It has been a while since I last wrote on this blog (and to be honest I was expecting it to be even longer than this), but there is a very good reason for my absence. Regular readers may know I have suffered for several years from a condition affecting my vision, which had become very frustrating. Hopefully not for much longer though, as the time finally came this week for me to undergo corrective surgery, and as I write this I am recovering well from the operation. It is a great relief as the eyesight problems were really starting to have a negative effect on my life, causing constant headaches and fatigue and difficulty with simple tasks such as driving and reading, so I was starting to become deeply frustrated by my poor health.
The condition I suffered from is known as keratoconus, in which the cornea grows into a cone shape instead of a smooth curve and distorts the light rays entering the eye, and as a result the corneal tissue starts to become scarred, both of which cause blurred vision. It is a fairly common condition but the cause is largely unknown, although it is believed at least in part to be genetic. In many cases its effects can be corrected with contact lenses, but despite regular visits to the optician my keratoconus was not diagnosed until it had reached an advanced stage and attempts to use lenses were unsuccessful due to the severity of my cornea's cone shape and the amount of scarred tissue.
The procedure I have had performed by Mr Martin Leyland at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford is a full-thickness corneal graft or penetrating keratoplasty of my right eye. This involves the removal of the damaged section of cornea and its replacement with a healthy section cut from a donor cornea, and is a well-established procedure for treating corneal degeneration with a very high success rate. The most common type is a deep lamellar keratoplasty (DLK), in which the bottom layer of the original cornea, a mere 0.025mm thick, is left in place and a new section grafted in above it. In my case however, due to the amount of scarring, the entire depth of the cornea was taken away and a complete new section stitched in its place, thus removing both effects of the keratoconus, the cone shape and the scarred tissue.
The operation was carried out on Monday afternoon and I came home the following morning after a very unpleasant overnight stay in hospital that was the worst part of the ordeal: it was cold, uncomfortable and noisy and I barely slept, so combine that with the effects of the anaesthetic and by the morning I was feeling very rough. My eye initially felt very sore and swollen, but the swelling rapidly disappeared within the first 24 hours and now it just feels itchy, like there is something stuck in it, which is more of a nagging discomfort than a pain. I have already noticed a small improvement in the vision in this eye, which will hopefully further improve once the graft has fully settled and I can get a new glasses prescription.
I have two types of eye drops to be administered at regular intervals, so I am currently in an extremely tedious routine of taking drops every hour of every day for at least two weeks, which makes it very difficult to relax. More annoying is the sore nose they have caused: every time I put a drop in my eye it drains down my nose and makes me sneeze. Although frustrating at the moment, I guess this is a small price to pay for better eyesight, and I am impressed at the speed of recovery so far. I do have some sensitivity to bright light and have to wear sunglasses when going outdoors, and sustained concentration causes headaches, but as you can see I am already able to read and write coherently less than a week after the surgery, which I wasn't really expecting.
I will be returning to the hospital on Monday for a check-up after a week, and I am hoping the news will be good and Mr Leyland will be satisfied with my recovery. There are likely to be further hospital visits in the near future but hopefully before long all will be well and I will be able to enter a new era of better vision and put my health problems behind me at last.
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