Tag Archives: full thickness graft

Over 11 weeks Post-Graft

7 Aug

I haven’t written for a while as things have been going really well with my eye and so there hasn’t been a lot to say. The sight in my left eye continues to improve – it is amazing that my left eye now sees a lot better than my right eye without a lense. Also the vision itself is so different. With my right eye which has KC I see more of a halo around lights and have little clarity when i look at objects (the edges seem fuzzy), whereas with my left eye everything seems more crisp and I don’t get the haloing around lights. It’s amazing and better than I had expected it to be at this stage. The blood-shot area in my left eye keeps getting better and the red area is getting less and less. my right eye has become a little blood-shot now but I think this is because I am using it a lot as I’m back to spending the days working at home and this involved being on the computer for a lot of the day. I’m driving again (just during the daytime) as my right eye is up to the standard to be able to drive, which means everything has pretty much returned to normal.

I’m so pleased that I decided to write this blog and I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has contacted me so far. It’s so good to hear that the blog is helping people around the world who are going to be having a graft or are considering the graft. I wanted to write the blog to give an honest experience and account of a corneal transplant – and although everyone’s different and my experience is only what’s happened to me, my experience of a graft has so far been a very positive on. I know how frightening and nerve wracking the thought of a corneal transplant can be – I was really scared of the unknown and the recovering from the operation. I spent a few months after being told I would need the graft thinking of excuses of why I couldn’t have it done at that time, and wanting to put it off for a while, but doing it has been a really good decision for me. Yes the operation is not the most pleasant experience (but what operation is?!), but this is only short-term when you wake up and may be uncomfortable. The first few days were not the best of my life, but only because I like to be doing things and I couldn’t as I was so tired, and the eye was sore (but nothing too awful). But other than that things have been great and they were never at any point that awful – or should I say as awful as I had imagined over the period leading up to the graft.

Magnus has definitely helped me over the past few weeks (apart from eating my eye drops & knocking me in the grafted eye!) as from the start he has given me a reason to go out for walks, to get out of the house, and when I am feeling a bit fed up, take my mind of things. So, if possible – get a Boxer Puppy!

 I was meant to see Mr Larkin for follow up this Friday but I have moved this to next Thursday (16th) so I will update you on how this goes.

Finally here is a picture of me and my eye today, and to compare below is me 1 day after the op!

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4 days post graft

8 Jul

Things have been going really well since I last wrote.  Yesterday I even left the house to take Magnus for a walk in the park.  In very large sunglasses in the drizzle and spending a lot of the 20 minutes covering my eye with my hand, but still I was out!  Once I got back I was really tired and so I had a nap for a couple of hours and then I was pretty exhausted for the rest of the evening and also feeling very emotional but I guess that is just everything catching up with me and the stress about the op coming up has probably caught up with me.

I had a good nights sleep last night and Rich woke me up again for my drops at 8am….I don’t think I have ever slept quite as much as I have done the last few days, but I’ve decided to relax and go with it.

Today the vision in my eye seemed even less clouded and blurred which is amazing.  I also had less pain and the eye just feels is a little uncomfortable more than anything else.  Pretty much like it did when I had left my lenses in for too long and my eyes were tired.  It was sunnier this morning so I’ve been wearing my sunglasses inside but the curtains were open.  I’ve been out in the garden with the dogs and Rich’s Mum came for Sunday lunch which was really nice and although I was really tired I’ve managed to get through the whole afternoon without a nap….I am definitely making progress!  Oo, other exciting news (although not in normal circumstances!) was that I washed my hair – it was getting desperate and I feel so much better now!

I’ve been putting in the anti-rejection drugs every 2 hours and the antibacterial every 4 hours but Rich does keep reminding me – he’s going back to work tomorrow so I’m going to set the alarm on my phone so I don’t forget

I have my follow up with Mr Larkin on Tuesday afternoon in London and hopefully he’ll be happy with what he sees.  I’m really positive about it and I don’t think I could hope for it to be any better, it really is amazing how quickly things have been getting better.  When I think it’s only 4 nights ago that I had the op and now I am here in no pain I feel really very lucky.

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3 days post graft

7 Jul

I’m feeling much much better today.  I had a really good sleep last night and my eye is feeling so much better now.  I haven’t needed to take any pain killers so far today which is great and the vision in my left eye seems a lot less cloudy.  I’m also feeling a lot less sensitive to light and I even have the curtains in the living room open….so nice to be in a brighter room!

I think I might venture out this afternoon for the first time since the op…with a large pair of sunglasses on of course which might get a few funny looks in the rain.

Here is a picture of my left eye this morning….

Eye 3 days post graft

Feeling better 3 days post graft

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1 day post graft

5 Jul

I had hoped to update about the op yesterday but it was quite late once I came back up from surgery so I’ll tell you about the op today.

At hospital pre-op

 

I arrived at the private ward at moorfields at 4:30 yesterday. Once I was in my room the nurses came to take blood pressure, temperature and a questionnaire about my medical history. I was asked about 10 times what eye they were operating on!! (I guess it’s important they get this right!) I then saw Mr Larkin who ran through what would be happening in the op and then was visited by the anaesthetist about that side of things. I was taken down to theatre at about 6:15 where I was put on the bed, made comfortable with my head in a rest and then was put to sleep.

The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room, I was in quite a lot of pain when I woke and was given some painkillers and taken back to my room. The pain was a stabbing pain so I told the nurse who then asked me where the pain was!!! Once we had established that it was my eye that was the cause of the pain, in the end I was given morphine for this (squirted into my mouth from a syringe).

Straight after the op (a little out of it!)

At about 9:30pm I saw Mr Larkin again and he said that the surgery had gone very well and that he had had to do a full thickness graft instead of a partial thickness as the cornea at the front of my eye was too thin.

I stayed overnight in Moorfields and the next morning was given drops at 7am, the bandage was removed and the eyelid was cleaned. I was also told that they don’t put patches on patients any more, so my eye has been uncovered since. When I woke up the eye was still painful and sore but the stabbing pain from the night before had gone, so I was given codeine for the pain and put some sunglasses on, even though the room was dark, as I was extremely sensitive to light. Breakfast was a struggle as I couldn’t really see what I was eating!

Rich arrived to take me home at about half 9 and I spent the journey home with a rug over my head because of the light. Since being home, I have been on the sofa with the curtains closed and have been quite tired. Rich has been putting drops in the eye – every 2 hours the anti-rejection drops and every 4 hours the anti-biotic drops.

The pain is not as bad now, the eye has been uncomfortable all day and streaming but now (7:50pm) I’m not in any pain and the eye feels quite comfortable but still watery (I am still on paracetamol and ibuprofen) My vision out of the left eye is cloudy and blurred but I can see more than I expected to, which is amazing considering surgery was only 24 hours ago. Sorry for the rambling nature of this post, I am dictating this to Rich at the moment!

Eye this afternoon….

Eye 1 post-graft

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