Monday 7 September 2015

Pre Cancerversary Update

Hi all! My sincere apologies that it has taken me this long to update my blog. I can't think of a genuine excuse as to why, but I thought this would be a good time as I am now approaching four years post diagnosis!!

In my last post, it was the day before I was due to "go under the knife", used in the loosest possible way, to have the collagen cross linking procedure. As mentioned, it wasn't in order to fix my eyesight, which is what most laser surgery entails, but merely to prevent it from getting worse. On the day I was naturally quite nervous. Not as nervous as I had been for previous procedures, but a different kind of nervous. This was one of the first surgeries, where I would be wide awake. That was the scary part. When you have a general anaesthetic, you go into a room, are either gassed or have an IV anaesthetic and the next thing you know, you are awake again, completely clueless as to what has happened to you in the last couple of hours.

For this procedure, I was wide awake, talking to the surgeon as he was operating in my eye. My eye was taped open, which was very uncomfortable and I was given anaesthetic in the form of eye drops and as I lay there talking to the surgeon, I could smell burning. This was the laser in my eye, doing whatever it was meant to be doing. I wasn't expecting to be able to smell the burning and that was, of course, bizarre.

I can't really describe what the rest of the procedure was like without wanting to throw up a little. There was poking and prodding in my eye and the whole thing only lasted about 20 minutes! He put in a "bandage" contact lens which was meant to stay in for about 3 weeks but it came out after about a week after I rubbed my eye... I was sent home with a massive bag of eye drops, four different kinds which all did different things and obviously had to be put in at different times of the day for the next month. The first day was very uncomfortable and the light very sensitive, but after about 24 hours, it all settled and I carried on with the drops.

The surgeon had mentioned the potential for getting glasses, which didn't phase me. He did say wait a couple of months for it to heal, as it is a slow procedure. A couple of months later, I am now a full time glasses wearer, albeit mainly for my left eye.

My next haematology appointment is at the end of this month, so no doubt will have another update then! This one will hopefully not come 6 months late!

Until then... Peace Out!

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