There's been another long absence from the blog but this time with good reason. Long-time readers may remember the corneal graft surgery I had way back in November 2016. As that was so long ago, you can be forgiven for thinking I was fully recovered by now but you'd be wrong as healing is a very slow process where eyes are concerned. On Monday 5th March I finally had the stitches removed from the graft, almost 18 months after they were put in, which meant another operation at the John Radcliffe Hospital, but this would be a day case under local anaesthetic.
You're probably used to stitches in most organs being removed after a week or two, so eighteen months seems like an extraordinarily long time. The reason is that the cornea is avascular (for the less medically-minded, it contains no blood vessels) so there is no risk of bleeding but on the downside that makes it very slow to heal and removing the stitches too early could result in the graft falling out. They do have to come out eventually though, before they start to break down and create an infection risk, so on the appointed day I made my way back to the hospital with some trepidation.
There were four patients on the afternoon surgery list and for some reason they told all four of us to arrive by 11:30 for operations that wouldn't even start until 1:30. That meant even the first guy had a two-hour wait right over lunchtime, and as I was last on the list I was facing a very long time in the windowless waiting room, which gave plenty of opportunity for anxiety to take hold. Fortunately I had brought a thick book, Phil Collins's autobiography Not Dead Yet, a Christmas present I had been saving for an occasion like this, and it looked like I might end up reading the whole thing.
The other patients were much older than me, as to be expected in an eye surgery ward, but they were all quite talkative so we were able to pass the time by comparing experiences and finding out what we were all there for. One man was a veteran of five or six complex operations while another lady had never had any eye surgery before and was very apprehensive. Being with other patients was a pleasant change as when I had the graft I was put in a room by myself and didn't see another patient in the whole of the 24 hours I was there, which was a very lonely time.
After a five-hour wait I was finally called at about 4pm, having been promoted to third on the list for some reason, possibly because my procedure was a quick and straightforward one. All of the surgery I have had before has been under a general anaesthetic so this was the first time I had ever seen inside an operating theatre. Walking into the theatre and climbing onto the operating table fully conscious and fully clothed felt very strange, and the anaesthetic was administered not by an injection but by eye drops, which was doubly odd.
The surgery itself was an even stranger experience as the blurring effect of the anaesthetic and the magnifier placed over the eye made everything look huge and out of focus. Seeing someone pulling things out of my eye with what appeared to be a giant scalpel and pair of tweezers was extremely unnerving, especially as the doctor had to pull so hard on a couple of occasions that it made my whole head shake. After about 15 minutes of discomfort it was done and I was informed that everything went well and although a couple of the stitches broke up, what is left is below the surface of the eye and not at risk of infection.
I was eventually discharged at 5pm, exhausted, hungry and with a very sore eye. After a quick Burger King to fill my empty stomach it was straight home and into bed to get some much-needed rest. Sitting around waiting in a hospital for hours on end takes a surprising toll on the body and mind and I felt completely physically and mentally drained after what was really only a minor procedure. That wasn't quite the end though as I had to return exactly a week later for a follow-up appointment, at which I was relieved to be told everything was fine and they would see me again in three months.
For now I am still taking Dexamethosone eye drops twice a day, but this will reduce to once a day after a couple of weeks and then stop altogether in a month's time. My health hasn't really improved just yet and I seem to be suffering worse than before from fatigue and bad headaches. I suspect this is because my glasses prescription is no longer correct but I've been told to wait another month for the graft to fully settle before getting an eye test. Hopefully when that time comes I will finally be able to see properly for the first time in many years after a very long road to recovery, which is really something to look forward to as my sight problems have caused a lot of difficulties.
Oh, and I didn't finish the book. I got well over half way though, to the release of his third solo album in 1985.
No comments:
Post a Comment