Corneal Graft

[jayuk]

Hi All

Well thought Id give you all an update

Had my graft performed last wednesday by Dr Sheraz Daya at the Centre For Sight in East Grinstead

Arrived at 4pm and went through the pre med stages and took the necessary drops in prep for surgery at 6pm

Surgery went fine and loved the feeling of being put to sleep lol

Surgery lasted for about 50 mins and I was back in my room for 730 pm which I was surprised.

Thats when I realised I just had an op in my eye lol. Pain was not the pain I imagined but rather an annoying type when you move the eye. The eye was patched up over nite till the follow up in the mornng......

Thursday had the follow up with the good Dr Daya.....seems we had a problem on closing....when they finished the graft part of the end requires a long acting steroid to be injected int the lid (or at least thats how he does his grafts) and this stops any potential rejectin episodes.......however on injecting the lid haemoragged and bled......basically the needle must have burst a vessel...thus the next day and even up until now at time of writing my right side of face is swollen...not as bad now though ......but was bad day after the surgery.........

I also must have coughed alot coming out of surgery so there was a minor issue with one of my stiches which was removed in the preceding follow up. The idea was that over nite this would heal closed.........which it did with great success

Had a follow up last Friday and all was looking well....however due to the eye lid mis hap I look really bad lol as face is swollen up...and this is causing me not to open the eye.......

Am on the standard drops

4 drops Chloraphenical
4 drops Maxidex

Have been in my dark bedroom since coming home on Thuesday and am soooo bored....couldnt sleep so ventured down to PC and thought Id write this....

Vision wise - Well when I open the lids up I can see alot better but I cannot give any infication yet as I need to wait for the swelling to go down but its looking good........

Whole experience was not as bad as I thought and am/was so impressed with every single member of staff who was involved with my surgery.


thats all....and excuse the spelling mistakes if any

Will update in a week

[Dipesh]

Jayuk,

Glad to hear your graft went little problems and your on the road to recovery.

I can relate to you being bored after the Op. I would suggest you crank that music up and enjoy, alternatively listen to topical discussion and or radio soaps.

Any I am back to work on Thursday, part time initally and see how things go.

Hope all goes well and remember to put you drops in ontime.

Regards
Dipesh

[jayuk]

Thanks mate......the bordom is bad!! Put in my other lens for first time in 5 days so bit better today.....I cannt understand how many ppl lead there lives that choose to do nothing...brain numbing

[jayuk]

Hi all

Well 8 days post op so thought Id provide an update.

Swelling
Swelling from the lid haemorage has gone down and now it just looks like I had a fite with a Baseball Bat and got a black eye. I am really surprised how fast it went down as the haemorage was quiet serious but seems it has been washed away.

Redness
Redness seems to occur first thing in the morning but then goes away within an hour. Slight pinkish colour on the sclera but nothing serious I dont think. I ntice that if I stay on the comuter or watch television for too long the eye gets tired and starts going a little red; so stopped doing that

Vision
Vision wise....well really odd ...the Cornea lets me see crystal clear images but things seem blurry still...but thats expected and part of the recovery process...but its 100% better than what it was 9 days ago with the old Cornea.

Pain
Thankfully I can open the eye up more and there is no pain from the eye. If I do sudden eye movements I can feel a slight pain sensation from the stiching.

Drugs and Supplements
Chloraphenical 4 drop a day
Maxidex now 6 drops a day

I have also been taking "other" supplements and vitamins which I believe are also helping in the regeneration process. Mainly vitamins and bodybuilding/sports based supplements around muscle and cell regeneration.

Have a follow up tomorrow...hoping the main layers have healed now and the real corneal recovery is taking place!

[naeemkhamkar]

GFR8 to hear that yr recovering well mt8, keep it up.

Im in moorfields clinic 4 nxt weds 18th so if yr there again c u there.

[GarethB]

Good to hear you are making good progress.

Have you gone through having some of the stitches removed to keep the astigmatism in check?

I found this really rewarding as each time a stitch was removed my unaided sight got better.

Keep the positive vibes going.

