Transplant #2
Right Eye
Dec. 19th 2002- My second surgery was on Tuesday the 17th and everything went really well. I decided to have general anesthesia again, which suprised some of the nurses, so I had to explain that I'm a baby when it comes to pain. I warned everyone ahead of time that last surgery I had a hard time coming out of the anesthesia, so they decided to change a few things to try to help.

Before the surgery, Dr. Pineda came in and told me we had gotten extemely lucky with the donor. We asked if the donor was younger than 14 and he said yes.

Everything went pretty much the same as the other surgery, except I felt much better when I woke up. Not so much of a headache, not so naseous and I guess I hadn't been moving around as much. They had given me less anesthesia and some medication to help me come out of it better and it definately helped. I was awake and alert much sooner and able to go home much sooner.

As soon as I got home I took a pain pill and went to sleep. I woke up a few times during the night because of the discomfort, but eventually went back to sleep.

The next day, the 18th, my mom and I went back to see Dr. PIneda for the 1 day post op appointment. Dr. Pineda's resident checked my pressure (14, just fine) and then checked my vision. Believe it or not, I read the 20/60 line and some of the 20/50 line!!! After only 22 hours!!! Dr. Pineda said that is the best results he's ever seen. Plus, he told us that the donor tissue was that of an 11 year old and was rated by the tissue bank as "excellent". He said he's never even worked with tissue rated "excellent" before. On the down side, apparently there is a slight scratch on the cornea, nothing severe, but Dr. Pineda said that my vision will get a bit cloudy over the next few days as my cells grow in and fill the scratch.

Other than that, everything is really great. Dr. Pineda put me on the same drop schedule as in the beginning before and the pain is decreasing by the day. Believe it or not, I'm actually doing the typing right now, meaning, my eye is feeling well enough to let me stare at the computer for a while, after only 2 days!

I have my one week post-op on Monday the 23rd. I'll update again after that.

Dec. 24, 2002- (ONE WEEK) Had my one week post-op appointment yesterday. When I went in, I was a little concerned about the redness of the eye. It seemed to me that it was much redder than after the first surgery. I got my vision and pressure done. The vision wasn't as good as it was originally, however Dr. Pineda said that it will continue to get better over the next couple weeks. The pressure was ok. They checked the eye and said it was a bit enflamed as well as swollen, but it was nothing to worry about. Apparently all of my own epithelial cells have grown in over the graft already, and that's what is causing the inflamation. It's just the reaction to the rapid epithelial cell growth. But, that is a good thing and the redness will go away.

Dr. Pineda said everything looks very well. He dropped my steroid drop down to every 3 hours and the antibiotic down to 3 times a day. He also dropped the steriod in my left eye down to twice a day. It's kind of confusing keeping track of when to put in what drop, but, I'm getting used to it.

After taking a look at my left eye, Dr. Pineda said there was some mucus underneath the running stitch, meaning some sort of scratch in the surface. He removed the mucus and decided not to do anything with this eye until the scratch heals. He doesn't want to disrupt the running stitch.

So, everything is going pretty well. Recovery is moving very quickly this time, I can hardly believe it. I have another appointment on the 30th. I'll update after that. Happy Holidays!

Janaury 10, 2003-(Three weeks post-op?)Well, I'd like to apologize for not updating in a while. I've recieved many emails asking how I'm doing, so I figured it was about time to update. The reason I hadn't been updating recently was because in all honesty, there really isn't much to update. The redness is completely gone now, other than that... everythings pretty much the same. No pain, no discomfort, vision is pretty good. Had my drops decreased to 4 times a day in my right and 2 times a day in my left.

At my last appointment, Dr. Pineda did remove the 2 sutures from my left eye to try to help with the vision, I don't think it worked. However, I won't know for sure till I visit with him at the end of the month.

Anyway, that's about it. I don't think I'm going to updating much unless there is something really important going on. However, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to email me.