Rainbows Revisited - OH NO!!!!!!

[rosemary johnson]

I should never have mentioned "premonition"! - the 4-footed friends thread.
I spent a not-exactly-happy time today in A&E.
Put new lens into grafted eye sometime about 1.15-1.30.
Was sitting at home eating lunch and then doing a load of paperwork - balancing bacnk accounts, checking Visa bill, writing out cheques to pay all th ebills I must tae to bank tomorrow.
(Yeah, am a Luddite who doesn't trust on-line banking....)
Put all cheques handy to take, sat down again with newspaper. Thought the world was maybe starting to look a bit misty. Read a few pages. Went to loo. Bathroom very misty. Came ack to front room. World getting mmistier fast.
Took out new lens. By now about 4.15. Lens been in not quite 3 hours.
Put some presentable clothes on and set off to hospital.
Just caught Ken before Close of Play. (Apologies again to the person I interrupted if you're reading this.) He had quick look but didn't want to discourage me from going to A&E.
Spent long time sitting in A&E admiring, and trying to gauge how wide/bright/colourful, the big rainbow haloes round some of the recessed ceiling lights in the waiting room.
THought they were fading by the time was finally called in.
Lots of very painful bright lights.
Verdict:
It's not rejection - no signs of rejection anywhere he can see (is this good news?????)
It's a contact lens problem, he says. Don't wear that lens again, and go back to Contact Lens Dept.
He agrees there was oedema - ie sogginess and swelling in the cornea, but wearing off after I took the lens out.
Then he got out the GADGET to measure the eye pressure
NOrmal range is up to 21. Last appointment iwth new consultant, pressure in grafted eye IIRR was 12. In other eye it's still 12.
In grafted eye it's now 36.
EEEEK!
He has dilemma - doesn't want to tell me to dispense with /reduce further the steroid eye drops or graft may really start to reject, yet steroid eye drops are known cause of increased eye pressure.
He reckons the high pressure is a reaction tothe steroid eye drops.
He also reckons it is high eye pressure that is causing the haloes and rainbows.
The high pressure causes fluid to be pushed through into the cornea and make it swollen and soggy - a bit like the "reverse osmosis" plants the Arabs have for making drinking water from the sea (??)
I'd been sitting onthe tube on the way thinking "If I hadn't just have a graft, I'd say this was another hydrops" - well, similar, apparently.
I have a supply of pressure-reducing drops, and have put one in when I got home.
I'm to go back first thing in the morning.
Waarrghhhhhh!
Not sure why the steroid (dexamethasone) eye drops should start to do this NOW, when I'm down to 2 a day and after being on them hourly at first and 12 last appointment.... but then, after all those other adverse reactions to steroid, why should I be surprised???!!!!!!
Now why wearing a lens should apparently make it worse - no problems till got the lens - maybe cos the excess fluid can't evaporate out the front of the eye??? - as per the hairdryer hydrops treatment????
Very fed up with this.
Am sitting here in front room again now evening with light on and rainbows round the lightbulb and if anything world going more misty again.
Suppose it's a good thing I did get fed up with misty bits and go to Hospital.
NOt sure at all about prognosis for lens wear. If this graft just won't take contact lenses, that's a COMPLETE BUMMER!!!!!!!!! - and after the total disaster of having the op too.
No-one said anything about Not Drinking Alcohol, but porbably woldn't be too good an idea - shame, as could really do with a large whisky.
Not to mention large qunatities of CAKE
and CHOCOLATE!!!!!!
OH well..... better get still sore and aching self off to try to find a way to lie comfortably in bed on the bruises.
Wish me luck tomorrow.
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

Rosemary

I think that high IOP is one of the things that they look out for when you've had a graft. Their vigilance, your presence of mind and Ken's encouragement seem to have combined to enable you to catch and correct a potential problem.

Yes it is good news that you are not showing signs of rejection. And chocolate cake is almost as good as icecream!

