Eight Stitches removed

[craigthornton]

How do you keep still when they take the stitches out? My reflexes are sensitive at the best of times, so I can imagine what they'll be like when an instrument approaches my eye!

[piper]

craig, you'll never see the instrument. With my head in the chinrest and the BRIGHT light in my graft eye, he simply said to look at his earlobe with my other eye, which I did. He'd cut a couple and let me sit back, then do 3-4 more.....

Then, the other surgeon came in and asked him to consult on something in another room, so he excused himself and left. he was back in about 2 minutes, and with a foreceps pulled all of them out.

Holding still was never an issue, and won't be for you either. It goes really fast. One of mine was grown in and when he tugged on that one my toenails got a bit shorter, but after that all went well.

Andrew: yes, I knew there was a schedule difference between here and there. At least in Louisiana the doctor takes them out. i think in Texas they give the patient tools and let them do it themselves, usually in a tavern.

Cheers, Piper

[Andrew MacLean]

My sutures were removed in the operating theatre. I was lying on the gurney looking up into the ophthalmnological microscope. Music was playing. My pupil was well dilated and my eye well laced with local anesthetic.

I did count the sutures as he cut them, but did not flinch. (a big surprise to me!)

Andrew

[Alison Fisher]

Before having my first stitches out I thought exactly the same thing Craig, but believe me when someone has something that sharp that close to your eye you have no trouble keeping still at all. Well I didn't anyway.

Mine have all been done with the doctor looking through a slit lamp. Having my chin on something firm made it easier for me to stay still.