A Daily Journal Post Pterygium Surgery Day 1-9

The day finally came for my operation, after years of waiting on January 27, 2011 I finally had surgery. Three days prior to my surgery I had to use some antibiotic drops and wipes to prepare my eye for surgery. I have included post operation pictures for the first week. I will add more pictures in the future. My doctor said after surgery this is what you should experience: 1 week blurred vision, 2 weeks of pain, and 4 weeks of blood shot red eyes. As I am writing this blog, I am on day seven. My vision is pretty much back to normal at 20/15. However my eye is still crusted over during the mornings and watering due to the scratched cornea because the pterygium started contacting my iris the doctor had to scrap my cornea.

During surgery I was put under local anethesia, which is the state where you are aware what is going on, be able to listen and see what is going on, but you are unable to feel pain. I did however feel pressure when the doctor either cut, snip, pull, scrap, and stitch my eye. Several times during surgery he would ask me to move my in all directions. I could actually see a scapel scratching the surface of my eye kind of gross...right?

Surgery day, finally after waiting six years and many doctor visits my red-pinkish pterygium will be removed!

I'm happy, but a little nervous because I never had surgery under anethesia before. My blood pressure was actually pretty good it was 127/58. The nurse asked me what my baseline was, I had no idea what my baseline blood pressure numbers are.

45 minutes later my surgery was over, yes I remembered everything while the surgery was taking place. Dr. Jain placed a plastic shield over my eye to protect it from debris and contact. My vision was blurry as expected.

Yes I could open my eye, it was swollen, red, and my vision was blurry. I was told to use Neomyocin every two hours and refresh eye drops (non-preservative) every other hour between the Neomyocin.

Sitting up in my hospital bed waiting for the doctor to send me home. I got some cool gripper socks.

Day 1 after surgery. My eye feels like it has shards of glass in it due to the stitches, which is hard to see without a microscope.

Day 2 after surgery my eye actually is really sore and watering, Tylenol Maximum strength does not help the pain. The doctor said he would not suggest any other pain medication to apply directly to the eye because the healing process will take longer.

Day 3 after surgery, still looks red and irritated and so am I. Wishing the pain, redness, irritation would go away. Should it just go away...I waited 6 years. Everytime I blinked it felt like a had a foreign body in my eye. I kept my thoughts to myself and did not complain. Just hearing those nagging remarks all the time. "Hey your eye is red."--No REALLY I didn't know.

Day 4 after surgery.

Day 5 after surgery.

Day 6 after surgery.

Day 7 after surgery.




Day 7 at night, finally I see the white coming back after six years!!!

Day 8 post operation of excision of pterygium. I just seen Dr. Jain from Beach Eye Care for my second doctor visit after surgery. He informed me there was seven sutures required during surgery. No special grafting was used or special glue. He basically cut out the pterygium and used the stitches to bring the sclera back together.

Day 9 still red, but getting better day by day slowly. I have to keep making sure to monitor my eye drop medication and Neomyocin cream daily. This is the second day using my new drug doses.
(1) drop of Lotemax 4x daily (steriod), Optive Refresh Non-Preservative Drops each hour (OTC), and Neomycin (antibiotic) only before bed.





Day 10 my vision is still blurred in my eye, the doctor stated it is due to my cornea being scratched and dry, I must ensure I keep my eye drops on a schedule to ensure the best healing. I can tell my white scelera is coming back after a six year absence.

Day 11

 

 

Day 963 Post Operation

Success!