Time for a corneal graft?

[Andrew MacLean]

If you have a pre theatre assessment, use it to ask all the questions you can think of.

Write them down. Go through the list.

I have never met an ophthalmologist who did not value a patient's interested participation in the whole process.

All the best

Andrew

[jayuk]

If in doubt; delay !

[Andrew MacLean]

I'd normally agree with Jay, but given what you say in your opening post I'd put it differently. If you are sure then go ahead.

You have an opportunity to have your remainind KC cornea replaced and your cataract removed, all in one go.

Your experience with your first graft seems pretty positive.

But remember this is your choice. You have to own the choice and its consequences.

If you want to delay, do ask the ophthalmologist whether he would consider you for a graft in the future. We are neither of us getting any younger.

Andrew

[Barney]

Having the graft to my left eye was the best decision I ever made and worked out better than I even hoped for. Obviously the overall gain in vision by having the second eye done can't match that.

What I'd really have liked would have been an evaluation of what I should expect to gain and a firmer evaluation of the possible downside. I assume that figures for known outcomes in recent years are around. Knowing the best and worst scenarios doesn't mean much to me unless there are figures to chart the likelihood.

I think age is an important part of the equation. Less point in going through a procedure that can take a year or more if you're only likely to have a couple of years to enjoy the benefits.

It's funny but having already had one eye done and knowing much more now than I did then doesn't help as much as it should. Maybe that's because the first time round it was Hobson's choice.

[GarethB]

There is a lot to be said for ignorance!

I am glas I had my grafts, but sometimes I wonder what if I went partially sighted for a few more years?

Easy now as I know new lens types came out a few years post graft which would of meant the grafted could have been put off for a few years.

[Alison Fisher]

There is a lot to be said for ignorance!

There certainly is. When I had my grafts I had next to no idea what I was getting into. If I'd known then what I know now I'm not sure what I would have done but as far as my KC goes they are the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Barney, when I was going for my second graft I was warned that the sight resulting from my first graft was exceptional and I shouldn't expect the same again but I got almost as good a result with the second as the first. Okay, the overall improvement wasn't in the same league as after the first graft (from Eye chart? What eye chart? to omg look at the state of my skin overnight) but it wasn't until I had binocular vision again that I realised what I'd been missing with monocular. I was very glad I had it done.

I hope you manage to get your questions answered. It isn't very often mine are. It's both annoying and worrying when you are making decisions about something as precious as your eyesight and the people supposed to be guiding you through it all are blasé and don't explain their thoughts and reasoning to you.

[Barney]

Hi Alison,

I can remember that seeing the pores in my skin again after a long time too. And those little coloured dots that make up magazine photographs.

I think for some medics their concept of 'informed consent' is to tell the patient that it could all go very well or on the other hand it could all go horribly wrong. It might protect their backs but unless there are some figures it doesn't give the patient any useful information.

I don't mind putting these decisions in the hands of a surgeon but find it difficult when they seem equivocal and say the decision is mine but don't give any of the facts I assume they have to make the decision. I suppose that explaining all to us is very time-consuming not to say boring. At least forums like these go a long way to help.

I was told similar to you but my sight in the eye to be done does get me to half way down the chart so would like to be reasonably sure I'll get an appreciable improvement.

I feel myself slipping into moan mode.

[Andrew MacLean]

Barney

I asked my ophthalmologist how many times he had performed a PK, over how many years. What experience the team with which he trained had and the figures for people with useful eyesight against those without, the figures for those who suffered rejections agains those who did not ...

He was great. He answered my quesitons and let me go back to his waiting room while i thought of more. this happened athree times before I agreed to let him near my eye with his knife.

I have absolutely no regrets (well, maybe in retrospect I ought to have agreed to the surgery before I lost my sight, but at the time I thought waiting was the best thing to do).

Andrew

[Barney]

Thanks Andrew, I've just phoned the hospital to arrange a pre-op assessment as they hadn't contacted me.

Op is booked for less than two weeks time so I think the next time I see the surgeon he'll be wielding his knife. The consultation when the decision was made was so fast there wasn't much chance to ask anything. Any conversation was between the guy who examined me and the consultant who was only there for a minute.

The one thing I would like to be confident of is that after my own cornea is lying in a kydney bowl that there's every likelyhood of much better vision in that eye than I have now reading halfway down the card.

[jayuk]

So Barney are you going ahead with this?...have all your questions been answered?....just seems that if you think you have been pushed to this; than id take a step back and maybe explore other options?...