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.

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)

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!