surprised

I went along to my optometrist today wondering if I was wasting bother out time but my vision was bad and seemed to have perhaps got a little worse plus and it was giving me mild headaches so I wanted to see if anything could be done.

He confirmed that the prescription for my eye had changed - the amount of correction needed had almost halved! I was quiet surprised to know it ha changed this much, but it can only be good.

The bad news is that even with this change I still could not see very clearly at all. It seems that even with the cornea in the right shape the internal optics of the cornea can disuse the light so that vision still sucks - which is why I had only just noticed a fairly big change in lens prescription. As far as I can work out that's what is happening to me. I've no idea if this can be expected to slightly improve over time or if it means that no matter what the surface of the cornea does I will not get good vision. It would be nice to know.

My optometrist volunteered to ring my surgeon which I am grateful for. I didn't tell my optometrist this but I had tried to ring him a few times myself but he hadn't returned my calls. Maybe an optometrist will have better luck getting his attention....

3 months later

My operation was on the 4th of December. Tomorrow will be the 4th of March about 3 months later. By now really I was expecting my vision to be probably close to 9/9 and my eye to be comfortable. Instead my vision is probably not quiet 6/9 and I continue to need drugs for my eye to stop inflammation, mucus and bad things in general. Even with drugs its not really comfortable.

I've been on maxidex a week and a half longer then I was originally supposed to after two unsuccessful attempts to change to FML. Tomorrow I change to a combination of voltarin(sp?) and FML drops. It would have been today but the chemist had to get the drops in from Sydney. My eye pressure was check yesterday by the optometrist and is normal- one of the many complications of steroid drops like maxdidex is that it can get dangerously high. Dr Maloof still doesn't want me to stay on it any longer then necessary which sounds like good sense.

Maybe its just taking longer then expected and it will still heal up - at least so that it is more comfortable. It's hard not to feel a little discouraged however. I think maybe I will give Dr Maloof a ring today and see if I shouldn't visit him and see what’s going on with the eye.

My eye does appear to have stabilised enough for me to be able to get a lens for my glasses prescribed. Hopefully I will get it this week, which should be a nice improvement in vision for me.

Pictures of my eye (10 weeks and 5 days after opperation)

Here's a picture of my eye taken about a week(?) after the operation.
And here it is again today:

It's a lot clearer, which is why the stiches are much more visible. In news that is not so good, today the vision corrected with glasses was only 6/9. My optometrist said that if this didn't improve it would be "disappointing", however he was not confident that it would improve a lot. 6/9 is (just) good enough to drive a car and isn't a disaster - but I was hoping it would be better. Its also not as comfortable as I would like, but the optometrist is confident that as the last of the healing completes it will become more comfortable.

My astigmatism today was still 2.75 - however the axis it was on had rotated somewhat. I will go back in two weeks and see if it has stabilised enough for me to get glasses prescribed.

Yes their is blue light shining on my eye! :)

astigamtism 2.75

20 Jan
I went back to the surgeon. He had a look at my eye, measured my astigmatism (but didn't tell me the measurement). He told me that it was so small that if he tried to change it it he was just as likely to make it worse.

28 Jan
I went to the optometrist 2 days ago and was told that my astigmatism was now 2.75. 0.75 worse then 1.5 weeks after the alteration to my stitches. Apparently this could still change but with glasses shouldn't stop me getting very good vision. I am still not seeing very well - but the surface of my eye still has to heal, and apparently there are some other bits in the cornea that are still healing up too. Which makes sense - the eye is still a bit sore and I am having drugs (steroid drops) to settle it down. I am going to have to wait a bit longer before I get glasses prescribed.

I was told it could take three months from the operation before all the healing is complete - that will be first week of March.

I expect with my table tennis I can use better eye sight then most....so I do hope 2.75 isn't too much!

Meh I amn back to wearing glasses. I am also at work, ( my eye has settled down a bit since waking up). What would I know?

4 and a bit weeks after operation

Very randomly when I woke this morning I found that I could see very clearly with my non-operated eye. Indeed when I put my glasses on it got worse. Actually for the last week or so while wearing glasses I noticed my vision was a little worse then often.

This is very odd and is slightly disturbing, my vision and the shape of my cornea really should not change from day to day, it's also pretty much unheard of for a cornea with keratoconus to improve! However as the change is an improvement in my non-corrected vision I am not as alarmed as I would otherwise be. I suspect too achieve the best possible vision I would still need glasses but with a much reduced prescription. I don't know if this is relevant to the operation but its certainly very weird and I thought I would note it here. I also have had a lot of sensitivity to light etc from this (well both) eye. This morning there was a lot of mucus in the eye when I woke up too. I don't know whats up with my eyes, they sometimes seem rather original!

I have had my vision change like this before a few times over the year much to optometrists surprise, however in the past it has usually been only for a few hours unlike this time where I think its been brewing to some extent over a few days, though it was only today that the vision was clearly better without glasses.

Overall my eye is improving steadily. I had been hoping to start work today but I think it would probably be wise if I put it off another two days.

3 weeks and 5 days after operation

I saw my optometrist today. Apparently my astigmatism is down to about 2.0 diopters, and glasses should be able to correct this to 20/20 vision "or close". This is good news especially as I am booked into see the surgeon again, and it's likely that he will have another go at adjusting the stitches to reduce the astigmatism - so I figure its very likely I will end up with 20/20 vision with glasses. Anyway something close to 20/20 vision would be pretty good too!

The main impediment for me seeing right now is the excess fluid inside the cornea, but this is decreasing and there is no doubt it will sort itself out over a few more weeks.

My eyes are still very sensitive, so much so that driving isn't really on and spending much outdoors in sunlight isn't pleasant; though for weeks I have been able to manage the 5 minute or less walk down to the local shops in the sunlight when I need to. Walking can be done while looking downwards which is much easier to do then looking level or up.

My eyes look fine, if anything the eye that wasn't operated on and which isn't getting the strong drugs is the most red!

I am hoping that I will be able to return to work next week, but we will see.