My Son's Corneal Graft

[nan64]

My son had a corneal graft 2 weeks ago. Seemingly they were pleased with how the op went, however he had a bad reaction to the anaesthetic causing coughing and retching. The following day he had to go back to surgery as the attack had caused some 'cheese slicing' of the cornea - the surgeon's words. They did the repair job under local anaesthetic and it involved 4 new stitches. He was home after four days, obviously off work and not driving.

At his last appointment he did not do well on the eye test only recognising one of the letters correctly with his grafted eye. - This was 9 days post op. He is very light sensitive and looks as if he is not properly opening his eye at the moment, also he is not seeing much with the eye. His eye he says feels very uncomfortable some of the time.

I wonder if this is normal at this early stage of the game, his next appointment is in 8 days time.

Thanks

Nan

[Anne Klepacz]

Hi Nan
Sorry to hear that your son had such a bad reaction to the anaesthetic, and that it affected the stitches. That sort of reaction is rare, but as far as sight after a graft is concerned, it is quite normal for it to be poor at this early stage, and I certainly wore sunglasses for weeks after my grafts because I was very light sensitive. But of course, if there are any sudden changes, then he shouldn't hesitate to get in touch with the hospital and get things checked out (and usually the eye ward is only to happy to take phone calls from people post surgery if they are worried).
I do hope his recovery goes smoothly from now on.
All the best
Anne

[Andrew MacLean]

Nan

Let me share Anne's condolences on the difficult time your son has had since surgery. That said, I hope that he is now on the road to recovery.

It does take a long time for sight to settle down and recover after surgery; your son will have frequent visits to the ophthalmology clinic, and will have regular 'refractions' during this time. Once his sight has stabilized the ophthalmologists and optometrists will prescribe glasses or contact lenses for him. In my case, after my first graft, this process took about two years, but I know of others for whom it has been much more rapid.

Yours aye

Andrew

[rosemary johnson]

Nan, hallo and welcome to the forum.
Many commiserations to yur son on the adverse anaesthetic reaction - I had (and am still having) nasty reactions, including much coughing and retching for first several days, but apparently without the cheese-slicing to go with it.
As regards vision - feeling sore from time to time after 2 weeks is pretty normal, let alone after two ops in two days effectively. Ditto being light sensitive.
I still (nearly 12 weeks on) can't see any of the letters on the chart with my grafted eye unaided, am still getting periods where it feels really dry and gritty and uncomfortable, and light sensitive.
I'm also going round wth it clamped shut quite a lot - partly light sensitivity, but in my case also because I find the unfamiliar blurriness out of it, which I'm not used to ignoring, can be very confusing, and add to bits of dizziness etc (the anaesthetic has screwed up my balance).
Hope things improve for your son, but seriously after two weeks it doesn't sound out too out of the ordinary.
HOpe the coughing and retching have worn off now - also that he gets ore sense out of the hospital than I've been doing about what they used and what to tell people not to use again another time.
Rosemary

[melissa]

Hi Nan,
I ditto what everyone else has said. At 9 days I was stil very miserable and couldn't see ANYTHING, and didn't really want to open the eye much. My vision started to improve gradually only after 2 weeks. and the light senstivity lasted even longer than that.
Let us know how it goes.

[nan64]

I thought I would give you an update on my son. Unfortunately he has had so much bad luck as for the past month he has spent over two weeks back in hospital and is now on 3 hospital appointments a week. He had a loose stitch which seemed to lead to an infection, well 2 infections to be precise - one on the surface and one much deeper. He has been back into theatre for them to take samples to try and grow cultures to identify the cause of the infection but to no avail, so he still has the deep infection. They are telling him that it is very rare what has happened, but that doesn't really help the cause!

He is still unable to see out of the eye which is depressing for him as before he did have some sight even though it was poor. He is also on a lot of painkillers, and is going through a very low time emotionally at the moment.

Thanks very much for adding your comments and for hearing me out - much appreciated.
best wishes

Nan

[rosemary johnson]

Crumbs, Nan! - how rotten for your poor son.
hope things look up soon. Lots of best wishes.
Rosemary

[charlene godfrey]

what a lot of bad luck with the reaction.I had my graft in november and still were my sunglasses very frequently even on bright but not sunny days It wasnt untill eye tests in january that i started to progress on the chart.I didnt return to work till march and it was only then i started drivng again.I am stll on drops twice to three times a day and advice your son do not go any where with out them!I also still have 10 of the originall 15 stitches in place.
I felt quiet awfull at first as i was even having to use my sunglasses in the house to watch the shadows on the tv as i could not see a thing at christmas time so i fully sympathise,All i can say is every one has a different eye so every ones recovery will be different but there will be light at the end of the tunnel in more ways than one! tell him chin up and there are always friends and listening ears here as we know how it feels.