Last night was rough. I managed to take a shower before bed, which wasn't as hard as I first thought it might be. I washed my head, ears and neck in the sink and used baby wipes on my face. While in the shower, I didn't have any problems keeping my eye closed tightly enough to keep the water out. Sleeping, though, was a different story. Even with the Tylenol, I was in a lot of pain trying to sleep. I could not adjust my plastic guard so that it wasn't hitting my eye lashes ( I have long eyelashes for a guy) and so I was constantly irritated. Under my eyelid, all sorts of things seemed to be going on. Itchy, scratchy and twitchy. There were throbs of pain now and again, and I found the only relief was when I kept absolutely still and tried some mediation techniques to take my mind off the pain. In this state, I kept having strange thoughts as if my eye was actively trying to reject my cornea while I lay there. It was quite horrible. After an hour, I did get to sleep. Woke up at 4am, put my drops in and slept for a few more hours.
Let me just say that I think there were a number of things that contributed to last night's pain. I had been out and about a couple of times that day, and so my eyes were moving all around in direct sunlight, being agitated. I also had a large cup of coffee in the middle of the day which I think made me hyper-sensitive. Not a good idea.
Today things have been much better. Both eyes are sensitive to light, but I have been taking it easy and resting between working. I actually managed to work for a full day today going at my regular pace. It most certainly helps that I work from home on my computer. I can't say how lucky I am there. I would hate to have had to take off work for several weeks for this.
By the way, for those who don't know me. I'm 40 years old, and no, I don't know who the donor of the cornea was. I simply call him Pablo (might as well have fun with this). Apparently, there is a cornea bank in the US so I did not need to wait for a donor. In fact, I think these operations are becoming quite common, and I don't think anyone has to wait. Another big advantage.
I wanted to post a picture of my eye for those who want to see, but I don't want to link it from FaceBook as some people might find it pretty disturbing. Yes, it is pretty gross but also fascinating. You can see the ring around my eye where the new cornea was placed, and the stitches. Compared to other recovering DALK patients, my eye looks about normal if not a little better that most.
I'll go over my eye drop routine. 4 times per day I take a drop of Durezol (steroid), Vigamox (anti-bacterial) and some over-the-counter wetting drops called Optive. The only one that is tough to take is the Vigoamox. Stings like hell. Hopefully I only have to take that for a month or two. Aside from dark places to hide, another thing that sometimes helps is just stretching my eyelid up and pulling down on the skin of my cheek. Not sure why that is, but it just feels good. Careful not to touch the eye though.
The milky haze has gone from having a yellowish tint to a more clear tone. Everything is still rather blurry, but I thought it was incredible walking around my house with just my left eye open. I could make out colors and shapes very easily and could even read some of the print on the television while standing in the hallway. I find that when I really strain hard I can make out a good deal more, but when I do that it is usually followed by a dull ache in my eye. So...just going to give that a rest for awhile.
All things considered, I think it's turning out pretty well. After reading other DALK patient blogs, I know I have a tough road ahead of me filled with a lot of ups and downs. But already, I see better. My new strategy ongoing is to lay off the caffeine products and start taking the Tylenol in the evening, so that when I'm ready for bed I can actually get to sleep.
More to come....
Showing posts with label cornea transplant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cornea transplant. Show all posts
Friday, September 24, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
DALK Surgery
I got to St. Elizabeth surgical center at noon and was called in shortly afterward. I want to say that Dr. Holland and his staff were all efficient and personable, making Michele and I feel comfortable. While we waited, various personnel came in to double-check my information; they asked me to verify the eye scheduled for surgery about 20 times, which I found reassuring. Dr. Holland even signed my left eye so there would be no mistake.
I'm not going to say I wasn't nervous, because my stomach was doing flip flops. Ultimately though, I needed to do something about my horrible left eye. I'd been seeing 20/100 from that eye for the past 15 years, which left it all but useless aside from getting some peripheral vision from it. Many of you scheduled to have DALK will be more interested in the procedure, so let me get straight to that.
They used a local anesthetic to knock me out so they could "block" the area. This means that they gave me one shot in the temple (not actually very deep) and one between the eye and cheek bone so that the entire area would be completely numb and immobile. Neither of these I felt because I was out cold. They woke me up a few minutes later and pushed me into the operating room. It was on!
I was awake during the entire procedure but extremely relaxed and sedated. At first, I did not like the idea of this but it was somewhat necessary according to their procedure. This isn't quite as bad as it sounds, but I'm not going to lie and say it was easy. During the procedure, I saw mostly an oval of bright light and some shadows in the operated-on eye. I felt pressure but no pain when the old tissue was being removed. During the suture phase (I received 16 sutures) I felt faint pricks and the pressure of the doctor pulling them through. I'm usually pretty wimpy about this kind of thing, but I think I handled it pretty well. The thing that got me though was that as they were packing up and finishing the procedure, someone said they were going to give me something for the pain, and I received (I think) another shot between the eye and cheekbone. That was a bit of a surprise and hurt like hell to be honest.