All the best

Andrew

[Anne Klepacz]

Hi Rosemary - hope your appt this morning has gone well. Increased eye pressure post graft isn't that uncommon. Certainly happened to me after one of my grafts, and to several other people I've spoken to over the years (none of whom were wearing a lens yet in the grafted eye, so the lens may not be the culprit). In my case, a change to a different steroid drop, plus additional drops to reduce the eye pressure for a few weeks brought everything back under control. Sincerely hope that proves the case for you too!
All the best
Anne

[rosemary johnson]

Today's news:
Intra-ocular pressure (IOP) in grafted eye was 20 this morning. Down from 36 last night and just inside the border of "normality".
This attributed tot he eye drops (to reduce pressure) having done their stuff.
The young woman I saw didn't think the "episode" of high pressure was due tothe steroids, but just happened, "just one of those things". Apparently, sometimes pressure "just does" rise like that.
She also didn't think the lens was the culprit and suggests I give the ye a while to settle down and then try the lens again.
She's going to contact my new consultant and suggest she bring my next appointment forward.
World less isty today and not seen any rainbows.
NO answer to "why do lenses bring the symptoms on?" - can only think it's fortunate they do - if didn't have lens to make the mistiness apparently, wouldn't have discovered high IOP till next routine apptment in October.
DOn't know why bending over looking down (eg. cleaning DUke's feet out, or shovelling up horse poo (!) ) should start the mistness - I'd thought it was air bubbles getting under edge of lens if gravity pulled the lens downwards away from eye, but maybe it is just when gravity gets to help the pressure pushing fluid through into the cornea?
Come back if any more problems.
Well!
Keep taking the anti-pressure drops, and the anti-rejection drops.
Got tea and sandwich from hospital cafe and went out to field to see Duke.
Started feeling shivery and shakey and a bit sick. Sat outside caravan (-tea room) in field with cup of tea and wanted to cry.
Delayed shock reaction. Had one before after last hydrops (!). Also very very tired - too sore after Monday's tumble (!) to be able to sleep.
SHould be thinking "phew - what a relief" but too tired and shock-ey to be glad and re=energised.
Found part of me was almost thinking "pity" - whole experience so horrific and THING in what's left on my eye such anathema, part of me would still be a bit glad if it went belly up. Horrified to discover this! - please don't tell me to think of donor - OF COURSE I DO!!!!! - and logic says I don't want the pain, hassle of yet more hours in hospital waiting rooms.
Get act together eventually and took Duke out ofr a little gentle ride. Farrier and yard manager reckon he's got another foot infection. Was worried he was feeling foot-sore when he was plodding along very unenthusiastically. But when we turned homewards he was going about 5 times as fast, so deduced he was just sulking because I'd insisted on soaking the foot in question in a bucket of water with smelly medicated STUFF. He dislikes this and keeps trying to pick foot out of bucket and walk away, kicking over bucket/me/both in process. As stable jobs go, I'd rather tramp round field shovelling up poo! Can still smell the STUFF on my hands hours later.
Actually feel less sore riding than walking - probably because I got straight back aboard after Little TUmble so the riding muscles didn't have time to seize up.
About to go to bed with pack o neurofen. What a week!!!!!
Rosemary

[rosemary johnson]

PS: have had IOP checked at every appointment post-graft - yes, it's one of the things they monitor, not least cos the anti-rejection drops can actually cause high pressure.
Seeing me lying face down on the ward floor in floods of tears apparently "they" were concerned mainly this would push the IOP up - that was why they were so keen to move me!
But it's always been fine so far.
And hopefully hereafter too.
R

[rosemary johnson]

Feeling much better today - less shakey and shivery, though pretty tired.
ANd only needed one ibuprofen so far.
That's for the aching bits that hit the ground faling off Duke, I hasten to add, not for a sore eye!
Hping for the best.
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

Take care Rosemary. Had you asked for my advice before doing it, I'd have cautioned against falling off Duke. God advice is easy to give; taking it, on the other hand, is a skill I have yet to perfect.

Andrew

[rosemary johnson]

