CXL (C3R) and INTACS

[Grant Price]

Hi all.

Just to update you all i have now had my CXL treatment on my left eye at St Thomas in London carried out by David O'Brart on Friday the 5th of September.

I must admit i was nervous as had a lot of stuff to read and sign to say all about the risks and side effects etc etc as not a nhs available treatment. The actual procedure is fairly painless done with anaesthetic eye drops although slightly surreal when surgeon is scratching away to remove the outer layer of the cornea (epithelium i think its called) as you can see it but cant feel it vision just gets blurry. Then riboflavin eye drops go in every 5 minutes and then laser phase starts procedure does get painful about halfway through as all the nerve in the cornea are exposed and does get quite uncomfortable but pain eases with additional anaesthetic drops. Procedure is nothing to worry about and surgeon talked to me throughout.

Afterwards i was gave anaesthetic eyedrops put in upto ever two hours afterwards, cream to put in at night (stop eye sticking together) and antibiotic drops to take four times a day, and was told for teh first two days could be moderate to excruitiating. Unfortunatley for me the later turned out to be true within 4 hours of the surgery i was in a a lot of pain and had never experienced pain like that before this subsided with the anaesthetic drops and gradually got less painful after two days.

I went back for my check up last week and the ye is healing well, and also have slightly better vision than before the operattion so all good £1000 well spent. My eye sight was tested with glasses and my vision was almost as good in my left eye as my right with certain lenses, however cant have new glasses yet as eye hasnt fully settled down and stabalised and may change more over the next few months. (only want glasses by the way as i cant get on with contact lenses tried hard and soft ones previously). Have to go back up end of November for my next check up.

Overall i woudl say the treatment has been a success the procedure is painless but the pain afterwards can be quite excrutiating but this can vary from person to person, if you can withstand a bit of pain and discomfort (anesthetic eye drops and co codamol work a dream) Wearing sun glasses for a few days afterwards i found helped (although the looking like Roy Orbison or Stevie Wonder jokes didnt) eye is stil a little sensitive now back at workand on the computer but pretty good otherwise.

[Grant Price]

Sorry forgot to add you may want to start a new thread for this one, about alternative treatments which may be coming in the future.

My surgeon informed me that there is a possibility that they may be able to do the cross linking procedure in the future with eyedrops alone with no laser treatmnet required. This however is at laboratory stage only and hasnt even been tested on pigs as of yet (sorry all you animal lovers but if it helps some of us have improved vision and better quality of life i think its worth it, however dont belive testing on animals for cosmetic purposes or wearing real fur or anything like that before i get moaned at).

This however should give a lot of people hope that continuing research will hopefully find easier methods of halting the progression of Keratoconus and may be even i the future a cure. The futures bright which is good (as long as its not to bright for us light sensitive types)

[Andrew MacLean]

Grant

Thanks for the update. I am glad things have gone well for you and hope to hear more of your recovery.

As to future developments in KV management; this is already the best time to be alive, and it will be exciting to see how quickly things unfold.

All the best

Andrew