Ram’s Cornea Operation Recovery Process

(beyond four weeks of the cornea graft operation)

Recovery from the eye operation was very slow. Ram had to continue to be very careful managing her daily activities. She should not exert herself, no bending down, no lifting of heavy objects, stay away from fumes, dusty environment, and anything that can have detrimental effects to the eye. This meant no cooking, washing, laundry, and so on, In short, do nothing. She could not read, performs her routine prayers sitting upright in a chair, and watches TV for short periods of time only as she had to strain her eyes in the glare of the TV screen.

We decided to employ a lady helper and agreed that she comes three times a week to help with some of the major chores in the house like ironing of clothes, cleaning the floors, windows, bathrooms and others as the need be. Other times I do the cleaning, laundry, cooking and whatever else that needs to be done in the house.

The children helped too, especially Tessa who came home as often as she could, to mop, clean, store and rearrange stuffs in the house as required. She would especially try to be home during the weekends and other times when there were visitors to the house. Sita and Fahrul came back as often as they could. Shaffik came back quite often too when he had meetings in Kuala Lumpur and three times he came back with the family. Having the grandchildren at home on these occasions, with their antics, was a sort of antidote for Ram, boosting her morale and brightening up her days, cheering her. Siti and Rashidah, Ram’s sisters, came often too, with Siti staying for about one month immediately after the operation and Shidah came as often as she could get away from her work.

We had to settle the hospital bills ourselves as we failed to claim medical insurance because Ram’s condition is classified as genetics and hence excluded from medical insurance coverage. I have always been skeptical of these insurance schemes, be it medical, endowment or whatever, and this incidence had downgraded my faith in them totally. The policy would be cancelled if we default in the monthly payment but when there are claims, they try to find every possible clause not to pay.

Meanwhile Ram’s eye slowly continued to improve. She found difficulties initially coordinating her vision between eyes, the left eye blurred but properly focused while the right eye, with the new cornea, bright but was not focused. She could not judge distances, sizes and shapes properly. As time goes by her vision improved. The newspapers originally appeared as patches of black ink on paper but slowly the words became clearer and clearer. First the headlines, then the slightly bigger prints and in about six months she could read the quran, newspapers, books and other prints but for short periods of time each initially, to avoid straining. Visits to the doctor became less and less frequent, from weekly to fortnights to monthly. The eye-drops prescription and application frequency changed too. The eye was recovering well indeed.

In the house she slowly began to involve herself in the daily chores, starting with the light ones and going on as she felt more and more comfortable. I guess she could not take it when I had to do most of the necessary chores and she had to resume charge of the activities in the home front!!

We made short trips to our house in Port Dickson over the weekends and other opportunities when I can get away, or back to Johore Bahru, or Terengganu, or Bintulu. This was to take her away from the house and thus reduces the opportunities for her to exert herself unnecessarily.

The sutures on the new cornea were taken out by the doctor in stages starting from the June visit, which was about six months after the operation. During the operation the cornea was sutured circumferentially and also at intervals around the edges. In that visit two stitches at the edge were removed and two more were removed in each of the subsequent monthly visits until September when all the edge sutures were removed leaving only the circumferential sutures to be removed. The doctor decided then to wait until January, one full year after the operation, to start removing the circumferential sutures.

An opportunity arose, sometime in November 2004, for Ram to have additional expert opinion and advice. This came from Eye Specialists from the ORBIS flying Eye Hospital. They had a look at her eyes and gave positive comments and recommendations for her. It was indicative that her eye was indeed recovering very well. Further information on this ORBIS Flying Hospital and the recommendations will come in my write-up sometime very soon.


Petaling Jaya