Hee hee!
Falling off Duke is something I'd have advised MYSELF against. Unfortunately, it is not something, generally, that I end up having much choice about.
Though I have been sharing him for two and a half years and fallen off 4 times in all, which is probably not bad......
I remember when I went to hospital appointment last autumn, on the day when my mum and I turned up with masses of questions, and ended up ooking the op date.
One of the questions was: How long after the op before I can ride a horse again?
Young woman fielding all these questions looked in her dubious type of mode.
"OK," I said, "the riding a horse isn't the problem; it's the falling off I mustn't do after an op."
Been out on him today - he's definitely getting more full of himself since he had his foot done and new shoes on last Monday - I thoght it was too good to be true recently that he'd been standing still beside the mounting block while I climbed on, found the off-side stirrup, checked the girth, pulled my gloves on..... today he's been refusing to stand still inthe right place, setting off as soon as I'm approximately "aboard", etc....
.... and we went to explore a new bridle path I've learned about, where one has to dismount to unlock the gate, lead the horse through, relock the gate and climb aboard again. Three mounting blocks he didn't want to stand still by......!
Meanwhile, eye been feeling quite sore and itchy, looks rather red, been feeling headachey just behind it, and all the painkillers I was taking earlier inthe week for the sore its than hit the ground suddenly have been upsetting the digestive system.....
And the pressure-reducing drops are aggravating my asthma! - just when it seemed taht after several different experiments and advice from Ruth at the GP's, I'd finally got a new inhaler regime that semed to be working well! And I can't just upset that, puff a load more, etc, because I can't take more steroids or I might start having bad trips again.
The red and itchy eyes and worsened asthma are all possible side effects listed onthe info leaflet in the pack. I don't think they are bad enough to want to trek back to A&E yet again!!! - but I do want to change the drops next opportunity.
Need I say, I'm very fed up with this!!!!!
Can't exactly say it's made me wish wholeheartedly I'd never had this op, because I was doing that already! Shall we say it does nothing to change that view one jot.
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

Rosemary

You see, good advice IS easy to give!

I am sorry that your eye continues to give you so much discomfort. As to feeling shivvery and sick, I usually get that about an hour after they have prodded my eye or (even worse) given me any kind of injection into it! I think that is why, in our local hospital, they contrive reasons to keep you sitting about for a couple of hours after a visit to the ophthalmology theatre for removal of sutures or even cataract surgery.

I sit there trembling and telling myself that I am being foolish. Then I answer myself "I know I'm being foolish, but this isn't really my choice". This little soliloquy is conducted 'internally' so as to avoid causing alarm to the person next to me who is also trembling quietly to himself and feeling a bit sick. If I ever came up with something as impressive as Hamlet's introspection on the nature of life the universe and everything, then I'd probably risk the padded cell by saying it out loud, but given that this is unlikely ever to happen, I reckon I am safe.

Don't hesitate to go back to your clinic if you think your eye is not responding well to the treatment.

Yours ever

Andrew

[rosemary johnson]

No injections or prodding (only the pressure-measuring gadget, which I'm now well used to).
I've been told that eye surgery is renowned for making people feel sick - it's something to do with the nerves from the eyes and the nerves that govern the "heave" reflex running close together. The guy who told me this cited a set of serial numbers, which were beyond the scope of my anatomy diploma and I didn't take in.
Apparently, the hefty dose of intravenous steroids they gave me during my graft op were mainly intended as anti-emetics. Unfortunately, they then wheeled me along a hospital corridor while nearly-enough coming round that it woke me up in horror, and because of the damage to the part(s) of my brain that ahndle motion sensations, and the refusals of those pushing it to stop however much agony I was in, made me so seasick that any amount of anti-emetic would probably have been useless.
Irony, or what???!!!!!!!!!
My thoughts at the time were that it had made the brain damage worse, and possibly set off the whole set of violent hallucinations - but by that time, it is well possible the damage had already been done and become irreversable.
Mydentist tells me things about people getting adrenaline releases just from being punctured (by a needle, he meant), anywhere.
I don't think this was related to the eye or treatment per se - I think it was jsut a release of tension when it seemed all was be no means as bad as it might have been.
And I wasn't sure whether to be releaved or sorry......
I've no idea how well the eye is doing now as can't measure the pressure myself.
It remains to be seen how it will get on with a lens in future - after I've given it a while to settle down again and try again, and even more so, long term.
If that eye will simply not tolerate much lens wear, ever, that will be a complete bummer!
I decided to get the right eye done first (ha ha ha!!! in retrospect!) partly in the hope that if it worked OK, then I had the most to gain from having good vision in the eye nearest the traffic hen I was riding.
If that ain't going to happen - or if I can only get a couple of hours every few days from the lens - I'd have been far better off with my own eye as it was, because I as getting about 12 hours wearing time, albeit with lots of ghosting and multiple images, and see the traffic coming up behind us, even if it wasn't really able to read print after only a few hours.
I was reading only recently a message I posted shortly before the op which talked about the prospect of going back to cycling about, to work, etc, again if I could get good vision in the eye on the traffic side.
ANother bitter irony - never mind the question mark over the eye and the lens, the damage to that motion processing brain function means I haven't dared to contemplate trying to balance a bicycle again.
Feeling less sore today - just pretty despressed about it all.
Rosemary