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.
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Friday, 19 December 2008
2 weeks 1 day: Tightening the stiches - Part 1
Yep Dr Anthony Maloof adjusted my stitches yesterday. The stitches are made from one continuous piece of thread, and he simply hooked the thread between stitches in several places and gave it a pull. It was kinda a freaky experience, under general anesthetic it didn't really hurt, but I could see my vision distorting as he pulled the thread. I normally less sensitive eye that wasn't being operated on was involuntarily closed part of the time which made it trick to keep my eye still. I wasn't counting but I think he probably did it in around 6 different places.
He was full; of positive things to say about my eye. I am not quiet sure if this was because he was wanting to encourage me, it was just good salesmanship, or my transplant by some measure is a particularly good one. In any case there cannot be anything to bad with it.
I am glad Dr Maloof is my doctor, he obviously takes some pride in the statistics he records on his operations – not that I have ever seen these statistics. He does seem very motivated to get the best vision possible for me.
I don't think it is worth mentioning any new figures for my astigmatism. Dr Maloof thought that the measurement (3) after his adjustments was not accurate due to anesthetic gel on my eye and that anyway he said the figures would be quiet different by today. He did admit the adjustment was more art then science. I hope he is very artistic! He wants me to go back in another month for possible more adjustments. That will be 6 weeks after the operation. Initially he said that adjustments could be done up to a month after the operation, but maybe he was allowing for the need of a second round.
I am beginning to suspect that my eyelids are unusually sensitive. I do remember once months ago unintentionally I got a soft contact lens stuck to the bottom of my upper eyelid and I spent a day with a soft contact on my eye with the hard gas perm lens on top of that and then the soft lens in my eyelid. It was one of the most comfortable days I had had for some time! I am slightly curious about if it would be possible to wear a soft lens/gas perm/soft lens configuration. Luckily I expect I will never have cause to try.
Last night I was in much pain, it probably ended up as much as when I was at the worst following my operation, and I got so exasperated I tried wearing my soft lens which I resisted earlier.
It brought immediate relief from pain. I slept for 7 hours and being due for more eye drops which were not compatible with wearing the lens so I took it off. Before I attempted the I put lots of liquid lucubrating drops on my eye to make sure that the contact wasn't stuck to my eye – this does happen a little when the ocnact is worn longer and if the eye is dry or there is mucus around it - then I very carefully puled the contact off from well outside (below) the stitches. It came of first time very easily without me feeling anything. It felt like it caused less of a rub against my eye less then blinking does which I was glad of as taking the lens off seemed like it could be the worst part of wearing the lens.
My eye/eye lid immediately started to hurt a bit more, specially when I blinked but it was much reduced to before I put the contact on. I had the eye drops and then slept for another 8.5 hours. My eye was still not very sore and I got up had some breakfast and a shower figured I should try to stay awake if I was ever going to have any control of my sleeping patterns and then went to sleep for another hour. My eye is still so sensitive that despite typing this with a back font on a dark grey background I have had to have a few breaks – a good chance to have a quick nap - but the pain now is very very reduced.
I don't really know what the deal is with my sleeping, but I prefer to be getting lots then way to little as in the days after the original operations. I wonder if the excessive sleeping it isn't related to the pain I was in. I think pain can do other things, like increase resting hard rate (and probably blood pressure) also last time I got a bit shaky I wonder if the body puts extra chemicals in the blood or something. Anyway it will all be worth it if I end up with 20/20 vision or something close. Dr Maloof said yesterday that he was aiming for me (with glasses) to get 20/20 vision and didn't see why I shouldn't!
(Eye looking red again)
He was full; of positive things to say about my eye. I am not quiet sure if this was because he was wanting to encourage me, it was just good salesmanship, or my transplant by some measure is a particularly good one. In any case there cannot be anything to bad with it.
I am glad Dr Maloof is my doctor, he obviously takes some pride in the statistics he records on his operations – not that I have ever seen these statistics. He does seem very motivated to get the best vision possible for me.
I don't think it is worth mentioning any new figures for my astigmatism. Dr Maloof thought that the measurement (3) after his adjustments was not accurate due to anesthetic gel on my eye and that anyway he said the figures would be quiet different by today. He did admit the adjustment was more art then science. I hope he is very artistic! He wants me to go back in another month for possible more adjustments. That will be 6 weeks after the operation. Initially he said that adjustments could be done up to a month after the operation, but maybe he was allowing for the need of a second round.
