Twanging stitches!

[Per]

Hi.

As I said in another discussion I started to get a "dust-below-a-hard-contact-lens" feeling in my grafted eye after loosing the protection shield. Visited my regular surgeon today and he could see nothing but the same microscopic sore area on the cornea as they found at the hospital. He said this couldn´t possibly cause such pain as I described, and it would heal by itself after a week or so. The suture was tight and ok, stich was not broken. So why does this pain come, normally in the afternoon and the resrt of the evening? I go crazy if this continues !

[Louise Pembroke]

I appreciate your frustration Per, I can cry out with the pain of dust under the lens. To have this for long regular periods must be driving you nuts but you know how painful it is if you have the slightest scratch or anything in your eye. Eyes are sensitive, and my guess is this little sore spot might need a bit longer to clear up. I occasionally get pain in my other eye which has no lens but it's momentary and doesn't happen often. I don't think ongoing pain like this is common place [unless there's a specific problem like rejection/hydrops etc]. Perhaps other graftees might reassure you.

[John Smith]

Per,

I can certainly empathise and sympathise with you - I've had that sort of dust under an RGP lens regularly, and my friends were tempted to enter me for a gurning competition

I don't think it is normal to get that sort of sharp pain post-graft. The only pain I had at all was when putting the steroid drops in. If my aim was particularly good, but from too high up, there was a nasty impact pain, but that was more bruising than sharp, and went away pretty quickly.

I tend to agree with Louise on this one and think that it could be the sore spot. Don't let your consultant bully you into thinking that it's not important though. If it hurts, keep telling them until someone listens.

[Louise Pembroke]

Pain is what the patient says it is!