Update (20/09/2018)

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Hi all,

As usual, I'm sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of months. But not a lot has happened. Well... maybe some, but small improvements!One difference some frequent readers may know is that I changed from Tumblr to WordPress. It's mainly down to not really digging Tumblr as a whole, and preferring WordPress' way of publishing stuff.Over the last few months, I've noticed that my eyesight is slowly but surely getting better. The sister and I went to see both League of Gentlemen in Oxford & Janelle Monae at The Roundhouse. Now for LoG, we were row A, bang in the middle with a beautiful view. So luckily I didn't strain my eyes as much as I usually would.But a couple weeks later, we went to see Monae at The Roundhouse, in the middle of the standing area. Now I usually have to strain a lot from the distance we were from the stage, but I could see Janelle, her dancers and her band with perfect ease. I could see small facial details, and I never felt so happy to be seeing what I was.The big update is that I finally have a date regarding my refractions appointment. It's in December, and I hope it's very positive. I believe I'm not seeing my consultant before then, most likely in the new year, but it's nice going back just before Christmas as I give the team snacks and gifts around Xmas. As you have to show them some appreciation for the hard work they put in.I need to do another update shot on my eye. Both front and side to compare with before, during and after transplant surgery. So I hope to do that soon.

But for now, take care!

Ollie

Check Up Appointment (16/07/2018)

Had my first checkup with my consultant since my incision surgery, and it was a very standard day at the eye clinic. 

Checked in, had my eye test, then had them scanned then saw my consultant for a couple of minutes, and left. 

I had a previous check-up with someone who was filling in for my normal consultant, who was on annual leave but received a letter couple days later saying I was going to see my consultant within the next few weeks anyway, so I took that as a hint of him wanting to double verify my non-consultant’s views.

So basically my astigmatism has gone down dramatically. Still not great, but enough that they want to try refractions (glasses). So I should be back within the next couple months for that. If that doesn’t work, however, they will look into doing laser eye surgery. But, apparently, I’m almost at the end of my cornea transplant journey of fixing the wrongs and whatnot.

I feel incredibly grateful for my eye care team, who are a brilliant bunch of people. I have never met a group of professionals who were so caring and dedicated to helping others. And I will always adore their hard work. I just hope I’ve been a dream patient for them.

If things go according to plan, I will probably go back to just seeing them every now and then to see if everyone checks clear. With the occasional call for an emergency appointment. Especially if my right eye starts playing tricks again (which, luckily, it’s behaving itself. For now!)

But that’s the update. I look forward to the refraction tests, and hope to see a clearer future ahead of me! 

Ollie

Astigmatic Keratotomy Surgery - 12/04/2018

Hi all!

So back on Tuesday morning (10/04/2018), I underwent cornea incision surgery to help point me in the right direction of possibly, but most likely, having laser eye surgery. As for my last two surgeries (CXL and DALK), I wasn’ t nervous until I went into theatre. So I think it could be safe to say that I’m somewhat of an expert at this now. Just need to master the not-getting-nervous-at-the-start. 

My Tuesday started off incredibly early. 6am early. I changed into my day surgery clothing which consisted of a pair of jogging trousers, a basic white shirt with a nice floral pattern on the sleeves and one of my grey jumpers. I was pretty much ready to go! The family and I set off for a McDonald’s breakfast (by we I mean just me… on my own). Very tasty, and by the time I was finished with it, we had arrived at the hospital. We highly underestimated our timing because we were very early. So early we had to wait for 30-45 minutes for the actual eye day surgery unit to open for business. 

One thing that was quite weird is that although everyone goes to the receptionist to sign in, you are actually told to sit down anyway and wait for your name to be called out. So I sat down for about 15 minutes and my name was called out, went up, verified and updated some personal information, and was sent back to my chair. Then one of the consultants wearing their surgery uniform came up to me, briefed me on what was being performed that day, the risks, the usual stuff they have to tell you before you sign the consent form, and that was that. I was on my way towards something that has been in the making for well over a year. 