I am beginning to suspect that my eyelids are unusually sensitive. I do remember once months ago unintentionally I got a soft contact lens stuck to the bottom of my upper eyelid and I spent a day with a soft contact on my eye with the hard gas perm lens on top of that and then the soft lens in my eyelid. It was one of the most comfortable days I had had for some time! I am slightly curious about if it would be possible to wear a soft lens/gas perm/soft lens configuration. Luckily I expect I will never have cause to try.
Last night I was in much pain, it probably ended up as much as when I was at the worst following my operation, and I got so exasperated I tried wearing my soft lens which I resisted earlier.
It brought immediate relief from pain. I slept for 7 hours and being due for more eye drops which were not compatible with wearing the lens so I took it off. Before I attempted the I put lots of liquid lucubrating drops on my eye to make sure that the contact wasn't stuck to my eye – this does happen a little when the ocnact is worn longer and if the eye is dry or there is mucus around it - then I very carefully puled the contact off from well outside (below) the stitches. It came of first time very easily without me feeling anything. It felt like it caused less of a rub against my eye less then blinking does which I was glad of as taking the lens off seemed like it could be the worst part of wearing the lens.
My eye/eye lid immediately started to hurt a bit more, specially when I blinked but it was much reduced to before I put the contact on. I had the eye drops and then slept for another 8.5 hours. My eye was still not very sore and I got up had some breakfast and a shower figured I should try to stay awake if I was ever going to have any control of my sleeping patterns and then went to sleep for another hour. My eye is still so sensitive that despite typing this with a back font on a dark grey background I have had to have a few breaks – a good chance to have a quick nap - but the pain now is very very reduced.
I don't really know what the deal is with my sleeping, but I prefer to be getting lots then way to little as in the days after the original operations. I wonder if the excessive sleeping it isn't related to the pain I was in. I think pain can do other things, like increase resting hard rate (and probably blood pressure) also last time I got a bit shaky I wonder if the body puts extra chemicals in the blood or something. Anyway it will all be worth it if I end up with 20/20 vision or something close. Dr Maloof said yesterday that he was aiming for me (with glasses) to get 20/20 vision and didn't see why I shouldn't!
(Eye looking red again)
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
2 weeks after operation (DALK or partial cornea transplant).
I went and saw my optometrist today. Vision from the eye is 6/21. That sounds bad but its a big improvement from the zero (actually it had a negative affect on my total vision) previous to the operation. Both my eyes can focus on the same thing nowadays which already gives me some depth perception.
Why he gave me a measurement out of 21 I do not know. Measurements are usually out of 20 or 9, and as I think 20 implies feet and 9 meters its practically the same. Not that the test they actually do could possibly be more then half that distance even with the mirror they usually use, but I guess it lets different practices share a standard measure. Maybe 21 feet is close enough to 9 meters which is the measure that Anthony has been using. (No I still haven't got my honorary doctorship. In fact I am not sure they have even got around to inventing the word doctorship.)
My vision hasn't been improving as fast the last couple of days. I am told however that as well as the cornea healing, their is extra liquid in the cornea which has to clear before my vision finishes to improve. My theory is that this fluid is now the main limit on my sight improving, and it's this that is improving more slowly, resulting in a slower correction in my sight.
I also have astigmatism. .50 horizontal and 3.73 vertical. (Ok I may have the vertical and horizontal the wrong way around in my memory.) Tomorrow I am going to see a eye doctor who hop fully can reduce the astigmatism by tightening and loosing some of the stitches in my eye. What fun! No doubt this will undo a small amount of healing.
At the moment I still don't have any better idea of what my final vision will be then I did the day after the operation. The doctors and optometrists don't seem worried by what they are seeing however so I expect this means the vision will end up good!
Why he gave me a measurement out of 21 I do not know. Measurements are usually out of 20 or 9, and as I think 20 implies feet and 9 meters its practically the same. Not that the test they actually do could possibly be more then half that distance even with the mirror they usually use, but I guess it lets different practices share a standard measure. Maybe 21 feet is close enough to 9 meters which is the measure that Anthony has been using. (No I still haven't got my honorary doctorship. In fact I am not sure they have even got around to inventing the word doctorship.)
My vision hasn't been improving as fast the last couple of days. I am told however that as well as the cornea healing, their is extra liquid in the cornea which has to clear before my vision finishes to improve. My theory is that this fluid is now the main limit on my sight improving, and it's this that is improving more slowly, resulting in a slower correction in my sight.
