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[Michael Clough]

Gareth

Yes...I wear lens from 6.30 am til 11 ish at night therefore do get a long period of time with them on. Doctor advised reducing time with lens however I now find that when lens not in I get severe discomfort....An evening without lens resulted in looking like Id been given a black eye the next day!!

What happens to eye after graft - is it eye patch/bandaged until stiches removed or are they not visible? I am assuming this is pretty uncomfortable?

My doctor seems adamant that surgery is my best option - need to know what Im letting myself in for?

Mike

PS Currently find when driving lens falls out when looking left and right at junction - very handy...

[Michael Clough]

Jayuk

Thanks for the info. Will keep you posted.

PS Found out more in the last hour than in the last six months!

PPS Must admit thought it was going to get better on its own....duh

[jayuk]

No worries Michael..theres soo much info on this site that youll be even more prepared when you need to make the decision!

With regards to the graft

Basically, the sutures are put in place during the procedure and are kept in place anything from 3months+....its not unheard of of people haveing them 18 years plus!...

You wont feel the sutures after about 10 days (mine was less) however after that you can blink etc without knowing there their (assuming the procedure has gone well and there are no other issues).

The eye is bandaged for a day only...and then you are encouraged to keep it open, and wear a patch at nite and also when you are going out.....(if needed)...after about 2 weeks you cant even tell that you have had a graft in usual examples!

[GarethB]

Michael,

Sounds like you are hetting eye stain to some extent. Most optomotrists recopmend 8 - 12 hours wear. To get the lens wear you need, I would suggest trying the alternating eye strategy, feels odd at first but after a couple of weeks you start to adjust quite quickly. It also gives the eye a chance to recover between lens wearing.

Regarding driving, as I spend a lot of time driving with one eye, I compensate for the extra blind spot when it comes to turning and overtaking by moving my head more. This is now second nature so when I just have my right lens in, it no longer drops out.

As Jay has said about the variety of lens types, a Scleral lens might be appropriate as they just will not fall out. Jay is an expert on this too and many say they are more comfortable than the corneal lenses you have now.

My KC is quite advanced and thin, but here's tempting fate, I have never had hydrops, but I do not do heavy lifting and my eye preasure as always remained pretty constant. I am by no means a lazy fat git although some may think so with the number of posts I have put.

Gareth

[rosemary johnson]

Well, I am a lazy fat git, as those who know me will testify.
I've had no fewer than FOUR hydrops, and lived to tell the tale.
I'm told this is very rare!
They've healed over well enough I haven't had a graft at all. Not yet, anyway.
The first one was during the Christmas vac of my first year as a student - I'd never heard of anything of the sort and was, unsurprisingly, panic-stricken. The world was a complete white-out in that eye for a month. But it cleared over well eventually.
The second started just before I went back to college at the start of my finals term. Again, complete white-out for a month or so.
I don't remember either of those urting particularly badly, but I remember the terrible panic.
Is it any surprise I didn't get the year's star First??!!
the thrid and fourth were much smaller - just a bit of blurring, and I had a lens back in in a week, but it was much more sensitive than ormal for snormal, and went on being iffy for several months.
SOme say that a post-hydrops eye is actually tougher than before the hydrops. I don't know about that really. None of them noticeably improve dthe vision (!) though only the second noticeably made it worse (as distinct from usual gradual deterioration) once the hydrops had healed over.
COmpared to some people I've been lucky, I guess!
- though the fourth one happening just before I was due to set off for a volunteer project in Africa for several months was certainly very very panic-inducing.
Rosemary

[Asif]

Michael, following on from others have said I would only go for a graft as a last resort. There are many lenes available for KC as mentioned above. I also experienced pain during lens wear and for several hours after removing them. The reason for this was because I was over wearing my lenses. You really do need to reduce you wearing time from 16+ hours down to 8-12 hours max. If you really need to wear them for longer then try alternating between left and right contact lenses as mentioned by GarethB. I also did this as the most lens wear time I could get was 8-9 hours. It was difficult at first but I got used to it after a week or so and was doing so for about a year. If your eyes are hurting with your lenses in, give your eyes a break from lens wear for about 2-4 days. I had to do this every 2-3 weeks as I would get superficial marks on the cornea because of prolonged lens wear.


DJ Smak. Everyones been there with KC. Dont let it get to you. In time you'll be able to cope with KC, try and be as patient as possible. Read my thread which I have linked below it may be of help.....

http://forum.keratoconus-group.org.uk/v ... highlight=

[John Smith]

Michael,

It does begin to sound that you may be suffering from overwearing - as typified by this excellent article on "good eye days" versus "bad eye days"...

http://www.clspectrum.com/archive_resul ... 5&auth=816

Dr. S. really does make it clear that we shouldn't overwear, even though our condition makes us want to wear the lenses more often to achieve better sight!