Pterygium Day 9 Post Pterygium Surgery Journal

After nine days after surgery it is a slow healing process. However, the pain has drastically diminished, and my eye has improved. I was told it would take 4-6 weeks for the eye to show drastic improvements. On the positve side of things, the eye does not feel irritated with a sense of foreign body in my eye. Everytime I blink I don't feel a bump, which is great. Imagine a bump on your eye that distorts your peripheral vision for six years and now it is gone. WOW it is a great feeling.

There are better surgical procedures out there to have this pterygium to be removed, however my health insurance OPTIMA did not cover this method. The method used is a non-stitch method, special glue, and a graft from an amniotic membrane or even the use of a healthy piece tissue  from your eye.

The procedure that I went through with Dr. Vivek Jain from Beach Eye Care in Virginia Beach, Virginia was simply an excision of the pterygium. He used special skills and tools to cut, tear, pull the pterygium off the surface of my eye that actually grew on top of my cornea. He actually had to scrap my cornea with a blade, which caused abrasions on my cornea that took about a week to heal. This pain was felt for a week on top of the stitches too. I would not wish this pain on anyone. My eye was constantly watering. My vision was blurry and still after nine days a little blurry. My eyes were tested the day after surgery and then on day 8. My vision now is 20/15 in both eyes. I am noticing that my pupil in my operated eye is still larger than my other eye. Hopefully that will go away, it might be from the neomyocin medication. I feel that it leaves a creamy layer on the eye, and it makes it hard to see out of.

I will update my dialy journal of eye pictures in March, at this time I have about 9 pictures of after shots. I will add more in March. Please feel free to comment and I will answer. Take care.

You can see my updates now on twitter @pterygiumhelp
I have a post operation picture of my eye 425 days later. 100% satisfied.

Pterygium Post Surgery Video Journal Day 1-9

Pterygium Post Surgery A Daily Journal Post Operation Day 1 -9

Stay tuned will add new pictures in March 2012.

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!

 

Pre Pterygium Surgery Picture

This is when I first noticed the start of the pterygium growth back 2006.

It started growing at a very slow pace, but steadily until in reached my iris. My eye specialist from Beach Eye Care Dr. Jain stated if it started creeping onto my cornea and distorting my vision. It must be surgically removed.



The pterygium kept growing every day...every year, this was in 2010.



The pterygium finally covered my entire left eye on the nasal side, right up against my iris in 2011. This is when I started noticing the pterygium to start growing onto my iris. This was at the point where I started getting people to notice all the time. "Hey your eye is red. Is everything okay?" People would stare and I could read their faces, "damn...what the hell is that?"

Beach Self Photo August 2011



This was in 2011, my eye was so irritating, swollen, red, especially at night time. Eye drops would help, especially Systane drops for lubrication, it would help the feeling to have to rub my eye, and some of the redness.



One of my first days at work in September 2011, the plan was set by my doctor to have Surgery by the end of the year.

September 2011

My vision was still 20/15 in both eyes, eye drops did help during the day. However my peripheral vision in my left eye became blurry.



December 2011

Pterygium Signs, Symptoms, Treatments, Surgery, Recovery

How many of you out there are suffering from pterygium? Are you seeking answers to your irritated red, swollen, itchy eye? And everytime you are with friends, at work , a party, you had people that would say..."Hey your eye is red." Or asked you if everything was alright? After awhile people wouldn't just listen to you about what you are saying they just started staring at your eye. They had a blank look on their faces and you could see them thinking to themselves why is his eye red? You came to the right place. I have been suffering from pterygium for about six years when I turned 34 years old. I remember it vividly looking back into my foyer mirror in a house I purchased in 2006. I noticed this red bump small in size that started growing in my left eye on my nasal side. I then quickly started moving my eye from side to side and noticed on the surface of my white area "scelera" a red-pinkish bump that was growing towards my iris.  I went to my primary care physician and he sent me to an eye specialist. The eye specialist at this point in time stated I had pterygium and with proper medication and wearing sunglasses it would stop the growth of this red bump...at the time I was 34 he said I was too young to have any type of surgery, because in his "professional opinion" it would grow back at a rapid pace. This blog will help you understand what is pterygium, causes of pterygium, how can you prevent pterygium, treatment of pterygium, surgery for pterygium, and recovery of pterygium. At this point in my life I am 40 years old as I write this blog on February 2, 2012 and currently 6 days post opt of my surgery.