation plaque and that
something wasn’t right. I started feeling a bit sick. Had somethings going
wrong again? Was something wrong with my plaque? I thought no way. I
tried to remain calm. Mom and I waited.

Finally Dr. Phan came into my bed area. Her head was dropped down, her
voice was quiet and she said again, “Hi Teri.” I knew at the very moment,
something had happened. Before she could continue, I said, "Dr. Phan…
please don’t tell me somethings wrong again." She said, Teri, I’m sorry, but
there is. I rolled my head back and closed my eyes in shear disbelief. I
began shaking my head. My body started going numb, I felt nauseous and
everything started to move slowly. A feeling I was becoming use to. I thought
to myself, how could this be?

Dr. Phan said that the glue on the radioactive plaque was peeling back and
faulty. I was in shock. I just couldn't believe it. I said, What? The glue? I
couldn’t stop shaking my head. Dr. Phan then pulled out two iPhones. One
of them was an IPhone that had pictures of a patient eye she had just been
working. (Little did I know, at that time, I'm pretty sure that was Ruth’s eyeball
I was looking at.)

Dr. Phan showed me the pictures of the eye and the plaque attached to
it. She pointed to the edges of the plaque curing up. I kind of saw what she
was talking about, but my brain was on total overload. I couldn’t believe this
was happening, again. Dr. Phan continued to tell me that she removed the
plaque from that patience eye and used another plaque in its place. I was
confused when she said that. But moved passed it.

Dr. Phan also shared her theory that she felt the sterilization process was
what was causing the glue to not stabilize properly, during the production of
the plaque. She said I could wait to see if another plaque could somehow be
prepared. I thought to myself, that doesn’t sound like a very good option. I
was still dazed and kept thinking about the other patient who had some other
plaque put on. Did they know? I wanted to ask Dr. Phan, but I was mentally
exhausted at that time and decided to let it go.

Dr. Phan gave me a couple of other treatment options. The first she had
recommended, was that I could go to a different treatment facility in