UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Just thought I would post a quick update on my graft operation .I had the opp on the 15 th December and so far things have been going very well .To be honest its gone much better than I thought it would .I expected the eye to be quite saw a and painful a lot .But it feels completely normal .Sometimes when I am tiered It does get a little red ,may be because the eye is dry and I am due for a drop., once or twice I have had a strange feeling in the eye ,hard to explain really ,a bit like its quite tight .I am guessing after reading some previous post its something to do with the pressure or stitches .Its only lasted a short while ,but I will bring it up next time I see my surgeon .My drops have changed to just 2 a day ,And I don’t have to see the surgeon again until June .He seamed pleased how everything is going so far .When I asked how long do the stitches have to stay in for he said quite while ,and sometimes he leaves some of them in ,is this normal ?

Just a quick question for anyone who knows ,like I said I had the opp 4 months ago ,and I know it can get rejected ,is there a time when it is less likely ,say after 1 year the odds go down etc .

Vision wise I do have some vision in the eye now, not vey good, but at least it’s a little and hopefully with the help of glasses or contact lens in the future it will improve.

All the best to everyone and thanks for your help/advise in the past.

Rob

Hi Rob

Well done for getting this far !

As for rejection, did you have a DALK "part depth" graft or a PK "full depth" graft ? DALK is known as the "rejection free graft" (not entirely true but there's a lot less rejection risk with this procedure) compared with PK. So if you had a DALK graft then you've not that much to worry about. For a PK graft, I'm not sure what the main at-risk time is (the risk of rejection never goes away entirely but I'm sure there is a window after which the odds drop away). Sorry but I don't know exactly what that is for PK.

What I would say on this subject is, no matter what the "X% risk of rejection at Y timeframe" value is, everyone is different. I spent ages, and I do mean ages, looking up all the data I could find on DALK (the procedure I had). But I should have known better than that because actually, it really doesn't count for anything when considering a sample size of one (i.e. you !). If I were to advise that the risk of a rejection episode for you as at four months post-op was 1 in 10, you would end up thinking you might be the unlucky 1. If I were to discover that it was 1 in 100, you would end up thinking you might be the unlucky 1. If it was 1 in 1,000 you... well, you get the idea. That's just human nature unfortunately.

So, try not to worry and take one day at a time. You're definitely over the worst.

Best wishes

Chris