Surgery Scheduled for 7/15/15

[linda040899]

I have a surgical procedure scheduled for my right eye (not cataracts) for this Wednesday, 7/15/15. It's not a long process but recovery can take a few days. I need a partial corneal transplant and that's going to put me in bed in hopes that my body will be OK with the new tissue. I will never see well with that eye, but I won't be blind in that eye as I am now. Getting back distance and depth perception will be nice if this works.

[Z28Taxman]

Fingers, wings and toes crossed here for 'ya!

[OOwl]

Good luck, Linda. Prayers for a successful procedure and a quick recovery.

[Maxie]

I'll pray for a successful surgery and a fast recovery :)

[akki]

Get well soon! How did it go?

[michael]

Hope all is well.

:pray:

[Bubblelady]

Just seeing this....hope it went even better than expected!

[linda040899]

Unfortunately, the attempt at a partial transplant failed. :( There was a tremendous amount of damage done by the original bungie cord accident back in 2001 and my doctor explained why everything has happened over the years as a result of that damage. He wants to do another full transplant on Wednesday, 7/22/15.

What I have right now is a corneal transplant with an implanted lens right behind the cornea, in front of the iris. The human lens is normally behind the iris, but the capsule that holds the lens in place was destroyed by the original accident so the next logical thing to do was implant a new one in front of the iris in my eye. The implant has been done twice and neither has been stable so this time the implant will be attached behind the iris. Hopefully, this will help the new cornea heal and be accepted by my body, which hasn't happened with the cornea I have now.

Since the surgery is complicated, it's going to take 4-5 hours and this time I will be asleep for the entire procedure. It's going to be a long day but there's no bed rest required, just a time frame of roughly a year before any of the stitched that hold the cornea in place and start being removed. The cornea has no blood supply so it takes a long time for the edges to attach to each other.

All your continued prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[Pips mom]

Ohhhh Linda, good luck to you! I hope this time it all goes perfectly!!

[linda040899]

Maybe my current doctor can finally get things right where I'll at least be able to have distance and depth perception using this eye. Since 2001, it's been one failure after another. Every time I think I've reached the light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel suddenly becomes longer and I'm still short of where I want to be.

[Maxie]

I'm so sorry you have to go through all this. I really hope and pray everything goes well for you Linda.

God bless :)

[Bubblelady]

Well, that sucks! You, and your surgeon, will be in my prayers. 💖

[akki]

Oh it must be so frustrating!! I hope things go well next time!! Will be thinking of you.

[linda040899]

If everything goes according to plan, the next surgery will be this Wednesday, 7/22. It will be a longer procedure and recovery time is a year before any stitches can begin to be removed. The cornea has no blood supply so it takes time for edges to attach to each other. Hopefully, with the lens behind the iris, this transplant will be successful.

[linda040899]

The surgery was done on 7/22/15 and it was successful. Amen to that and I'm seriously glad that it's over! It took a lot out of me and I'm completely worn out!

I went to see my doctor yesterday morning and I can actually see somewhat with that eye! I will never have good vision in the eye but it will be enough to supplement my good eye. I could see fingers and fingers moving. The cornea is clear and the implant was successfully moved to behind the iris. The huge problem right now is the pressure in that eye. Yesterday morning it was 37 and that's way too high, considering I have optic nerve damage in that eye as well. It took 4 hours to get it down to 22. Went back later that afternoon and it was back up to 34. Took another 2 hours to get it back down. Hopefully, we've got a combination of medication that will control it. I go back again at 4:00 this afternoon.

Will try to update again later.

[michael]

Fingers wings and toes crossed here. .. Thanks for the update Linda! ........:)

[Bubblelady]

Glad the surgery went well and that things are improving. Will keep sending healing thoughts that the progress will continue.🙏💜🙏

[akki]

Great news Linda!!! I hope you recover the soonest!

[Maxie]

So happy to hear the surgery was successful! :)
Will continue to pray for a quick recovery!

[OOwl]

Checked in, hoping there'd be an update. Sounds so positive. You're in my prayers. Thank you for updating the forum.

[Mary in Florida]

So glad to hear the surgery was successful, Linda. And hopefully they will be able to get the intraocular pressure down to normal soon too. Hopefully that was just a postoperative reaction to the surgery.

My continued thoughts and prayers will be with you for your continued recovery.

Mary

[linda040899]

Thank you everyone! My corneal specialist is one of the best and he figured out why the last transplant failed so quickly (5 years). The lens implant was placed in front of the iris instead of behind where it normally belongs because the bungie cord destroyed the capsule that holds the lens. The last implant was loose and it irritated the cornea and the reaction was failure. I'm hoping to get some vision back in about a year. Full transplants take much longer because the cornea has no blood supply and the edges just have to bond to each other. Once that happens, stitches are removed slowly so that the cornea puffs back up and vision gets better. I'll get something and my other eye will make up the difference.

The "cure" for the high pressure in that eye is a diuretic to remove water from my body. It works quickly and I'm a happy camper. I go back on Monday for a pressure check and we'll see how everything worked this week-end. I'm optimistic. :)

[Z28Taxman]

Finally some good news. Hopefully it keeps on coming! :happy:

[linda040899]

Finally some good news. Hopefully it keeps on coming! :happy:
The check up this morning was just that.....good news! Pressure was 13! I'll take it even though it's slightly above target numbers of 9-11. Sure beats 37 and 34! The cornea is clear and I can actually see fingers moving if they are close enough to my eye. My doctor is very excited with the progress so far. He said it's a very nice donor cornea and he's hopeful it will settle in well. :) I go back on Thursday morning for another pressure check, which, hopefully, will also be good.