I was then called up by a nurse who again made me verify my information, all my personal needs, health problems that they may need to know, and also more information about next-of-kin and how I would be getting back home. And was once again sent back to my seat… UNTIL I was called up again by my consultant who had a look at my eye. Another weird experience that I had was I believe he drew on my cornea while he was looking. At least I think it was a pen. He numbed my eye, and then very carefully drew a line of my cornea. I have to admit I was gutted when I went to the toilet before being called in for surgery to have not seen a Picasso piece on my eye. But you can only do so much.

So I was called in, put on my fashionable shoe covers and hair net, and I walked to the same old anaesthetic room that I’ve been in twice, laid down on my operating bed while they dowsed my eye in local anaesthetic, and I was wheeled in. The anxiety started skyrocketing at this rate, but luckily it didn’t last a long time. 

The con that I did have to go through was the bright lamp I had to look up to. It was incredibly bright. I don’t normally moan to my eye team about stuff, but when I do, it’s only because it really is unbearable. And they dimmed the light for me, which was still bright, but not like looking-at-the-sun bright. It was more tolerable. 

Then… It was done. Literally, after only 10 minutes in theatre, they finished it and I didn’t know it. I honestly thought they were just drawing on my eye once again, but it turned out they were doing the incisions. So I was wheeled out of the theatre, and was helped out of the bed, offered a wheelchair back to the waiting room, but I insisted on just walking back. I don’t like making a fuss out of the staff. So I waltz back into my family who was happy to see me and shocked at how quick it was. They commented on how red my eye (which I will include of photo of, it’s the second photo), and I did feel a tad lightheaded. After some discussion with the nurse about what to do what meds and new eyedrops, I was discharged. 

And that was my day.

Just two days after my surgery, I hardly feel any discomfort, and I’m almost back to normal except I still feel exhausted and feel like I can’t do as much physical activity as I want. And I still have to take it easy for the next two weeks. Which sucks. But the consultant’s advice is the best.

So I hope you enjoyed this somewhat rushed blog of my experience, and if there any questions, please feel free to private message me!

Ollie 

Ollie shares his tissue donation story

Hello all,

The interview that I did for NHS has been uploaded to YouTube for you all to enjoy the site of my ugly mug! But all in good to spread the word about how amazing the NHS, and the person who donated their cornea, have been to me!

O X

P.S. If you haven’t already, please sign up to the NHS Blood and Organ Donation register if you haven’t already!

Ollie shares his tissue donation story

Glasses/Contact Lenses Appointment - 26/07/2017

Before I start off this post about my recent appointment trying to correct my vision, I did happen to go hospital the week before in the form of an emergency one. I was experiencing very painful headaches. So this leads to me going in, but the pressure in both my eyes was apparently okay, and the onboard eye expert said it could be the eye drops making some trouble, in which to just try and relax as much as possible, and use moisturising eye drops whenever possible.

Anyway, here’s the main blog:

Yesterday, I had an appointment to see if glasses/contact lenses would help with the severe astigmatism that I have after my cornea transplant.

All I know about the astigmatism is that it’s very severe. Glasses COULD help with my vision, but as I do have one good eye, the glasses would consist of one thick lens and the other being normal. This would cause some problems with my brain trying to understand what’s going, thus confusing, and then thus making it a very difficult job to try and tolerate it. So the glasses are a no.

EDIT: Glasses would be a no for me anyway because, apparently, my pupil doesn’t contract as well as it should, as thus have a larger-than-normal pupil. <insert bowie eye reference here>

We did try contact lenses, but the ones that the lovely ladies fit in were a tad tight and were very uncomfortable. So my contact lens specialist said that we’d have to go back another time while she orders some more lenses, but did say that the lenses would likely not improve anything. Which would mean having incision surgery to fix the astigmatism. YAY MORE SURGERY YAS!!! I say that with sarcasm, obviously.

I don’t know when I come back to try out the new contact lenses that are being ordered for me, but the next time I definitely know I’ll be back with my consultant is late October.

Removal of All Stitches & Another Minor Graft Rejection (Hospital Appointment Update) - 08/03/2017 & 17/05/2017

Hi all,

Sorry for not updating this blog as much as I should be, but to be honest with you all, not a lot has gone on. I have spent most of my time since the post forgetting that I even had eye problems. It’d only be until people brought it up and asked that I remembered again.

