just had 8 stitches out

[GarethB]

Most hospitals I have come across that have an eye casualty during normal hours on weekd days have one of the consultants on call out of hours.

So all you have to do is go to the normal A&E and explain the situation and an eye consultants should be called.

My hospital has gone so fat to tell me to go to my local A&AE where I will be given a local anaesthetic in my eye to make it omfortable while I fast tracked into the system and sent to the main hospital by ambualncet where the main eye unit is. They say I should arrive at the same time as the consultant.

No idea if it works, so far never had to try the system, any problems have been during office hours.

Hope you make a speedy recovery.

[Pascalini]

i went to A & E and waited 2 and a half hours. then in the last 10 mins before they called me in the eye started clearing up lol typical. the doc gave me some gooey solution that gave my eye a coating and told me to see him at 10am the next day-

saw him today and he said when they cut the stitch they may of grazed the eye and that was probably what caused the dis-comfort.

so its now sat night and it doesn't feel so much like i have something in my eye now but it feels so so itchy and a little sore when not wet.

Starting to feel like im never going to get back to normal now- so need to keep positive and hope the eye get better later in the week- my biggest concern is that i go back to work on monday and dont want it to effect me as im doing well in my job and getting responsibility for the first time.

I know people in here say dont let KC rule your life- but god sometimes it tests you to the max

Dont let this put anyone off getting a graft though--its been plane sailing so far i just think the women who took some of my stitches out did a botch job

[GarethB]

If you don't feel upto going back to work, give them a call and get signed off for a bit longer.

You may be doing well and if they treat you different when you go back they could find themslves taking a dangerous path.

As they have started to be giving you resonsibility, having to take a few extra days after what is actually a major operation should have no affect on your carear. If it does, then they are treading on dangerous ground and could fall foul of the disability discrimination act.

Since being part of this group I have come across several cases in public and private sector business.

At the end of the day, you need to do what is best for you.

[Pascalini]

thanks Gareth-i work for the government so yea i am covered in some ways-

its just bad timing as in deputising for my manager in a week which means alot of responsibility.

i dont know why but everytime i ask for a an afternoon off to go hospital or a week off for what i had done this week i feel so guilty like im taking the mick lol i know thats not the case though but explaining to my manager what is wrong with me is just hard work- when i said im having stitches taken out of my eye i got more of a horrified look rather than him ask me a bit more about the procedure. one things for sure since i had my op i have realised how so many people just dont ever understand or whant to actually find out what is wrong with me- alot of my family use will be hard to me as they would think the soft approach would just make me feel down- but sometimes it would actually be nice for one person to find out all about what it is i go through.

does anyone els feel like this?

[rosemary johnson]

I think a lot of people just get very squeamish about eyes, and can't bear to be made to think about the "gory details".
There's lots of people who've said they could never put something like my contact lens in their eye..... once, let alone every day. Let alone have stitches taken out of it.
Which is a bit of a bummer when we really need someone to know what we're going through and be supportive.
This group is so valuable for that.
Actually, there's a funny side to this........
A few years, at the time I started to think I was having my fourth (!) hydrops, it was in the middle of one of a serious of long meetings at work with a supplier, represented by a very smarmy, smooth-talking salesman complete with big toothy grin and pronounced fake tan.
I went to the ladies at coffee break (as one does....) and also been peering int he mirror at my eye, wondering why it was feeling sore, looking red and going a bit misty.
Took contact lens out as couldn't stand it much more, and became convinced I could see a small white patch in the centre, as when a hydrops is starting.
went back to the meeting, apologised to everyone I'd now have to peer at the paperwork at 2" range and explained why.
My colleagues told me later the smarmy salesman was going white under the fake tan and wriggling in his seat in discomfiture.
He asked if I wanted us to break off the meeting so I could get round to the hospital.
Oh no, I explained airily, there was no point in doing that. The membrane just split as much as it was going to, and let through as much fluid as was going to come and the wrold would go as white as it was going to go white, and it would take a month to 6 weeks to heal over and settle down enough for the hospital to know how well it would heal and if anything needed doing about it. It's happened to me 3 times before and the only thing the hospital can no now is prescribe analgesic eye ointment and it's cheaper to go tot he supermarket and get some paracetamol.
Smarmy salesman, or so I'm told, was by now distinctly green under the fake tan.
I do wish I'd been able to see this!!!!! - but with no lens in, and a hydrops in one eye, he was nothing but a very vaguely person-shaped blur.
Seriously......
I do hope your stitch problems calm down soon. I've heard that taking them out can cause soreness for a bit - a experience I have yet to go through. Best wishes.
Rosemary

