Well, as the title says, I'm officially grafted! I'm living up to my username - RED-EYE... yeah baby! Gotta love the red-eye... hmm never mind
As some of you know, I went for my graft last Thursday. Its a week on and things are looking okay (yes pun intended), I had an initial problem with the drops and later with some dryness.
If you want some background, my pre op thread can be found HERE.
Apparently the operation went well. I spent the night at the hospital with a nice painful 4 hour headache due to the general anesthetic! Everyone was lovely especially the nurses
In the morning my dressing was taken off and eye cleaned ready for a checkup by one of my consultants colleagues. Pressure was 12 and everything was looking a 'success' as he called it. Shortly after my dad and brother picked me up to be taken home to rest. Eye drops by the name of Tobradex were given to me, 6x a day (combination of dexamethasone and tobramycin). Asked my mum to buy me a thank you card which I wrote out at the hospital and gave to the ward. Friday night (bed time) I noticed sharp pains in my grafted eye, not frequent, just now and then. I could tell the stitches were not the problem as the pains were either side of them. I was tired and didn't think too much of it so fell asleep. Only woke up once briefly as the dog decided to flip out at the postman lol. Saturday came with the sharp pains more frequent and the eye noticeably more bloodshot, so later in the afternoon I decided to go to eye casualty. I was seen by another one of my consultants colleges on late shift, she and a nurse concluded the drops were the culprit (reacting badly to my eye). Now I was given dexermethasone and chloramphenicol, dex to be taken every hour and the other 3x during the night. An appointment to see her at 10:30am the next morning was scheduled. As you can imagine, it was a mission putting the dex every hour! My alarm was set to go off hourly, worked well except the last two hours, I didn't hear the damn alarm! Anyway, morning came and bro had taken me to see the pretty blond doc
Pains did go down but were still present, eye was less red but pressure had gone up (37) due to dex. I was told the eye is looking better and to take both drops only 4x daily with a new drop called Lumigan to be taken once at night (anti pressure drops). Rest of Sunday went well and by Monday night, pain was almost nil. Through the weekend I was worried about my pressure and it leading to glaucoma etc. Tuesday I had an appointment with my consultant where he said things are looking good but there is an area (top right) of eye where dryness is present. Additional drops have been prescribed for this, some form of lubricant to be taken 4x a day. Pressure had gone down to 10! Is that even possible within 2 days? Nevertheless, I was relieved but was told to continue with the Lumigan drops... are there any negatives with this?
Wednesday and now Thursday are going well, nothing to report. My next appointment is in two weeks, should receive date and confirmation through the post.
My vision has improved, its still blurry but not as bad as before. I can see objects at a room distance and can make sense of what they are, whereas previously I couldn't make sense of anything a metre away from me... still early days.
I'm wearing my shades for most of the day, mainly to protect my eye from day to day life (knocks, pokes, wind, debris etc) and partially due to light sensitivity. Still wearing my eye sheild with micropore when I sleep, I'll continue with it for a few more weeks, does its job very well. Also I don't get my eye crusted over at night so none of the yellow gooey sticky stuff which is good.
I had individual stitches, not continuous, not sure how many were put in but was told before op that a minimum of 16 would be required. Discomfort from stitches is almost nil, yes I can feel them every time I blink but this is minor, maybe I'm lucky.
That's quite a few drops I'm taking, 13 times a day altogether, pretty intense I would have thought, hopefully this wont be permanent.
Lucy and Johnny have both mentioned how boring recovery is and they aren't wrong. I've been in front of the tele for quite a few hours during the day, catching up with 24 and some gaming. Eye gets strained after a while so I have a little nap. Can't wait to get back to some cardio and then some weights, not been this inactive in ermmm... EVER! Though with that said, the week has pretty much flown by hmm. And OMG! can't believed it snowed when I couldn't take advantage of it, no snow fights or nowt grr! Did go in the garden and throw a few snow balls at the dog but wasn't quite as fun you know!
That's my first week of the rest of my life, I'm happy
I'm sure there will be many ups and downs through the long journey but who said life was easy. Thanks to my loving family, mum, dad, bro and ofcourse to the donor + family. I wasn't given any information about my donor when I asked, was told its confidential, however it would have been a close match.
Time for more drops, yay lucky me
Red
I'll have to ask when I go in next. 