One thing that I did do was an interview for the NHS Blood and Transplant Department. I’ll be doing another post about that once all the material is approved and, hopefully, sent out into the world.

Let’s start with the first appointment. 

March 8th ‘17:

It’s the same old, normal routine, various eye tests and scans. HOWEVER, the one unique thing in this appointment was that I’d have all remaining stitches taken out on the day.

I won’t bore you all with the minor details and such, but let’s just say that it all took but 45 minutes to cut and pull out around 8-10 stitches that we still in my cornea. Painless but tense, but nevertheless went through it without a hitch. Well… Apart from one part where I accidentally flinched and it looked like I lunged right into my consultant’s forceps. But nothing bad came out of it. After that was all out of the way, I was told to expect the process of trying to improve the vision even better as it was still not good.

I was then sent home and I rested for the remainder of the day.

Onto the next appointment which was this week…

May 17th ‘17:

Again, the standard routine of the eye tests and scans. I see my consultant, which was a bit of a surprise as I had been expected to see my contact lens expert, but nevertheless, I and the Mother walked into his office.

Instead of immediately looking through my eye with his slit lamp, he asks if he could try a little experiment. I obviously agree and he goes and fetches this large wooden briefcase, which when opened, showed off a huge amount of lens inside it. He starts combining some of them and then proceeds to ask me the standard questions whenever you do an eye chart test. 

What was weird was they weren’t standard lenses as per say, but whenever he twisted the lens cap, it would sway side to side, obviously trying to amuse my eye. But, like me, my eye was very stubborn and didn’t want to do anything with this test.

Thus then, I find out I had astigmatism. It’s a fairly common thing among us humans, and I’m sure something that is very common when you undergo a cornea transplant.

He then proceeded to check my eye like the normal way he does, but much to his dismay, he saw minor graft rejection in progress. ANOTHER ONE?! WHEN WILL I GET A BREAK? Well, the question to that answer is never. I did sign up to this, so I can’t really complain. 

But I do however feel a bit foolish as I did have some stabbing pain and a sore eye for a couple days, and I hadn’t realised that was warning shots to me that something wasn’t right. But we all live and learn. So I was told then that if even it’s a small thing, to ring them and explain the symptoms and go into them as I was a high-risk case. So, again, lesson learnt.

So because of not me going into the hospital when I should’ve, I am back onto steroid eyedrops and following a strict regime. The drops I am taking are called Dexamethasone Sodium Phosphate. They’re a lot gentler than the ones I’m used to having, but they do however have the inconvenient feeling of stinging when I have them (speaking of which, I just had to take a drop a few minutes ago as of writing this). 

I was on an hourly drop, but that has been downgraded to one drop every two hours. And then when every new week passes, the frequent amounts of drops needed are less and less.

As I do have astigmatism in my left eye, it does mean that they’re looking into having what I believe is LASIK laser eye surgery to fix the problem. Yay, more surgery. But no, seriously, I do forward to seeing (pardon the pun) how this surgery could help improve with my current redundant eyesight. Now if LASIK surgery is on the NHS or I have to go private, I don’t know, but I’m sure that will be discussed when I go back there next month.

I do have to say that my Eye Clinic team are an amazing bunch of people that do so much for so many people. I can only hope one day to repay back their hard work. 

That’s all the updates I have really.

I hope you all have a brilliant, rainy (where I am), week. 

Ollie 

Check Up at Hospital (6 Weeks After DALK Surgery)

Just got back from the hospital for my check up about my transplant surgery. Right eye has improved slightly, whereas the left eye has slowly gotten worse. But knowing that the vision will get better and worse over the next 2 years gives me more reason not to panic.

Had my left eye scanned for the first time since before undergoing the surgery and all the nurse could say (who has scanned my eye the whole time I’ve been at the eye clinic) was a massive “Wow”. My eye is no longer blacks and purples but now red and yellows, which is a MASSIVE improvement.

My consultant was worried about the pressure that was building in my eyes, and so prescribed me Lotemax, which is less aggressive than the Maxidex eyedrops I was taking are. This could explain why I had a couple of headaches and bit of pressure inside my eye (correct me if I’m wrong).

