Sorry to hear you had a rough go of it. The photos remind me of how my eye looked (and eyelid) right after surgery. No doubt about it, it’s a big surgery and it sounds to me like your Dr. has handled complications with skill. I wouldn’t want to guess about the redness/bubble, but just ask your Dr. I used to make a list before every appt (when I was feeling badly, my wife wrote things down for me.) Hang in there!

The next day (Tuesday) the Dr. examined me and said he needed to put the bubble back in immediately. The numbing drops didn’t work at first so the pain was unreal when the needle went in. He apologized and put other types of numbing drops in and they worked. He got the bubble in and it was all over within 5 minutes.

Unfortunately the air bubble he put in disappeared somehow over night. He said the body may have absorbed it too quickly. He also said he has only ever had this happen to one other patient he had out of the hundreds of DALK procedures he has done. So he said he needed to put the bubble in again. I begged him to put me to sleep for the procedure! He agreed to and the next day (Thursday) we went off to the OR.

This time he put a large air bubble in and let it sit for 15 minutes while I was still knocked out. He then released some of the air before allowing me to wake up. To our relief it worked! When I woke up things were pretty stable but then started to go down hill. I had that splitting headache feeling like I did the first time I woke up and I was in extreme pain- 10 out of 10. Then for some reason it miraculously dissapeared and the pain was back down to about 2-3 out of 10 which is normal. Personally, I believe that God performed a miracle at that time.

The next day I came back for the followup visit and the doctor said ‘now THIS looks like a cornea transplant!’ and said the bubble was still there albeit a little smaller, but that the donor tissue and my native tissue had become attached as they were supposed to. He also said he was surprised how quickly my eye was healing. I was very relieved!

It is now day 4 since the surgery and I will be going back to Rochester on Wednesday (3/5) for another followup. At this time I can see better than I could see before the surgery. It is still very blurry but I think that’s normal for only 4 days. I have a very slight headache but I attribute that to the eye drops. My primary concern is the redness of my eye. There is also a strange bubble that you can clearly see in the center of my eye. Any ideas of what that might be? Here are some pictures:

1.5 days after surgery: https://plus.google.com/photos/115402764144655431061/albums/5568528792469280401/5986583760414380098?banner=pwa&authkey=COrV-5m5hOmC4gE&pid=5986583760414380098&oid=115402764144655431061

3 days after surgery:
https://plus.google.com/photos/115402764144655431061/albums/5568528792469280401/5986583763305494386?banner=pwa&authkey=COrV-5m5hOmC4gE&pid=5986583763305494386&oid=115402764144655431061

Hi Scott, thank you for the info. Here is a link to a page that quotes the Army ban: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/eyes.htm . It even specifically states keratoconus in the handbook! I was planning on becoming a NYS DEC officer but was told (verbally) that I was ineligible because of my vision issues (keratoconus). I can’t find it in writing anywhere… perhaps the prohibition is at each departments discretion?

Thanks again for the support! I can’t promise I’ll get some pics up, but I’ll report back to let you and your readers know how the procedure went!

Hi Dave…
Showering was not really an issue that I can recall, but I think I went without it for 2-3 days after surgery opting for a washcloth, soap and water to maintain basic cleanliness. My guess is that the police prohibit KC because of the impairment to vision before surgery, and the relative fragility of the graft after. It seems to me that all of this could be mitigated with safety glasses (not the hardware store type, but the type used by special forces.) If you have a link to something showing that ban, I’d love to read it.

As far as itching, best not to get close. The itching was on and off again, and eventually went away completely. I used benadryl at night which helped.

I followed my Dr. recommendations regarding eye patch, but it was mostly at night… I wore the heavy duty patch for around 5 weeks (or more, I cannot recall, I just got used to it) and then transferred to a sort of “heavy” black patch I found at a drug store. Some are better than others – open the package at the store and look for a bit of durability. It’s essential that you not rub your eye, so it’s worth tolerating this inconvenience at night. Listen to your Dr. recommendations on this, not me.

As I’ve mentioned throughout my blog, anxiety is a normal reaction to this. DALK (and PK) are well practiced and the procedure is really worked out well. I think key is to be a compliant patient with all recommendations after the surgery, and for the years to come. After you’re done, get some high quality safety glasses you can wear anytime you’re doing outdoor work, near toddlers (!), cooking or even cleaning house.

As far as whether you’re out or awake, it’s up to the Dr. I guess. He gave me the option about whether I wanted to go under, but that the surgery was slightly easier if I could “help out” (look up, look to side, etc)… I opted to be a helper. In hindsight, I am glad I was awake. Not exactly sure why – perhaps just intellectual curiosity about what was happening to me. If I were out I’d not have had such an interesting memory of it.

I wish you very best and would welcome news about how it went… And should you feel up to it, a guest post (with a couple of pics) would be welcome on the blog as well.

What did you do about showering? I imagine you had some sort of procedure? How long did you need to carry this out?

You mention a terrible itching sensation in the eye. Is it possible to itch around the eye socket as long as you don’t touch the cornea?

Should I wear the dark black eye patch immediately after surgery or must I wear the giant perforated patch that doesn’t fit well?

Is there any other advice you can give me? I am a little bit anxious about the whole ordeal but that’s to be expected I suppose.

Thanks!

oh my… feeling overwhelmed having just discovered your blog. (and reading up through surgery day, so far) I have not yet schedule my cornea transplant, but I saw Dr. Holland 3 wks ago and that was his recommendation for me. I’ve had 3 other cornea specialist say the same thing. I want to let you know that until reading your blog (so far) I was struggling with HOW to choose between Dr. Holland and another Dr. (both from the Cincinnati Eye Institute) I’d also liked. I am now convinced that my ‘gut’ new all along, I just needed alittle nudge! Thank you for being so committed to this blog. I KNOW its going to be very helpful to so many!! (including myself!) Debbie