Donors,waiting times,conflicting advice

[samba_elite]

Just out of interest is there an average waiting time for a graft,my surgeon seems to think it's very short and a donor is easy to find,whereas my opt seems to think that because i have rather large eyes,therefore a large cornea,a donor will be very difficult to ever come accross.

This is why i included the term conflicting advice,it seems that the 2 professionals helpihng to manage my confition have very different ideas and opinions that to a patient can be very confusing.

[jayuk]

Samba

If its Corneal and Transplants - use the Surgeon as the preferred source of information

If its glasses, lenses or anything to do with refraction use the Optician.

However, here is the funni thing!...You could still go wrong here!.....At the end of the day its the opticians job to try and get you to see aided, and its the corneal surgeons job to try and get you to see unaided...however....the latters job is unpredicatable and irreversable!

Anyway!...to answer your question, graft material is taken out of the "host" at standard sizes....this I am led to beleive is a lot larger then even the largest of grafts..8.5mm+....so I dont think there is anything to worry about.

The issue that may hold you up is whetehr there is actually enough donor tissue around....

HTH

J

[GarethB]

To add to Jays post, the wait time may also be influenced by the surgeons preferance for fresh vs frozen material from the eye bank.

I think the recent grafts here, they were given the date about a month or so in advance as to when the op would be.

Sorry to add to the confusion.

[Sarah M]

Samba, I was told there was at least a 6 month waiting list, that was 13 weeks ago, now 2 weeks post graft.
Sarah
x

[samba_elite]

To add to Jays post, the wait time may also be influenced by the surgeons preferance for fresh vs frozen material from the eye bank.

I think the recent grafts here, they were given the date about a month or so in advance as to when the op would be.

Sorry to add to the confusion.

Does that mean the wait is a month or it could be many months before they tell you its in a months time?

This is utter madness although not unexpected as i know the NHS can be unpredictable even in mundane matters,the trouble is getting HONESTY from them.

This just gets more confusing by the day,im sure the stress will lead to other problems

[jayuk]

Samba

Completely understand where you are coming frm....but it does seem that they do give the worse case scenario for tissue to be available...and then call you in....thats from what Ive seen on this board and the time it took to have the graft...

HTH

J

[Andrew MacLean]

Samba

I agree with what has been said above: the best guess the ophthalmologist gave you at the outset is an estimate, based on previous experience.

There are structural limits: availability of theatre time etc. Then there are contingent limits: the availability of tissue for transplant. Weighing both of these the surgeon will have given you a fair extimate of how long you might have to wait.

I don't want to trivialize either childbirth or corneal transplant, but women are given a "due date" that is right in the middle of a period within which the expected child is neither "early" or "late". I think it may be the same with us. We are given an estimate, but we ought to be prepared to be called four or five weeks early or to have to wait an extra four or five weeks after the time.

All of this leads to frsutration, but I am afraid it is just the way things are.

Andrew