But the thing that has made my day is that I asked my consultant if I was able to start driving lessons and he said that if I was able to read a reg plate from 20 meteres, it should be okay. And guess what? Ya boy is gonna book some driving lessons and apply for a provisional. MANS GONNA BE ABLE TO DRIVE NOW!!

Tuesday 13th October 2015 (DALK Corneal Transplant Surgery)

It’s Monday 12th October. I had just been to the Crime Museum in London, and having my last meal. It was a Chinese. Very lovely and nice. But this would be last meal before I would of had to fast for my surgery the following morning. I make the most of it, and eat as much as I can. People tell me I’ll be very hungry after I wake up from the surgery, which was under general anaesthetic. My family told me to have an early night, but as I knew, I would be up much of the night anxiously waiting for 6am to come by.

It’s around 2am, and I take my last sip of water (I wasn’t allowed to drink after 5:30am and I wouldn’t be awake by then. I close my eyes, and then the next thing I remember is being awoken by my mum at 6:45am. “Come on darling, it’s time to get up”. I do what most people do and close their eyes and soak in the rest of the time they could in their bed. Off I go. 

I was looking forward to this surgery. Mainly because it’s been talked about, debated about, and planned about for so long, it felt weird that it was actually going to happen within the day. 

Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK) – replacing or reshaping the outer and middle (front) layers of the cornea.

The reason for this surgery is that I had one of the most severe cases of Keratoconus they had seen in a very long time. Especially someone so young (18 at the time of being diagnosed). Funnily enough, a month before the surgery, while having my eyes scanned, the nurse kept thinking I was blinking throughout it because the test kept coming back as purple and black colours. Which often means the eye is in a pretty bad state. So I had to spent 30 minutes having a nurse watch me to make sure I wasn’t blinking while another took out the test. Funny how life works sometimes.

That type of scenario proves why I needed a corneal transplant so badly. Even the nurses were going mad about how bad my eye looked compared to my right eye (which is quite healthy after my CXL surgery and it seems that the Keratoconus has been halted). 

Anyway, back to the main story. I brought along my Bronson book (I had been watching a lot about Charles Bronson, now known as Charles Salvador for some time), my Mophie case for my iPhone just in case I had to wait all day and if my iPhone was to die. And that was it. On my way in a baggy grey shirt with some grey jogging bottoms, because I knew I had to be as comfy as I wanted to be, because this would be more serious than my cross linking. I regret not bringing my headphones because after I was out of the recovery ward, I just wanted to blast some Aphex Twin on my phone.

We arrive at the ‘Eye Day Surgery Unit’ which is this massive cubical in the middle of my local hospital and we go inside and register so they know I turned up and just wait. The nurse then calls my name (I will tell you though, feels so good to hear my new legal name than my boring birth name). I get called to ½ of the wards they have ready to question the patient and do anything that is necessary which the other waiting patients don’t need seeing. I have been through this sort of procedure before and I know what happens. They ask to verify who you are, why you’re at the unit and why do I need this surgery. Basic stuff. But knowing me, I give the nurse a full lecture as to why I needed the surgery, and she knows I mean business. Or I am just crazy. Probably the last one. Nope, definitely the last one. I am very crazy. 

I fill out forms and wait to be seen by my consultant who would be conducting the surgery. He calls me into one of the offices. “How are you feeling today, Ollie?” he asks as I close the door and walk to my seat. “I’m very nervous but excited!” I say quite quickly and nervously. “Good, what we’re (him and two other people which looked like students) going to do is quickly measure your eye to see how much tissue needs to be taken off, and these two will quickly observe your eye and what needs to be done to make this surgery successful. So I lay my chin on those machine which they use to examine your eyes with. I hear my surgeon mumbling to himself measurements of my eyes and other stuff he wants to note to himself. “Now”, my consultant says, “If you two have a quick look at this persons Keratoconus you will see what I’ll be doing during the Keratoplasty surgery and how severe his Keratoconus is”. They observe my eye then I am sent out back to the waiting room.

I then meet the Anaesthesiologist, who, of course, will be putting me to sleep before I head into theatre. She measures my height and weight so she knows how much dosage she needs to put me to sleep and such (hence why she’s an Anaesthesiologist). 

