Had a bit of an issue last night. After taking out my contacts, my grafted eye started to sting like a really, really bad eyelash. I immediately knew what it was – a suture had broken during the day. I still have four sutures that Dr. Holland had wanted me to leave in for as long as possible. No panic. But time to put the plan into action.
The sensation was a sting, worse than an eyelash in my eye. I looked at my eye carefully in mirror under magnification, and I could see a tiny little spot where the suture had been moving around. In the center, a tiny, tiny little suture sticking straight out. I noticed it after contact removal because my contact was acting like a bandage lens preventing the little suture from moving around.
At a previous appointment, I had asked Dr. Holland what to do if this happened, so when it did, I tried not to freak out. I went ahead and put a drop of Vigamox (antibiotic) in before heading to bed to keep bacteria from growing in the micro-wound – with a plan to call in the morning.
Dr. Holland had previously told me that I didn’t need to drive to his office (90 minutes away) if this happened, but to just go to a local surgeon in Lexington. I contacted Dr. Koffler’s office near my house and they had me in at 8:45, and the problem suture was out (or part of it) by 10 AM.
But the suture didn’t come out cleanly. As you may remember from a previous post, the cornea is getting stronger all the time, and the sutures are getting pretty cemented in and losing some of their strength. When the Dr. grabbed the eroded suture to pull it out, it broke into two pieces at the knot, and only the protruding section came out on his tweezers. He tried to get the other one, but it was “scarred in” and he thought it better to leave it there rather than cause too many scratches on the graft. He guessed that it would never be an issue. Fine by me. It would not be painful because it was under the skin. I’ll let Dr. Holland look at it when I’m up there next.
I’m on a 4×4 regimen of Vigamox and have to leave my contact off for 48 hours, but I think all is okay. Once this is settled, I’ll call Dr. Holland and see if he’d like to take out the rest of the sutures (so they don’t give me trouble during a business trip or otherwise inconvenient time.)
So… inconvenient, but no panic. Rather straightforward resolution. On with the day.
Here is an illustration of what happened to the best of my ability… the (A) is the protruding suture that was getting moved around and where things hurt. The black dots are the knots.