I also have astigmatism. .50 horizontal and 3.73 vertical. (Ok I may have the vertical and horizontal the wrong way around in my memory.) Tomorrow I am going to see a eye doctor who hop fully can reduce the astigmatism by tightening and loosing some of the stitches in my eye. What fun! No doubt this will undo a small amount of healing.
At the moment I still don't have any better idea of what my final vision will be then I did the day after the operation. The doctors and optometrists don't seem worried by what they are seeing however so I expect this means the vision will end up good!
Saturday, 13 December 2008
10 days after operation
My eyes are feeling better everyday. While it is still fairly sensitive and painful some of the most annoying symptoms that have bothered me over the last year in both eyes have gone or dramatically decreased. I have stopped medication on the right eye so I am prety happy about this though to be fair it is just possible that the medication I am using on the left eye is also responsible. It does show however that the problems in my "good" eye were due to the issues in the other eye. Just to doubly confirm this to my surprise my "good" eye actually did not see so well for a few days after the operation, however its back to seeing as well as every now, though it may still be slightly more sensitive then it should be.
My vision in the eye that was operated on is improving everyday. It is now quiet definitely better than is was before the operation. (Not that this means much as the eye was legally blind before the operations). I never used to use the eye much (for obvious reasons) however if from close up (otherwise everything was just blur) I looked at a point from which straight lines radiated out in all directions, I would see strange things with it. I got this effect by looking at the centre of my bathroom drain from close up. From about 12-2 O'clock I would see in a very blurry fashion more or less what you would expect. After that however the straight lines would *look* to curve to the left. They would not appear to come from the same point. In places they would appear to crossover even - weird- in places there was not much more then a blur.
Anyway now *all* the straight lines look straight! It's still blurry but (I think) that's because I haven't grown the surface of my eye back completely yet. The blur is also pretty much evenly spread around a line. I think a horizontal line may have just very very very slightly more blur beneath it (but letters appear to have blur up and slightly to the left). Slight is the word however. I am taking this even pattern of blur as a very good sign of the sight to come. According to Stirling; this along with being able to see straight lines means that the cornea now is very close to the ideal shape and once the surface grows back everything should be sharp and clear! Not that I really know what I am talking about. My honorary Doctorship in Keratoconus has yet to arrive. I have a book here with letters on the cover that are 5cm or so in size....and I can read them very easily with the eye! Woot! (Actually here there is a faint double of the letter slightly above and a tiny bit to the left_
Of course I am used to being able to stick the contacts on and get clear vision, and I am still finding life with practical vision really only from one a bit tricky, and yes the eye is still pretty sensitive to light or well anything. But it's slowly improving everyday.
The next interesting event will be next thursday when my optometrist thinks he may be able to get a fair idea of how my vision will end up! I will of course post news here.
Below is a picture of my eye at the moment. I suspect that the redness that you can see is largely from the anesthetic needle, though possibly there was some other damage from the operation. When my eye was looking the worst I really wasn't feeling like taking photos but the most pain seemed to be in the eyelids which welled up a little. If you look really carefully (it probably helps to know what you are looking for) You can see where the new cornea starts. One of these days I might try to get a better photo of that and the stitches. I am not optimistic of getting a photo of the stitches with my current lenses without a least a macro ring however - my bro has these and I'll have a go witgh them one day probably. They are surprisingly tiny (1/10 the width of a human hair I have heard) and the black stitches don't contrast well with my browny greeny grayish coloured eyes. (Whats with that I am sure I used to have brown eyes). I have seen big photos of light blue eyes with black stitching where the sticthing was very obvious.
I just stole a picture from the web that shows stitches after a cornea transplant very clearly. I think some photographer knows something that I don't! :) I also suspect that the stitching just isn't as clear on my eye. Maybe it was done a little differently.
My vision in the eye that was operated on is improving everyday. It is now quiet definitely better than is was before the operation. (Not that this means much as the eye was legally blind before the operations). I never used to use the eye much (for obvious reasons) however if from close up (otherwise everything was just blur) I looked at a point from which straight lines radiated out in all directions, I would see strange things with it. I got this effect by looking at the centre of my bathroom drain from close up. From about 12-2 O'clock I would see in a very blurry fashion more or less what you would expect. After that however the straight lines would *look* to curve to the left. They would not appear to come from the same point. In places they would appear to crossover even - weird- in places there was not much more then a blur.