Gareth

[jayuk]

Hey GarethB

No, but funny you say that, the day following the surgery I had apparently coughed ib the nite and this has caused a stich to come out of place. SO when I went for the following day appointment they tried puting a "bandage lens" in the eye?

Well the proved impossible as I am a Opticoan/Opthamologists worse paitent when it comes to touching my eyes...I have this "fighting" action that my lids do..which I have no control over. Well this clearly is not good following surgery so they said they would remove it. I kid you not at that stage I was paniking lol.....as I just got visions of a blade and my eye whilst I was awake......but it wasnt that bad....the usual Anaesthetic drops then head on the slit lamp , open, top lid pushed open, and then he got something out from a sterile packaging and made sure I didnt see it lol......than all i felt was a slight "twang" at which point the stich came undone.

I assume this is how the rest will be done? When you had the stiches removed did you find some relieve with the eye?...Ive heard a few not so good stories where the stiching has made the vision worse....but this clearly depends on the level of astigmatism introduced or reduced I guess.

[GarethB]

In the healing process, my surgeon reffered to stich removal as 'chase the astignatism!' which it is. Whenever a couple of stitches were removed it was as you described and yes I did feel better. On the odd occassion my sight went down so we would take another out to get back to where we were or better. Technology has moved on since 1990 so the process might not be down to guess work or an educated guess.

After 12 months or so all the stitches that could be removed were done under anasthetic, it was a nice mid day snooze. I have a habit of healing quickly, serous cuts and burns generally heal within the week! Always been put down to a fast metabolic rate which is why I have always been a bit on the skinny side! I still have a few stitches in each eye where the cornea healed over them but these have never been a problem.

As i have posted before, I term a graft a success if it allows me to have my sight corrected and giving me some life back. I know some do not achieve this, but compared to some sight defects there is a lot going for us.

What I will say is you have a wider choice of TV and the internet than I had! I used to live in the Yorkshire Dales and we only had 3 channels, could not get channel 4 and the rest had not been invented, video recorders were still expensive and as for a computer, I was on the old Sinclair ZX Spectrum which is still in working order!

Some TV is best listend too and relatives get worried when you laugh at the strangest thing as you create your own minds eye view of what is happening on the TV.

Gareth

[jayuk]

Hi

Had my 9 day post op follow up yesterday afternoon.

Good news! For me!

All the layers of the cornea have healed now and thus now its the actual swelling around the graft stitching that needs to reduce down. We took some video shots of the eye and to quote "I am astonished" said that consultant.

The graft is extremely clear with no clouding.

My eye pressure is 13 - which is brilliant

My vision, of, last week I couldnt see the card at arms length...today I saw 4 lines down........I have slight astigmatism where they removed the stich post op but thats not a major problem rght now as its far to early.

Drops
Have been told to keep them the same and ANY signs of Redness, Sensitivity, Swelling, Cloudines to call them anytime - 24/7

Maxidex 6 drops a day
Chloraphenical - 4 drops a day

Supplements
I had informed my consultant of the additonal supplements I had been taken pre and post procedure and he was intrigued but was happy with me taking them. These are as follows

Ok, the following I have taken through the graft period and the days following but at MY OWN RISK (and research)...and noone should copy this.

I have been a strong beleiver in vitamins and minerals but NOT to the extent of them being wonder drugs and cures; but I do beleve they are a useful tool in prevention and regeneration.

Selenium 200mcg - 1 tab / day
Vitamin C 1000mg with riboflavins - 4 tabs / day
Grape Seed Extract 100mg - 1 tab / day
Lycopene 10mg - 1 tab / day
Alpha Lipoic Acid 100mg - 2 tabs / day

Cell and muscle regeneration
Glutamine peptide - 30g / day
AKG (alpha-ketoglutarate) - 8g / day

Green tea - 4 tea bags boiled and then I drink the tea of it.

Thats the list of supps...the muscle and cell regeneration stuff I use for two reasons, one for holding onto muscle , and two for the increase in cell regeneration within the tissue.

Have a follow up in 4 weeks!

[sandi sydenham]

Hi Jayuk

Sounds as if you're really doing well ...that's great....keep drinking the green tea ....I reckon it works wonders.

Sandi