Pressure in this eye is super important, as I have a small amount of optic nerve damage from uncorrected glaucoma. It's not enough to make the eye unusable but more damage would.

[akki]

Fantastic news Linda!!! Provided it's not even a week after your surgery, the pressure might still drop too - but 13 is excellent!! I hope everything goes uphill from here :happy:

[linda040899]

Sorry for my absence for the past week or so. The good news turned bad when the pressure shot up to 37 and could not be brought down under 20. That produced another laser procedure to shut some of the ports that bring fluid into the eye. It was risky, as the eye was unstable from the transplant but my glaucoma specialist pulled it off. Pressure was 9 the next morning. Whew! I have an appointment this coming Wednesday afternoon to see how everything is going and I'm hoping for good news. I can't believe how exhausted I am by all this!

[Maxie]

Oh my goodness! Hopefully you won't have anymore issues and it will be smooth sailing going forward.

[linda040899]

My check up yesterday went very well. In fact, the pressure in my right eye was 7 (a bit too low). As a result, 2 medications (the diuretic and one glaucoma med) were taken away from what I use. From 6 medications, I'm down to 3. The laser surgery worked well. I will always need anti-rejection medication but glaucoma medication is questionable. Next check up is 8/19.

[Maxie]

That's great news! Happy for you! :happy:

[linda040899]

The complications are a bit upsetting, especially since my first full transplant went so smoothly. However, end result is what I'm looking at and I'll take whatever vision I can get back!

[OOwl]

Linda, I continue to pray for your full recovery. You're brave to go through that. I know you will be glad to have that all behind you.

[Bubblelady]

The complications are a bit upsetting, especially since my first full transplant went so smoothly. However, end result is what I'm looking at and I'll take whatever vision I can get back!

I've been absent for a while (long bout with pneumonia, happily over now) so I'm just seeing this. I'm sorry for your troubles! I'm glad you have a good doctor and will pray for your continued improvement! 🙏🙏💓🙏🙏

[linda040899]

The prognosis for my right eye has greatly improved. With all the trauma associated with the complications, the graft did very well even though it was not expected to. Pressure is way down (7) and the target range is 9-11. My doctors are happy and so am I! I'm down to only 3 medications instead of 6! I still have the cataract in my left eye to deal with and, hopefully, that will be much easier!

[Bubblelady]

👏🏻👏🏻👍

[linda040899]

Well. It's 4 months since the second surgery to do the full corneal transplant. My check up this morning could not have been better! Pressure is finally holding at 4 (a few points low) and the graft is very clear. For the first time, I could see something on the eye chart (peripherally only) but I could not read what I saw. It looked more like a large dark spot on the wall. I'm very happy, especially after all the problems along the way!

[Z28Taxman]

:happy::happy:

[michael]

Finally, some good news! ..... :)

[Bubblelady]

👏🏼🎉👏🏼. Hopefully things will continue to improve....

[Maxie]

That's wonderful! :)

[linda040899]

Thanks, everyone, and thanks to Jim, my guardian angel who I know has been sitting on my shoulder through this whole ordeal! :)

[akki]

Wonderful news!

[linda040899]

My check ups keep getting better each time! My doctor's office needed some pictures to determine the condition of the inside of the eye so we taped my left eye (good one) so it was easier to work with the transplanted eye. I started looking around and, darn, there's more vision in the transplanted eye than I ever expected! I can see the very top line on an eye chart, even though I can't read the letter. At least it's not just a white blank spot on a dark wall! I have another surgery to go to help the lid on that eye stay open. The muscle has atrophied and that needs to be corrected. Hopefully, it will happen before the end of the year. Considering how complex eye surgery can be, I'm happy I opted to do what I did. :)

[Maxie]

I'm so happy that it's all going well :)

[linda040899]

Surgery for the eye lid was done on 12/23 and it went well. Now that the swelling is down, I can open both eyes and better news came today at my check up with my corneal specialist!

I can now read the very top line on the eye chart (that huge E) which is something I couldn't do before. The letter just looked like a big dark blob of some sort. 2 stitches were removed in hopes of making vision in that eye clearer. As of today, the eye is reading 20/300. With both eyes open, I've gotten back my depth perception and full field of vision instead of just half of the world!

[Z28Taxman]

Good news!!!!

Guess that means you won't be bumping into things so much! :happy:

[linda040899]

Good news!!!!

Guess that means you won't be bumping into things so much! :happy:
You got that right! It put stairs back into perspective, too!

[Pips mom]

Just reading this.........great news Linda! You have got to be one of the stongest people I know!! :clap

[linda040899]

Check up with the surgeon who did the eyelid surgery went great yesterday! The lid is completely healed and it seems I overcompensated with all the muscles on my right side when the eye lid was closed. Now that I can open the eye, everything went back to normal position and the only thing that's noticeable, and not even that badly, is that my right eye is not quite as open as my left one. Hey, I'll take that! :) Pressure in the right eye is now up to 7, desired range being 9-11. Am I happy??? You might say so!!!!!!!

[Maxie]

That's wonderful news Linda! I'm very happy for you :)