As I was going to be put under general, they wanted me to be comfy, yet want access to my chest and such if any problems occurred (which didn’t). I was told to put a gown which they gave me on and special tights which you have to wear during the op (I forgot the reason why but yeah, can’t be asked to Google it at this moment of time). With the tights on, the gown on and my red Nike shoes on, I looked and felt like someone who claimed they were the second coming of Henry VIII.

Before I’m asked to go with the doctors, the nurse starts giving me eye drop after eye drop. The first stung like a bitch, so obviously that was the local anaesthetic, because they always f%&*ing hurt. Then she gives me another one which makes everything in the room greenish yellow. Charlotte (my sister) says that it made my eye look like as if I had cross linking surgery again. Ah, the good old days.

Minutes after, I go to the toilet and give all my electronics to my family and other personal items, and I walk into the anaesthetic room. I have been through this procedure before. Lie on a bed, and let them do what they need to do. The thing I was worried about the most was the IV needle. As most are, I’m not a big fan of needles. So I was a bit anxious but looking back, the IV was the least of my worries. I had never been under general so this was going to be interesting. They put this tube like thing around my arm, and then ask me to open and close my hand. I had always wondered how they put the IV in, and I didn’t use my common sense, but hey. They couldn’t find a vein so another nurse held my arm done by the side of bed and asked me to open and close my hand again and they found one. “You’ll feel a slight scratch”. Famous last words. I felt it going in, but it didn’t actually hurt as much as I thought it would, considering it was going into my vein. Around 30 seconds later, the needle did start feeling a bit itchy and irritating, but again, least of my worries. 

They start putting this equipment on me, like the heart rate and etc, etc. They give an oxygen mask. And I have to say that pure oxygen is disgusting. The nurse says to me “Right, we’re ready to put you to sleep now”. I wanted to see how they did it. So I watched them inject it through the IV tube and it was this large syringe filled with clear liquid but with a few air bubbles here and there. All of a sudden, I start feeling pins and needles in my arm and I felt so knackered. My last words before I went to sleep were “Oh god, that is strong…” then I blacked out. It was a weird experience, but it was kinda cool, I guess. 

All of a sudden, I start hearing beeping and felt like as if the bed I was on was moving and being turned around. I open my eye (my right one) and I realise that I’m in a room that I wasn’t familiar with. I was in the recovery ward. This really nice young guy gently wakes me up and says “Hi there sir, the operation was successful and you’re in the recovery ward. We’ll going to take you out in a minute”. I kept opening and closing my eyes and looking around my area. I noticed that I couldn’t open my left eye, and that it was patched. I couldn’t believe that it (the operation) had been done. It felt like I closed my eyes for like two minutes. Amazing how science works. 

Around 5 minutes after waking up, I was wheeled back to the waiting room (they have two wards in there) and I noticed my family in their seats. They didn’t recognise me at first, until I started waving at them. I could hear my mum whispering “He’s out! He’s out!”. They walk up to me and the first thing I ask is for some water. I can tell you now, that sip of water I took was the best I ever had. I just blurted “God that water is f&*∞ing amazing”.

I waited and waited for the nurse to come and see me. I couldn’t open my eyes. So I had some assistance from my sister to walk me around the waiting room. Which consisted of bumping into the other patients and saying sorry whilst still in my hospital gown. I did my business in the toilet and went back to the ward. People say to you that you feel really hungry after being put to sleep, but I felt like I had eaten a couple hours ago and didn’t have any real appetite. 

The nurse was satisfied that I could home, gave me my eyedrops and tablets, and discharged me. I have to admit the first few days were uncomfortable and I couldn’t open my eyes for the same duration. But I was prying my left eye open two days after the op, and my body couldn’t cope with how clearly I could see. Now note, when I say ‘clearly’ I mean ‘everything is still hazy but most of the halo’s are gone’. My balance was everywhere and even felt a bit sick. 

But here I am now, two weeks after my operation, and typing this blog. My consultant has said that I have done three months worth of healing, and that’s mainly down to my mum giving me my eyedrops when I needed them, and I am doing well at the moment.

I feel excited for the future, and I hope that one day, I can have the vision that I once had and loved.

Ollie x