Did anyone else's eyes change color like this after crosslinking for keratoconus? 👀
Pain was fairly bad the first night and the only relief I got was from the anesthetic drops. I was given sleeping tablets too but they didn't work so was awake every hour. I went back for my check up yesterday and my doctor was happy with the progression. Last night was way better. I slept for most of the night and didn't need any pain killers at all so far today. I'm well on the road to recovery. My eye isn't a green as it was in this picture and my sight is fairly blurry but I know it's a positive step in the right direction to helping save the sight I have in my right eye.
Lisa
This is photograph of my temporarily color affected cornea- this lasted for about 36 hours.
I have only had the cross-linking done in my right eye and this photo was taken right after the procedure almost two years ago (17 Feb 2015).
Almost two years on and every corneal topography I have had has shown it to have stabilized since my procedure thankfully. And was well worth the pain suffered for the few days.
I was treated by the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin, Ireland under Professor Murphy.
I have yet to meet another Irish person with this disease so it's nice not feeling so alone through our Facebook groups and reading other people's experience on your blog.
Thank's for giving us all a place to share our stories!
Julia O'Neill (Facebook)
What is Corneal Crosslinking?
Corneal collagen cross-linking is a surgical treatment for keratoconus and post-LASIK ectasia and its goal is to make the cornea stronger. In April 2016, the FDA approved Avedro’s cross-linking system for progressive keratoconus. The approval was unique, as it is a combination drug and device approval, the Photrexa formulations combined with the KXL device.Epi-off corneal cross-linking works by first infusing and saturating the corneal stroma with riboflavin and irradiating the cornea with ultraviolet light. The procedure causes molecular bonding between cornea's collagen fibers, which increases the strength of the cornea and can halt keratoconus.
As mentioned by both Lisa and Julia, this change of color is only a temporary effect of Riboflavin (vitamin B2) drops used for the surgery and it will change back to normal after a few days.
Did your eyes change color after corneal crosslinking? You can share your photos on this page! Email your stories and photos to story@keratoconusgroup.org