Going into the procedure, he knew it was a gamble. Senior Thaine Cook was told there was a 25 percent chance the operation would permanently blind him in his left eye.

He knew the risk. But he took the gamble.

Early in his life, Cook was verbally diagnosed with Asperger’s and ADHD. By the age of 2, he was nonverbal and struggled communicating with others. His eyesight was already a problem, but he did not know how to tell anyone.

“If the surgery had happened at age 3 or 4, they said they had a 90 percent success rate,” said Richard Cook, Thaine’s father. “But the problem was he was uncommunicative about it at that point. He didn’t know how to explain what was wrong with his vision. He didn’t know what normal was.”

As Cook began to get older, his vision worsened. When his left eye started getting weak and forming what is called a “lazy eye,” Cook first started wearing an eye patch when he was almost 8.

In addition, severe migraines set in when he looked out of both eyes at the same time since the images he saw did not connect. Double vision was a constant.

Cook said the vision in his right eye started having “a mind of its own.” A birth defect caused a disconnect between the eye and his brain, so he switched his patch to the right eye.

At age 15, Cook realized surgery was his best option if he wanted to have standard eyesight. It was 2020, however, and so COVID protocol made the already challenging surgery even more stressful for him and his family.

“He had never had surgery or anything like that,” his mom Malinda Cook said. “So as a mother, it was very scary to not be with my child during something like that. I’ve always been there for him.”

After the surgery, Cook was in excruciating pain. Doctors had cut the muscles on the inside of the eye to try to make one closer to the other.

“He wasn’t allowed to have many painkillers because they had to be able to test his eye and we had to be able to put antibiotic drops in his eye,” Richard Cook said. “So he was in pain for a week. Bleeding out your eye socket is not a fun thing.”

Cook’s eyes stayed relatively fixed for only three weeks before they went back to focusing separately, which ultimately caused more pain. Doctors offered to do another surgery to try again, but Cook declined.

“It was a stupidly expensive surgery, and the surgery was ultimately unsuccessful, causing even more pain in the eye,” Cook said.

The doctors also tried various eyeglasses that would force his eyes to work together. No matter how thick they were, they didn’t work. He went back to wearing his eye patch.

Depression started to set in, so Cook tried to focus on his passions. He loves gardening and started raising rabbits as a way to add structure and routine in his everyday life. He spends about 30 minutes to an hour a day tending to the 17 rabbits he owns.

Cook also runs Dungeons and Dragons with his friends every Saturday for about four hours.

“It is my main social outlet and gives me creative freedom,” Cook said.

Growing up nonverbal, Cook used his keenness for computers to express what he couldn’t convey to others. When he was little, he taught himself how to fix and build computers. By age 12, he became known to his family as the “tech guy.”

“Because of the way my brain works due to my Asperger’s and ADHD, I can just hyper focus on the I.T. work,” Cook said. “It’s always been kind of like second nature to me.”

During his senior year, he has spent three hours a day in Jonathan Nicholson’s computer courses working toward a career in computer maintenance. Through Nicholson’s classes, Cook will receive his CompTIA A+ and TestOut Pro certification. He is preparing to take the certification test on May 30.

“Overall, he does what he’s asked,” Nicholson said. “He tries and he fails and he tries again, then he gets it right. That’s all I can ask for.”

Throughout his life, his passion for computers helped him grow into the person he is today. While he continues to learn more about computers, his love for it continues to flourish.

“Computers was an outlet for him in school,” Malinda said. “He had dyspraxia, so that was a way for him to communicate. He just really thrived on computers.”

He loves the challenges offered by Nicholson’s classes. He hopes to work in Informational Technology while taking classes at Lone Star College in the fall.

“Everyone needs an I.T. guy at some point,” Cook said. “Even your local Taco Bell has a computer after all.”

Despite the many barriers he had to overcome in his life, he made the best of his situation and his parents could not be more proud.

“There is no perfect human. Everybody has to do things differently,” Malinda said. “He is a loyal, kind person that never gives up and keeps on going. All the challenges he has in life, he just continues – which I think is pretty awesome of him.”