Week One

It took several days to feel that the anaesthetic had fully worn off but don't feel I need that excuse for late mornings and afternoon naps.

The hospital had made no mention of wearing an eye shield at night. This must have been an oversight. Fortunately I have an old one I can use.

The first thing to do on discharge was to make a chart of exact times for each set of eye drops. Alongside this regime I was using 2 hourly comfort drops for the contact lens in my other eye. That was fine until I inadvertently used the cyclopentolate in my unoperated eye. It took 4 days for its pupil to return to its normal size and to start functioning properly. Fortunately the lens-focusing muscles were disabled for less that 24 hours. I really should have thought to flush the eye out immediately. When I reported this faux pas at my hospital checkup, they just laughed.

The first check up was a week after surgery. See my nice Registrar again....

I queried the necessary restrictions on lifting and carrying since I spotted it was not mentioned in the guidance leaflet. I was told that there was no absolute certainty that there was a connection. However it was felt that 'common sense' said that care should be taken, particularly at first. He felt that after c6 weeks, on my return to work, there should be no problem with carrying ordinary loads, such as student notes.

Sometimes the eye had been quite sore, though not scratchy or gritty. It was agreed that this was probably due to dry eye. When asked if I could use any of my current drops to help, it was agreed that preservative-free celluvisc (or artificial tears) would be fine.

The leaking stitch has stopped leaking - good - so the bandage contact has been removed - bad. The upshot is that the eye is very much more irritated than previously and is really quite scratchy and sore. Back to the paracetamol packet.

The cornea surface is now uneven. Apparently this is normal, with the healing leading to stretching between the stitches. It is expected to smooth out later. Vision is probably somewhat worse than day 1: line 1 is barely legible even though a pinhole. No concern: still very early days.

Eye pressure was elevated though, at 26. This is slightly higher than desired. So a beta blocker is added to the list of drops (0.25% timolol ie Timoptol). New regime is: Predforte (4x daily); chloramphenicol (4x daily); cyclopentolate (3x daily) (for one more week only though); timolol (2x daily) and celluvisc as required.

The prescription for the timolol and extra chloramphenicol both came in single-dose preservative free form. Not clear if this is an error or deliberate. Must query next time.

Next check up in 2 weeks.

Alongside this, the optometrists have decided I need a slightly stronger lens in my right eye. It has been ordered. After that I'll need to upgrade my reading glasses.