Anyway now *all* the straight lines look straight! It's still blurry but (I think) that's because I haven't grown the surface of my eye back completely yet. The blur is also pretty much evenly spread around a line. I think a horizontal line may have just very very very slightly more blur beneath it (but letters appear to have blur up and slightly to the left). Slight is the word however. I am taking this even pattern of blur as a very good sign of the sight to come. According to Stirling; this along with being able to see straight lines means that the cornea now is very close to the ideal shape and once the surface grows back everything should be sharp and clear! Not that I really know what I am talking about. My honorary Doctorship in Keratoconus has yet to arrive. I have a book here with letters on the cover that are 5cm or so in size....and I can read them very easily with the eye! Woot! (Actually here there is a faint double of the letter slightly above and a tiny bit to the left_
Of course I am used to being able to stick the contacts on and get clear vision, and I am still finding life with practical vision really only from one a bit tricky, and yes the eye is still pretty sensitive to light or well anything. But it's slowly improving everyday.
The next interesting event will be next thursday when my optometrist thinks he may be able to get a fair idea of how my vision will end up! I will of course post news here.
Below is a picture of my eye at the moment. I suspect that the redness that you can see is largely from the anesthetic needle, though possibly there was some other damage from the operation. When my eye was looking the worst I really wasn't feeling like taking photos but the most pain seemed to be in the eyelids which welled up a little. If you look really carefully (it probably helps to know what you are looking for) You can see where the new cornea starts. One of these days I might try to get a better photo of that and the stitches. I am not optimistic of getting a photo of the stitches with my current lenses without a least a macro ring however - my bro has these and I'll have a go witgh them one day probably. They are surprisingly tiny (1/10 the width of a human hair I have heard) and the black stitches don't contrast well with my browny greeny grayish coloured eyes. (Whats with that I am sure I used to have brown eyes). I have seen big photos of light blue eyes with black stitching where the sticthing was very obvious.
I just stole a picture from the web that shows stitches after a cornea transplant very clearly. I think some photographer knows something that I don't! :) I also suspect that the stitching just isn't as clear on my eye. Maybe it was done a little differently.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Operation plus one week
I am feeling quiet a lot beter today. My eyes are still very sensitive but the worst of the pain has gone. Vision is still poor but I think just maybe it is a little better then it was before the operation. Not much but it's close anyway. This isn't saying much of course.
It's kinda exciting however to think that in only 3 weeks or so I should have useful vision from the eye! Now if only I could fast forward time for a couple of weeks...
Sunday, 7 December 2008
Prognosis continues to be good
For the first time in a few days I can look at the computer screen without it being to bright for me eyes. I am wearing sunglasses.
I've had some fairly rough days where my eyes hurt and I couldn't sleep - a combination I highly recommend to any seeking insanity! Eventually I worked out that it wasn't my eye hurting so much as my eye-lid. At this point - about 7am sunday -I started to use lots of lubricating ointment (mainly poly visc, also some lacri-lube and I rinsed the eye with refresh tears plus) which has helped with comfort considerably. Today my Dr also has said I can reduce some eye drops that were stinging my eyes.
I don't really know what caused this pain. Posibly scratching fro mthe stitches. I have been finding very hard and sometimes sharp gluck - possibly dried mucus - on my eyelids. Also the top surfaxe of the donar corneas is supposed to come off and bereplaced by a layer that my body is growing. I guess possibly some of this layer may have come off bits that dug into my eyelid? Probably myt best guess woudl be thatthe eyelid got scrapped during surgery, and then was further irritated by the eye drops and blinking and moving of my eye while it was shut.. It did hurt the first time I put medicine in, though it wasn't till the 2nd time and more that the pain really remained for a long time.
Anyway it isn't a very big deal. After having my eye checked today was told that everything basically looks in good shape. I don't think the long term prospects of me eye has been influenced at all my this little scrape on my eyelid. A little pain never hurt anyone!
Friday, 5 December 2008
Ouch ouch ouch
OK since about 6 pm yesterday my eye has really mastered the art of pain. I thnk helped along by one of the eye drops Ihave every 4 hours stinging the eye. Unless I find some other replacement drop however I think it's important I keep having it.
Oh well it's probably not unreasonable that mny eye woudl be very sore after a cornea transplant...I don't thik anything isgoing particularly wrong. I was expecting to nweed a few weeks of work. Yesterday I wondered if I would make a faster recovery then that but today I am doubting it.
my eye is looking more nasty but I am not going to take any more photos. Actually my right eye is too sensitive to look at the computer screen much so I hope this doesn't have too many typos...
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