Stitch removal

[John Smith]

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd give the group a quick update: I had a corneal graft in Jan 2002, and following three minor rejection episodes, I had the stitch removed (finally!) on Thursday.

To be honest, I was panicing more about the removal than the graft itself - being awake and sitting up filled me with terror.

I had one of the zig-zag running stitches, and the consultant first cut the zig-zag in a few places, and then proceeded to pull out the stitch fragments. All under local anaesthetic drops of course!

Part way through, a familiar feeling came over me, and we had to pause for a while because I thought I was about to faint. I was sweating and as white as a sheet! Nevertheless, I was calmed down, and the job was completed.

I'm now on more steroid drops and antibiotic drops too. The eye was quite sore for the first couple of days, but I'm almost feeling back to normal now.