UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

This message is for Lynn White.
My name is Gill Keeling and you were kind enough to telephone me and discuss my son's KC etc. just over 12 months ago as we felt we had been rushed into making a decision to go ahead with cxl before we knew all the facts.
You were most helpful and I thank you again for that. (If you don't remember me, I am the lady living in Pembrokeshire who moved from Stoke on Trent) and my son had been to see Mr Muhtaseb in The Mumbles, Swansea.
You gave me very sound advice with regard to postponing the treatment until Josh had got through his driving test which thankfully he now has. He is 18 now and I thought you might like to know that he is now going for CXL on his right eye on Saturday 15th November 2009. Unfortunately, his left eye (which was the worse of the 2) had deteriorated too far (Josh's corneal thickness on this eye was 380; it was just over 400 when he was first seen 10 months ago) so we are going ahead with the right eye just in case the same happens.
Josh now seems very positive about having the CXL. He has been wearing gp lenses off and on (more off than on!) as he has struggled with the comfort issue. He recently had a stronger prescription new pair of glasses but he talks of trying the lenses again as he has recently taken up football again and finds wearing glasses difficult.
Will catch up with you again on the forum after his procedure if thats okay.
Anyone out there with pre-op advice?
Thanks again
Gill

HI

I had the CXL procedure done just under a month ago (got my month follow up appointment next week). I didnt find it too bad, and didnt suffer with massive pain levels - believe i have been fortunate - or i just have high pain threshold. I had been warned it was going to be VERY painful.
Here is a summary of what happened during my procedure and following it;
http://ic-f.org/?page_id=254/cxl-cornea ... xperience/

Prior to the procedure i didnt have to do much, except not wear eye makeup for 24-36 hours prior to the procedure.

If you have any questions give me a shout and i will do my best to answer them about the procedure.

Hi Gill

I do indeed remember you! Just a thought, cross linking has been done at 380 using a process whereby the cornea is saturated with distilled water to make it swell to the necessary thickness. Here is a link to a paper where this was done.

http://bmctoday.net/crstodayeurope/pdfs/0409_06.pdf

Lynn

my son 13 at the time now 14 was given the injection to increase the thickness, but this didn't work for him
hope all went well with your son's crosslinking

Gilly,

Lynn is right about using a specific type of drops during the CXL procedure to increase corneal thickness. Mr Muhtaseb knows about this because he did it on me! One of my eyes had a thickness of under 360 but with the drops it got way over the 400 point to allow the CXL to take place.