UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Over the past couple of days I have had fairly severe and constant pain in my non-graft eye.

I am 'listed' for a graft in that eye in the spring or early summer. I have been to the hospital and they say that it looks like an early stage hydrops.

Two questions:

1 If it is a Hydrops that is developing, how long would it be before they were able to proceed with the graft?
2 If not hydrops, does anyone have any similar experience who could suggest a possible cause?

I have not been able to wear any sort of lens in that eye for over 6 months, and prior to that I could tolerate my scleral for only about an hour at a time.

Andrew

Andrew

To answer your questions

Two questions:

1 If it is a Hydrops that is developing, how long would it be before they were able to proceed with the graft?

IF it is a hydrop, then you are looking at anything from a 4 - 18 month delay! HOWEVER, there are some instances where the tear is so great that some contulants go straight to a graft. However, I did see some obscure research paper which suggested that the outcome of a graft immediately after a Hydrop (without recovery) is not as advantageous than that of one which has fully recovered, healed and scarred.



2 If not hydrops, does anyone have any similar experience who could suggest a possible cause?

Pressure - eye pressure does fluctuate in Keratconic Corneas.....and this MAY be why you are experiencing this sharp pain....does it happen at random times of the time, and still stays there regardless of where you look?

Jay

Jay

Thanks for getting back. I thought it would be a longish term delay if a hydrops did develop.

Yes, the pain increases in severity at random times, even with my eyes closed, it continues. It does subside but never really goes away.

Actually, eye pressure does sound credible. If it's still with me on Monday, I think I'm going back to casualty. They may be able to give me something to control the pain: it is hard to work when you want to claw your eye out to get some relief.

A

Andrew

Im obviously not a Opthamologist, but if the pain is sharp, and remains constant when you look around (ie keep your head straight and just move the eyes) then get the pressure checked out....theres loads of solutions available to control eye pressure anyway...so thats a good point!

Jay

Andrew I would get that pressure tested asap

Thanks again, all

Got quite a busy day tomorrow, but will be able to go to casualty at the eye hospital first thing on Monday. If it had been my graft eye I'd have been able to go direct to the ward.

Fe fi! Onward!

Hoping that everything goes well on Monday. It does sound like it could be eye pressure so it is best to get it sorted.

It is strange but i have had eye pain before from overwear of lenses etc and found that no matter how many painkillers i took nothing helped. Yet when i had my graft done i just took paracetamol and was painfree! Odd!

Let us know how you get on!

Sweet X x X

Hi Andrew,
Sorry to hear about this trouble. Hope you can get the pain cleared up at least.

if it is a hydrops, I'd expect the vision to be getting cloudy. This could be anything from a patch inthe centre like a window getting steamed up to a complete white-out.
If it's been happening for more than a few hours and the vision hasn't gone cloudy, I'd rather doubt it's a hydrops.

If it /is/ a hydrops, the delay would depend on how bad it is. Typically, a hydrops may take, oh, a month to 6 weeks to heal over, maybe anywhere from 2 weeks onwards, and maybe 6-9 months to stabilise thoroughly.
Personally, I wouldn't let anyone take a decision on whether to recommend a graft till the split had healed over - say 4-6 weeks, and would be uneasy about them doing it before it had stabilised a good way.

I defer to others on alternatives.

Hope it turns out to be nothing serious.

As for the pain; have you tried aspirin? ibuprofen/ paracetamol?
SOrry if this sounds parsimonious (!) but I've found them at least as effective at easing eye pain as anything prescribed for the purose in eye drps/cream, and at a fraction of the cost.
ANd available over the counter in any chemist or supermarket.
Rosemary

Wouldn't you know it! I got up this morning and the blessed pain has gone. Grr. Now I', going to hve to tell the dude in reeption: "I am here because I used to have a pain'

I can imagine the recptionist replying, 'Oh yes, sir. I used to have a tricycle.'

Ah well, needs must.

Andrew

Andrew.

I had pain in my recently grafted eye at least three years pre op. Not all the time, but it used to be in the morning. My surgeon back then used to give me spersadex with clorampheninchol and said my contact lens was like bandage to prevent the KC to develop further. I didn´t take his advice for the best, but somehow I managed to live with some pain for three years. Until this summer. No contact lens cold be fitted, and couldn´t fit a lens to the other eye either. So I had to have something done.