Everything seems to have gone fine. At least the doctor said he was 'very pleased' with the way the operation went. Not that I saw him after my operation but this was relayed to me by the Anaestheticist. I have yet to open my eye. The Anaestheticist and staff were all very nice.
Just before the operation Dr malood said he was confident that I would get 6/9 (20/30) vision from the eye - enough to comfortable drive with the eye. I would be quiet happy with this result, but am wondering if maybe I might not even get a little better.
There is not a lot of be said by me about the operation. I was given a general anaesthetic intravenously which took a few minutes to take affect. I was surprised that they didn't even get my exact weight before hand. They also stuck a needle into my eye and gave me a local anaesthetic in the eye however which apparently meant the general anaesthetic didn't have to be too strong. I hadn't expected this, but the cornea is the most sensitive part of the body they tell me and I wasn't going to argue.
The local anaesthetic was supposed to wear off around midnight, it's 7:30 AM as I update this and the terrible pain some people get has failed to materialise. I was told I may not feel much pain...the nerves have been cut so they cannot send pain signals now and it will take a year or two to grow back my reading on the net would have be believe. Actually I am still a little wobbly on my fee and weird feeling but I have had worse plain in my eye several times this year then what I have now, it is a little sore but not very and I haven't bothered with the painkillers yet but maybe I will as I think it may still be getting slightly sorer as time passes.
I hardly slept the night before and only slept for a few hours tonight yet am not tired. Odd. I must have really power napped with that general anaesthetic!
In a few hours I will take the bandage off and it will be interesting to see what my vision is like. My vision however is expected to change - possibly for the worse before improving again - over a few weeks, and for the first month or so by tightening and loosening stitches they can adjust the cornea and my vision if necessary...it's very likely that this will be necessary. I am booked in to see Dr Maloof again in a bit over a week. Hopefully the date is written down somewhere cause I don't remember it! I will also see my local optometrist a couple of days before then who may be able to shed light on whether the cornea will need to be adjusted and if so how.
I am pretty happy and excited to see what my vision will be!
I feel a little odd; I might lie down for a little. I do however feel much much muich better then some of the testimonies I found online about similar - but not exactly the same - procedures. I am not sure if my doctor was better, the difference in procedure is responsible, or maybe the operation just did go really well, but in any case no complaints from me!
[Update: When I said I didn't see Dr Maloof after the operation; there was a rumour that he talked to me when the anathetic was still wearing off, but I have absolutely no recollection of this. However as he let tme arrange to have the opperation start a little later then he initially planned, and had a following operation I have no complaints that he didn't talk to me afterwards. He seems to have done his job well for which I am gratefuly!]
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2 comments:
Hi mate,
Hope all has gone well and will be praying for your recovery.
As you also know the basics of my condition I'll post for others researching too.. (super-geeks should stick together..)
I'm one of the people who went for option b. from the initial post. I wasn't convinced that contacts would suit me - I cringe at the thought of playing with my eyes on a regular basis!! I haven't been to the optometrist nor specialists regularly enough to know if my eye has stopped changing from the keratoconus.. This was another reason I avoided contacts when initially offered to me as an alternative.. I hated the idea that I'd have to regularly be making trips - having them fixed up...
Like most who suffer from it mine came on fairly fast and without notice for a while.. When I was in my teens I was active in sports, loved driving and spent a lot of time reading.. It was the latter which keyed me in that something was wrong. I was finding it hard to read as fast as I normally did and had to spend a lot more concentration trying to do so.. I took to covering one eye often - and it wasn't till months or possibly a year or more later that I actually tried covering the other eye.. and realised I could see very little!!! I thought at first I'd done some retinal damage looking at lasers (staring into fiber optic cables trying to work out which was the Tx and Rx at a given end to hook it up quicker..) Eventually on seeing the optometrist I found out what was going on - and went and had my eye mapped, etc...
After hearing the options etc and deciding I didn't want to waste my time with contacts as I was barely noticing the effects in my day to day life I put it on the back burner.. I heard the stories of ppl with only 1 contact having issues - so I may need 2 even though only 1 would be doing anything.. I decided that I could live with it and wouldn't take contacts as I didn't really want my eye to adjust to the requirement of them, over my other objections above...
Time went by and I wasn't overly fussed .. reading was slower - no prob - actually get a week out of a nice thick book now.. My driving became a lot more sedate.. Ok - this was getting frustrating - I was loving driving and wanting to get more into motorsports.. Playing sports.. Well, earlier in the year I tried a lil back yard cricket with my brother - I could still use logic and still pitch the ball to land roughly where I wanted - but batting - I had no clue where the ball was going.. My depth perception was non-existent and luckily my brothers fast balls were about as fast as "That Ball" of Warnies to Gatting.. so I managed to survive the experience..
So - I decided I could live with one good eye on the short term - and look at contacts in the future if it was necessary.. After another year (probably 3-4 after first discovering the problem) I was very ready to get contacts just so I had some depth perception back - except I made that decision too late before I was supposed to go overseas for 12 months.. By the time I decided it was probably worth the annoyances my wife had been over seas for a month and I was due to follow quick sharp.. Unfortunately the requirements of follow up checks on the contacts made it next to impossible - I was leaving as soon as I could finish up my work and get a ticket - and didn't know any Japanese if I needed follow up optometrists appointments in the country I was going to!
Putting the plan for contacts off for another 12 months or so I moved to Japan.. to be greeted by a country that builds up every hill/mountain/cliff they can find.. Having a lack of depth perception here has cause more than my usual bout of bruised shins and twisted ankles.. Going on "hikes" which I now know mean "mountain climbs" are incredibly painful... and disorienting.. Spending 99% of the time looking at your feet, the ground and the big stick you need to help feel the way are very draining - I have a new appreciation for the blind people who love doing things out-doors!! (One of whom I've met and am in great awe of since coming here!)
Needless to say - I look forward to following how your operation has gone Stirl, and will also do more reading up on the procedure..
And until I'm back in Australia at least I'll try not to trip over my feet too often and hopefully try not to knock my teeth out in the process - I don't know what Japanese opthamologists are like - but given the average state of their teeth - I'd rather risk a bad eye than a bad tooth...
Keratoconus Australia have a few interesting videos about different surgery options. YOu can find them on the web and order them if youa re keen at some stage - Dan you can borrow mine when you get back if you like. There is one presentation by the surgeon I used who I think is the best guy in Sydney for this sort of thing.
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