advice please... umm again

[nicola jayne]

hi all,
i had my graft this friday (17th) i have had a full graft dand i have continous stiches.. firstly im sorry for the spelling and typing errors i am trying to do this out of my good eye which also needs a grsft lol. secondly im soooo groggy still after the ga im 26 and never thought i would feel like this sorry to moan or possibly put peoplwe off having a graftf as im sure in a week i will be feeling better.. i didnt expect the pain to be like this it hurtt so much i have a high pain threshold so dont know if its the stiches pulling.. and i have a bad head just above the eye .. is it normal for the drops to hurt so much ?? im not putting them on the cornea .. they are going underneath but ooowwww.. i have 2 types of drops mydrilate and maxitrol.. one hurts and the other does not.. now i am also angry because i have had no advice at all from the hoppy. i spoke to the surgeon and asked him about drops just before i went to sleep and he said drops every 2 hors .. when i was going home the nurse said 3 times a day so made her speak to the consultant to make sure !!! left hand doesnt know what the right hand is doing ...grrr.. and i cant open my eye properly .. am i expecting to much to soon? but it hurts when i ope eye hurts when i close eye and hurts if i move the eye.and its really swollen all around and eye lids and stuff.. is it normal to not be able to open the eye hardly anything.. very light sensitive and i think other eye is coming out in sympathy with it as thats being a pain aswell. i have to see the consultant on tuesday afternoon so hopefully i will get some more answers and advice aswell.. i am mortified at the lack of advice from the hospital and nursing staff ohhh and nobody seems to mention the injection just below/in the eye before they put you to sleep or was that just my bad luck .. again oww.... right sorry and this is probably not the best time to write but i just need some help please..


nicola [/b]

[Sweet]

(((Nicola)))

Hello hun and welcome to the forum! I am orginally from Pontypridd which is not far from you!

It is perfectly normal to feel bad after a graft and to feel really tired and groggy after any GA. It takes a long time for your body to recover and for the drugs to leave your system so please don't feel bad to come here and post, that is what this place is for!

The steroid drops do sting a lot but honestly you do get used to it. These are very important as they reduce inflammation so you do need to keep taking them regularly

Your eye can swell and feel puffy but in fairness it has just been attacked! LOL!! Hehehe! Your other eye can feel left out and need some sympathy, it felt the same as that when my good eye didn't see very well last summer!

Take good care of yourself and know that this will all settle in time. It is difficult to try to be patient but it will all get better soon. Please do come back and post anytime, we are always here to listen!

... Sweet X x X

[GarethB]

As Sweet says, the drops can be uncomfortable but it does get better. It is normal for they ey lid to be sore which is agrevated when it rubs against the stitches.

What I used to do was wrap a towel round an ice pack, close my eyes and rest it over my eyes and forehead. The cooling senstaion was great, plus the towel prevented water getting in my eyes and a frost bitten forehead

Light sensitivity does go, for me it was a couple of weeks before it had gone completly. The summer was horrible because it was really hot and sunny and my sunglasses were not dark enough and it was the days before I wore a baseball cap. May be if the Chav had been invented a few years earlier I would have been OK

Feel free to moan and share the good times, that what a support group is all about

[Alison Fisher]

Aw Nicola, I'm sorry you're feeling so rough.

When I had my first graft the pain was so continual and intense I didn't know what to do with myself. I told the docs at the hospital and they just shrugged and told me that pain wasn't usually a problem. No help was offered and I ended up feeling like a right wuss. Like you I consider myself to be able to cope with a fair amount of pain but to put it into context I would rate the pain from my first graft greater than that of labour and childbirth. Not being able to face it again I put off having the second graft for some time, and it was only after I finally got a doctor to really listen to me about the pain (and put a pain management plan in place) that I gritted my teeth and went for the second one. It could not have been more different from the first. My eye was sore but it was nothing I couldn't cope with, and nothing like the first one. I didn't need any help with the pain at all. You mention having a continuous stitch - my first was a continuous and my second individual. I wonder if that had anything to do with it? When you go for your check-up on Tuesday stress to them how much pain you are in because from my experiences they're not expecting you to be.

Also like you I felt very groggy after the anaesthetic. It lasted for several weeks, and I got really fed up with it. Go with the flow and don't push yourself.

And again like you both my eyes swelled up terribly afterwards. After my second I couldn't put my glasses on because my eyelids touched the lenses. I can't remember clearly quite how long they took to go down but they looked terrible and I was worried when we went out that people would think my husband had bopped me one.

Hang in there. The early days can be hard but if your end result is anything like either of my grafts then it will all be worthwhile.

Take care.

[Prue B]

I had both a continuos and interupted stitches in both eyes. The first graft hurt, I hardly slept that night and was in pain. I mentioned it next morning to my surgeon and he said next time I will order some pethedine, ask for that post surgery and the pain wont build up to the same point and you should have a better night. So after number 2 I asked for Peth and the nurse told me I did not need it as Corneal grafts are not painful. I asked him how many he had had, apparently none, and told him I had had one it hurt, I was ordered Peth and I wanted it so give it to me. I never had the pain or the intraocular pressure with the second graft I had with the first and believe the Peth helped decrease the pain and therefore the inflammatory response. I am not a drug addict, I had two children naturally only with gas, the first one I had some peth, but figure pain should be managed, not lived with.

[Andrew MacLean]

nicola

We had our grafts pretty close together. i was on October 27 and I admire you for being able to post so quickly after yours!

I think I was asleep before they did anything to me that I might have found distressing, although being in the anesthetic room surrounded by all the gubbins of a modern hospital was not exactly relaxing.

The day after I got out of hospital I had a reaction like the one you describe. I took myself (or rather my wife and daughter took me) to the ophthalmological casualty departement and the duty ophthalmologist told me to increase my steroid eye drops from four a day to eight a day.

This brought the inflammation under control, and by the Monday or Tuesday my eye felt much better.

I also have two sorts of eye drops: Dexamethasone (the steroid) hurts when I put it in. Chloramphenicol (the antibiotic) does not hurt at all; so I put in the steroid first, wait three minutes then put in the soothing antibiotic.

All the best

Andrew

[Sarah M]

oh im scared now

[Sweet]

Hey Sarah!

Are you ok hun?

Honestly it sounds really bad here but it is a lot lot better than this. Are you worried about surgery in general, or the eyedrops?

Thinking of you

Sweet X x X

[GarethB]

Sarah,

There is honestly nothing to be scared of, what part of the procedure is worrying you?

[Sarah M]

Im worried about the aftermath, scared in case things go wrong.

I know postive attitude and stuff, but when u read all the horror stories, you cant help it.