Disappointment

So, I had a very sleepless night, full of the inevitable anxiety and thirst. Got up really early and arrived at the hospital at 8. Ward was very busy but I was told I was first on the list, for the morning at 9 o'clock. "Good" me-thinks, get it over quickly. No bed available which meant I was left watching really dreadful breakfast TV in the day room. "We'll get you one when people go home."

After 45 minutes, with 9 o'clock getting ever closer, the anaesthetist arrived. All was fine until I mentioned I'd got a slight sniffle. Oh dear: downhill from then on. The anaesthetist wasnt willing to give me a general anaesthetic and went off the discuss with the eye surgeon the option of doing it under local. Would I be happy for this? "Yes." I refrained from telling him that I'd asked for this previously (I'm curious) but the surgeon had been adamant that he wouldn't do it then. So I wasn't surprised by the final outcome

The precise details of the next 3 hours are not important but featured: more breakfast TV; more conversations with the anaesthetist; moving to a different waiting area; waiting for the surgeon to come to talk to me in person to be told "he'd left". The staff who dealt with me were universally pleasant

So, it's back on the waiting list for more donor tissue to become available. I expect to get a few weeks warning of the re-scheduled date. I'll be back here, then.

Context and a bit of background

Tomorrow I shall be having my second corneal transplant. By 'second' I mean I'm having my second eye treated. These grafts are to deal with the effects of advanced keratoconus. This blog will be a diary of events, of stages through treatment and recovery. I hope it may be of interest to some others, facing similar surgery.

The first graft was done in 2002. I wrote a diary about the first graft. That's publically available on my 'keratoconus' web page: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ec/~lisa/kerato.htm I'll use this blog this time.

My dad tells me that it must be better this time 'since I know what to expect'. But how wrong he is. It wasnt a good experience but the outcome is that my vision is vastly improved in that eye but it has taken a very long time and a lot of frustration in getting this far.

I do know I need to go ahead with this second graft: contact lens comfort in that eye is getting problematic; air bubbles are a frequent problem and the lens needs re-inserting several times each day. So I don't realistically have a choice. At 8 am tomorrow I'll turn up to the hospital for surgery.