The day started like any other for Brenda Coulter.
It was June of 2014, but as she drove into work along
the highway, she couldn't have imagined the long road that
actually lay ahead. A leaf spring off a truck was flying through the air,
and it, like a boomerang and it came through my windshield,
and it hit me in the face.
Brenda lost her left eye, and needed more than one dozen surgeries to
rebuild she crushed skull and facial bones, which are now three quarters
titanium. It's been a crawl, and it's been
quite an experience healing.
And she says, quite an experience dealing with the reaction of others. Because you know, I'm disfigured.
People stare. People are very kind, I can't say I've had
anything negative, but I also don't want to be
sort of look different so much all the time.
To fill her empty left eye socket, Brenda was fitted for an adhesive prosthetic
in 2015, a solution she describes as problematic.
The current process is so long.
And that's if I get it in right, you know. VIsually, I don't always see so it doesn't
sit right, and if it gaps or you know the eye
is looking a little bit where it shouldn't.
Hi Brenda! Hello!
In 2016, she learned she was eligible for
a better solution: having head and neck surgeons implant
specialized screws into the delicate bone around her eye. These screws would
hopefully be strong enough to secure magnets into her eye socket,
enough to hold a new prosthetic in place, drastically improving
her quality of life. It is going to make my life so
easy. The idea of just getting up and snapping my prosthetic
into place, I can't begin to tell you enough.
Several surgeries were needed,
but after months of healing, Brenda was finally ready for the next step:
being fitted with her new magnetic eye prosthesis.
This stage of her treatment was done in Sunnybrook's Craniofacial Prosthetic
Unit, an innovative program offered through the Department of Dentistry.
I'm actually going to start fitting it.
Anaplastologist David Morrison
spent months working with Brenda and her care team over the course of
her treatment planning and surgeries. In the final two week process,
where medicine and artistry intersect, he created a perfectly
fitting custom prosthesis made of silicone, designed to capture
Brenda's character, match her skin tones and move
with the contours of her facial movements. As Brenda has limited vision,
the prosthesis was designed to fit quickly and easily.
It goes in that way and it will find itself,
it will hop in. So,
for the first time,
let's get this snug, snap and snap.
Done!
How does it feel? Awesome! Like it's a part of me.
It just snugs right in there. It doesn't
feel foreign at all. And have you had a look at it?
No! i'm going to do that right now.
Wow! That looks great. Absolutely great!
It's taken something I needed forty five
minutes to an hour, and that's if I got it right the first time, to probably
three minutes. It's going to be easier than putting on a
pair of earrings, you know? There it goes
and I look in the mirror and wow, my face is whole. Ya, you made like an eyelid here,
the fold, everything about it. She says
she's happy to get to the end of this long road, once she's leaving with more
indepdendence and confidence. She hopes sharing her story
will help make others aware of the resources that are available. If it can
make your life for you inside feel better,
and more whole, why not?
With Sunnyview, I'm Monica Matys.