They put me into the recovery room and already I was feeling much better. They put a patch on my eye, gave me some do's and don'ts and let me go out the door. Regarding the pain factor, I can only say that the eye feels (and continues to feel) very scratchy and aches a bit. It is nothing out of the ordinary, but it is fairly annoying. I can tell this scratchiness is going to be frustrating for me over the next few days, even with the pain-reducing eye drops.
Two hours later I removed my eye patch and put in some eye drops. How's my vision? Well, sitting here watching the Reds game on a big screen TV, I feel like my vision is going to end up being great. When I watch the game through my operated-on eye, I can actually see the names on the back of the players' jerseys and can almost read the tiny score on the screen! I could NEVER do that before, not even with my glasses on. The only problem is that everything is very cloudy, and the image seems to be "low" so when I look with both eyes I have severe double-vision...this is likely because the drugs they used to immobilize my eye have not worn off yet. No floaters, no bubbles or dark patches. Now I just have to fight very watery eyes and scratchiness. I hope the eye stabilizes soon.
I have to tip my hat to Dr. Holland and his staff. If my vision improves and clears up (and I think it will) it looks like I'm going to have amazing overall vision. Stay tuned for more updates!
History
I scheduled eye surgery two months ago to replace the topmost layers of my left cornea. The procedure is called DALK. Of all the corneal procedures, this one is the least invasive and has the highest rate of success (95%) for my condition, Keratoconus. This is something I could have had done several years ago, but was a little skeptical of the results. Now, being 40, it seems I better just go ahead and do it so that I can have good vision for the next several years.
I picked up 2 of my eye drops today, Durezel and Vigamox, while the third one remains caught up in pre-certification. I'm a little nervous about the surgery, as anyone would be, but I hear Dr. Holland is one of the best at this, and so I’m confident I'll be seeing pretty well in a few months.
I'm not going to say I wasn't nervous, because my stomach was doing flip flops. Ultimately though, I needed to do something about my horrible left eye. I'd been seeing 20/100 from that eye for the past 15 years, which left it all but useless aside from getting some peripheral vision from it. Many of you scheduled to have DALK will be more interested in the procedure, so let me get straight to that.They used a local anesthetic to knock me out so they could "block" the area. This means that they gave me one shot in the temple (not actually very deep) and one between the eye and cheek bone so that the entire area would be completely numb and immobile. Neither of these I felt because I was out cold. They woke me up a few minutes later and pushed me into the operating room. It was on!
I was awake during the entire procedure but extremely relaxed and sedated. At first, I did not like the idea of this but it was somewhat necessary according to their procedure. This isn't quite as bad as it sounds, but I'm not going to lie and say it was easy. During the procedure, I saw mostly an oval of bright light and some shadows in the operated-on eye. I felt pressure but no pain when the old tissue was being removed. During the suture phase (I received 16 sutures) I felt faint pricks and the pressure of the doctor pulling them through. I'm usually pretty wimpy about this kind of thing, but I think I handled it pretty well. The thing that got me though was that as they were packing up and finishing the procedure, someone said they were going to give me something for the pain, and I received (I think) another shot between the eye and cheekbone. That was a bit of a surprise and hurt like hell to be honest.
They put me into the recovery room and already I was feeling much better. They put a patch on my eye, gave me some do's and don'ts and let me go out the door. Regarding the pain factor, I can only say that the eye feels (and continues to feel) very scratchy and aches a bit. It is nothing out of the ordinary, but it is fairly annoying. I can tell this scratchiness is going to be frustrating for me over the next few days, even with the pain-reducing eye drops.
Two hours later I removed my eye patch and put in some eye drops. How's my vision? Well, sitting here watching the Reds game on a big screen TV, I feel like my vision is going to end up being great. When I watch the game through my operated-on eye, I can actually see the names on the back of the players' jerseys and can almost read the tiny score on the screen! I could NEVER do that before, not even with my glasses on. The only problem is that everything is very cloudy, and the image seems to be "low" so when I look with both eyes I have severe double-vision...this is likely because the drugs they used to immobilize my eye have not worn off yet. No floaters, no bubbles or dark patches. Now I just have to fight very watery eyes and scratchiness. I hope the eye stabilizes soon.
I have to tip my hat to Dr. Holland and his staff. If my vision improves and clears up (and I think it will) it looks like I'm going to have amazing overall vision. Stay tuned for more updates!
History
I scheduled eye surgery two months ago to replace the topmost layers of my left cornea. The procedure is called DALK. Of all the corneal procedures, this one is the least invasive and has the highest rate of success (95%) for my condition, Keratoconus. This is something I could have had done several years ago, but was a little skeptical of the results. Now, being 40, it seems I better just go ahead and do it so that I can have good vision for the next several years.
I picked up 2 of my eye drops today, Durezel and Vigamox, while the third one remains caught up in pre-certification. I'm a little nervous about the surgery, as anyone would be, but I hear Dr. Holland is one of the best at this, and so I’m confident I'll be seeing pretty well in a few months.
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