UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi,

I had surgery in my right eye in last September and my scans after 5 months shows some improvements but I am feeling that my vision is worse than it was before. I don't know why this is happening but I could have drive in night before my cxl surgery but I cannot now. My next appointment is in 2 weeks but I just wanted to know when can I expect my eyes to get back to normal. I think 10 months are enough time for that.

Also I have a strangle feeling on the bottom part of my right eye. It is like something is present over there but there is nothing over there. It can constantly feel like a rough surface over there. I don't know what it is but wanted to know somebody has experience the same thing or not. If yes, can you tell whether is just because of dry eyes or it is something else.

Thanks in advance and Sorry for my poor English

Hi again Hardik.

It's been 8 months since my CXL was performed on my left eye. My vision is worse than it was before. Of course, this is only due to my hazing that occurred during the procedure. Will it ever get back to how it was? I don't know... it seems most people recover over about a 12 month period, but there are instances where it can take 2 or even 3 years. Some never get back. At the moment I do regret having CXL performed but hindsight is a wonderful thing eh.

As for the roughness you speak about, I actually do get that occasionally, but on the other eye. I've had CXL performed on that eye too, and it luckily went really well, however sometimes I get a kind of scratchy feeling, even when I'm wearing contacts (but sometimes putting a contact in makes it feel okay) I had my optometrist look into this for me and she didn't see anything other than a small sty on the inside of my eyelid, but said that shouldn't really be causing your issue. Since it comes and goes I've not taken the investigation any further.

Hope everything else is well.

Olly

Thanks Cripps for these details. One more thing that I feel is that somehow the topography of my eye has changed so that ghost image intensity has reduced but the distance of shift of double image has increased which makes it worse. Its still two weeks till I will go for the next checkup. I will update the post as soon as I will get the results.

Best
Hardik

I got the scans back so I think I should update this post. I have attached the links to the scans:

1.) Just before the CXL surgery : https://goo.gl/photos/V7okFTw2VGFGQxng9
2.) 5 months after it: https://goo.gl/photos/NCzWnQjQekDtk5eh9
3.) 10 months after it: https://goo.gl/photos/bU8uYWf44Rz8m7c4A

As you can see scans after 10 months are worse than the scans after 5 months, does that mean CXL does not worked, or it is common. My doctor says eye is stable but I don't know why he said that even though it does not appear so. Any comments are welcome.

It's not that much worse, maybe it's stabilizing, and it's still better than before CXL! Unfortunately there's a distinct lack of research into what happens after 12 months so we're all guinea pigs

The scans look very stable between 5 months and 10 months. Remember that each scan has a margin of error, so you could literally do one scan after another and you'd get slightly different results.

Just to add (kind of relevant here) that I my 12 months scan for my right eye yesterday... and it basically hasn't changed since before CXL! So, I guess it worked, seeing as though it's meant to be about stabilization.

The weird thing is, my prescription has seemed to change a lot!? Even since just back in April. At one point believe it or not I could almost see the bottom line of the chart, but now I'm back to the middle of it again which is frustrating.

So, what do you think can be the reason for this? Because in my case as well my vision on paper seems to be better than it was before cxl but I feel that my vision has degraded a little bit.

Honestly I don't know, and neither does the optometrist I saw. She wasn't the expert (who was on holiday) but I shall be seeing her soon, so hopefully she can shed some light on things. Recent my contacts have become a right pain actually, the double vision is messing up everything... when for a long drive today (first in a while) and I can't say I enjoyed the experience, which is a shame actually as I usually love driving!