[Pascalini]

lol good story that Rosemary, you sound like you have been through the wars too-

last night it felt again like i have a really itchy eyeball. starts the day off ok but then later in the night its a nightmare- which is great because when i go to the hospital its in the morning or day when the eye looks fine so they don't do anything.

[rosemary johnson]

How frustrating....1
Apparently, eyes do go through Circadian rhythms - which is why we get told to put the pressure-reducing drops in in the evenings.
SOunds like your stitches are, too.
Continued best wishes - can you gt to an A&E in the evening if ir flares up again?
Rosemary

[Pascalini]

Yea i went to casualty friday evening- then it started to clear up as i waited 3 hours so he said see me in the morning instead- it was fine in the morning- he sent me on my way with the all clear and hey presto it started again at 4pm all the way through the night,

Today its been better though i have to admit- still feels like something is there but much more bareable. this has defo put me off getting stitches taken out again lol i was much happier with them in my eye- never really felt them.

Whats the story with your eye's rosemary? you had a graft in both? been a struggle?

[Matthew_]

I guess you have got the answers you needed.
I recently had 6 stitches out and I also had some soreness although not as bad as you. When I asked the Doctor, he said it was pretty normal. Sure enough, things have calmed down now.
My experience was pretty good, although the Doctor was called away and I was left laying in the theatre for him to come back. I have a thing called 'Brachycardia' which means I have a very low heart rate. Its only about 42-44 when I am resting, so laying on the bed, I kept setting off the heart rate alarm, which pinged away making the nurses nervous

[rosemary johnson]

Since you ask, Pascalini.....
I had a graft (the first) in January and it went pear-shaped - not because of the eye, but becuase I had a really bad reaction to the anaesthetic. I had a very strong premonition/gut feeling that a general would not be safe for someone with my medical history, but came in fasting anyway in case the anaesthetist on the day came up with a factor i hadn't thought of. ANd, as I'd feared I might, I got extremely badly dehydrated - not migrainey and throwing up everywhere, but couldn't think straight or talk sense or barely croak at all, didn't know what i was doing, and when the (expletive deleted) surgeon wandered in like god descending from Mount Olympus and overruled both me and two anaesthetists, I was so far away from being able to think properly or know what was going on, I didn't tell him to eff off, put my coat on and go home.
And as per my gut feeling, it went pear shaped; I came round with brain damage and the most awful hallucinations - the latter I fear was permanent before i woke up and the latter are still being retriggered at the drop of a hat, including by asthma inhalers, new eye drops and other as-yet unidentified triggers.
There is a long thread titled Good Luck to Rosemary that goes through this rather gory story.
Then in the last 2 months, I've had the iop (internal eye pressure) soaring, been to A&E 3 times, extra clinic appointments.... and am now a regular with the glaucoma clinic too. The first anti-glaucoma eye drops upset my asthma, the second set set off the hallucinations again. They've all made my eye so red and dry and sandy I dn't feel inclined to try putting my new lens in it again, even if certain people at the hospital hadn't told me not to. Without the lens, it needs a pinhole to see the top letter on the chart and reads print at about 5" though is markedly astigmatic in doing so.
This part of the saga is in a thrad called Rainbows revisit - oh no!!
Make sure you're feeling fit before reading either!
I sincerely hope my (single, running) stitch will be coming out, and preferably not to far inthe future - I am NOT!!!!! going to spend the rest of my natural with That *****y Man's embroidery exhibition stuck in me!!!!!!!
Wished you hadn't asked now, don't you??!
Rosemary