Stitches Coming Out

[tneedham]

Hi

I am having 1/2 of the stitches in my PK taken out tomorrow and am getting a little nervous.
I had 1 stitch that came loose and was removed within 1 week of the surgery (15 months ago) and i have a +5.50 astigmatism in the same orientation as the missing stitch, it could be coincidence but i think not. My hope is that by removing the other 7 it will balance it out a bit and reduce the astigmatism.
Mostly i am nervous about the possible change in vision as the cornea relaxes with the stitches gone. I have been told to come in to get re-prescribed with vision correction after 4 weeks, potentially this could mean 4 weeks where i cant see much at all and won't be able to work. (i have hydrops in the other eye which is pretty useless)

My questions are:
have you been in a similar situation to me?
what change in vision did you experience?
how long til you were able to be corrected again?
How long til you were able to work again?

Cheers. Tom

[Anne Klepacz]

Hi Tom
Having stitches out does usually change the vision, but hopefully as you're only having half of them out, it won't make a drastic difference. I don't suppose anyone can predict how much. You may find that your glasses will still give you usable, if no longer perfect, vision until such time as things settle down again and you can get a new prescription for them. But the important thing is that you're taking another step on the graft journey and getting nearer being able to forget that you have a graft in that eye. So even if you do have to have a few weeks off work, it'll be worth it in the end.
My longest period off work was 2 months - my first graft had a rejection episode soon after the second eye had been grafted, leaving me with very little vision in either eye until I was eventually fitted with some (pretty ropey!) glasses. At the time, it seemed like a disaster. All sorts of deadlines on projects at work to meet, training sessions to do etc etc. But of course, someone else stepped in and did what I should have been doing and nothing collapsed! I realised then that my priority wasn't work after all - it was getting reasonable sight back.
All the best for tomorrow and let us know how it goes.
Anne

[Andrew MacLean]

Yes. I had eight sutures removed in one go.

The removal of the sutures changed the astigmatism on my grafted eye. It took five months before my sight was stable enough to use any sort of correction.

I didn't stop working.

( I had 6 weeks off at the time of my first op. but I have not had any sick leave since)

[tneedham]

wow. That was an expertience i didnt expect.

My eyesight has definately changed a lot, and for the worse, however it does keep fluctuating. I am quite down about how bad it really is right now. I hope is did the right thing. definately wont be able to work with the vision i have.

The procedure to remove them was like a proper operation. I was expecting something a little more like in front of a slit lamp.....
So i had to change into a gown and get a hospital wrist tag, and had a black arrow paited onto my forehead above my left eye,
I was then led into the prep room where they gave me 3 eye drops, one to make the pupil tiny, one was a mild anaesthetic to prepare for the third which was a much more potent anaesthetic.
then i was let into theatre where they lay me down with my head in a head shaped dip, covered me with a blanket and placed an oxygen tube near to my facc. Once i was fully strapped and tucked in with a heartrate monitor attatched the consultant came in with a kind of sheet where the middle of it was what i can only describe as a circle of sticky backed plastic. This was stuck fast to my eyelids and eyeball with my eye open. Next thing i see is the tip of a pair of scissors cutting aslit through the plastic where my eye was. Then my eye and the plastic were prised open with an eye clamp (the type from that scene in "a clockwork orange")
The consultant then proceeded to cut and remove 9 of the stitches i had leaving 6 in. It was strange because although i could see, and move my eyeball, i couldnt feel when he was cutting, so my vision kept twitching with me furiously trying to keep focussed on the light above me. The last thing he did was to wash the eye with suirts of saline, that actually felt quite nice, then injected my eyeball with some kind of steroid, that was so painful.
Once done, i was shattered, i could baely stand and slept for 3 hours. although i was not sedated so not sure why. Except that it was such a bigger ordeal than i had mentally prepared for.
I am now at my parents house (winchester) resting with my eye in a lot of pain (i think mostly from the clamp.) not sure yet how i am going to get home to my house (london), it's all a bit daunting.

sorry if there are loads os spelling mistakes in this, i cant see ther keyboard or screen...

[Sweet]

Really hoping that your vision settles down soon and that it improves.

My stitches came up a few at a time. It was very easy, I was sitting at a slit lamp, had some anaesthetic eye drops applied and then my surgeon just cut them. I was upset when the first three came out as they were earlier than planned but had been prickly. It was such a relief when they were removed though!

My vision didn't change as it was my bad eye where I have never had any vision, so I wasn't replying on it to see. I went back to work after two weeks and everything was ok.

Take care, love Claire X x X