Wednesday 4 November 2009

Well 11 months after the operation and my cornea continues to change and this increasingly is a mystery. Last time I saw my surgeon he told me that it would be best to leave the sticthes in for the full 18 months. Now however he seems to think they should be removed 6 months early - or in about 1 month.

He must be hoping that the changes in my cornea are due to the stitches though I don't think there is really any evidence for this. Already my astigmatism is worse then what before my operation the surgeon claimed was the worst outcome for one of his patients so maybe he's getting desperate. It is likely that the astigamtisnm will change a lot (maybe for the better) after the stiches are removes they tell me optimistically. Today he seemed to have gone away from the collagen cross linking idea at least for now.

My attempt to wear the contacts didn't get very far due to discomfort and I don't think there is much point in continuing with that for now as after the stitches come out I just may be able to wear glasses and my contacts would very likely have to be changed. I could not see as well with contacts as I could before the operation which I hope will not always be the case. I was lead to believe it would be easier to fit me with contacts after the operation - if that is true it must be along time after the operation.

edit: BTW my astigmatism which I was so happy with after the operation when it was 2.0 is now well over 5. Because of this and maybe other factors my vision with glasses could only be corrected to 6/15 - far from the 9/9 I was promised!

2 comments:

Daniel said...

Found the link to the Aus K Assoc from your page.. thought this was interesting from: http://www.keratoconus.asn.au/AGM2002/Matt%20report.html

For the recovery of my graft, I felt my main objective of success was my vision, whereas, I felt the doctors main objective was that the graft didn't reject. The success of the graft for me was relevant to several issues including;

- Wanting to be able to wear glasses, not contacts;

- If I had to wear contacts them possibly being soft lenses;

- If I had to wear hard lenses that I would maintain the times I could previously wear them;

- That the lenses could be easily fitted with a minimum of contact with my optometrist;

- and that this would reduce the cost of having Keratoconus.


It does sound like there is a long way to go before patient expectations on any of the "treatments" relating to Keratoconus line up with doctors/medicares etc.. And in the mean time I'm still debating what to do when moving home - your story definitely isn't inspiring!! Yet!! ;)

Stirl said...

No my story isn't inspiring and I am still very annoyed that I never got proper stats about patient outcomes. Since the operation he has admitted to having at least one other patient a bit like me which i knew nothing of before hand. However I am not sure if you should be too put of by me - I think I might be one of the worst patients my surgeon has had he himself has expressed disappointment with my situation.