Preparing for CrossLinking 

How You'll Feel

Unfortunately there is no guarantee about how long you'll take to get back to normal following CrossLinking, as far as I can tell there aren't even any clear guidelines. Your recovery time will depend on whether it's your good eye that's been operated on, how far the keratoconus had progressed before the operation, and whether it was an epi-on or epi-off procedure. Understandably, surgeons don't like to make any promises about how you're going to feel after the operation and so the best we can do is to revert to the rich source of anecdotal evidence.

 

 

The First 48 Hours

Although you'll be quite uncomfortable immediately after CrossLinking, you'll find you improve very rapidly too. I always find that the first 24 hours are worse than the second 24 hours and after the first two days it starts to get easy. Here are the things to watch out for:

• Your eye is likely to be light sensitive

• It may also stream with an inconvenient number of tears

• You may be a bit snappy ​- particularly when your painkillers are wearing off

• You may well feel surprisingly tired

• Poor peripheral vision - I've previously bumped into a pot plant and table on my way out of the hospital

• Watch out for the side effects of powerful painkillers. For example, Codeine can make people feel a bit nausious or give you headaches

 

 

The First Few Weeks

For the first couple of weeks after CrossLinking you're definitely in recovery mode but you'll be back to your normal self in most respects. According to the experience of other patients, the following are fairly common:

• Pain will stop being an issue (maybe from as early as day 3)

• Eyesight in your operated eye will probably get worse before it gets better - Some people find that they have good days and bad days in terms of vision quality other people have more consistent levels of vision. Both are normal.

• Your 'good eye' may get tired as it does double the work

• You may be sensitive to sunlight

• Some people find that their eye feels particularly 'dry'

• Watch out for low morale. Don't let yourself get bored or worry about what you're missing at work.

 

 

The Following Months

Some people are back to normal within a few weeks of CrossLinking, for others there are ongoing symptoms

• May ache when tired

• Corneal clouding - for some people the post-operation cloudy vision has lasted several months, but it should eventually clear

• Some fortunate people find that their eyesight is now better than it was before the operation

• If you use hard contact lenses then you should get them re-fitted after 6 months as the same of your cornea may have changed