Emma's Way to a Brighter Day

This is the story about my daughter Emma. She is 12 years old, and a happy girl, without problems. Doing well in school, reading books, and a truly good pupil in the 6. grade.

In august she was going to the school nurse. They do that every year. She had no problems at all, so we were surprised when the school nurse contacted us. She said that Emma had problems seeing on her right eye, and she advised us to go to a optician. We made an appointment in September, and they told us she had Keratoconus on both eyes. Moderate on the right eye and mild on the left.

They advised us to talk to an eye specialist, and he could only second that she had KC. We were referred to the best "eye" hospital in Denmark. Århus University hospital. In October we went to the first examination and in November she had Crosslinking epi off done on her right eye. It was the hospital who advised us to choose the epi off. The epi on, is far so effective as the epi off. Only 10 % of the fluid they put in the eye, gets in at epi on. Therefor the epi off. We went there on Tuesday. She came in to a room. Lay on the "bed" and had anesthesia put in her eye (as a drop, not with a needle). After a couple of minutes they started to "scratch" her eye with a kind of small spoon. Then they put the B vitamin drop in her eye, every other minute for 10 minutes. After that they turned on the UV light, and again dripping her eye with B vitamin every other minute for 10 minutes. It was all done in less than 30 minutes.

We then went to the hospital hotel, and it started to hurt. She never cries but she did that day. Cursing at the doctor, and wishing him a lot of bad things Humørikonet smile In the evening she went down for dinner. We had to give her 3 kinds of drops 3 times a day. And then some pain killers. She almost slept throughout the day and all the night with NO problems beside the eye running with tears once in a while. Not because she was crying, but because the eye was healing. The next day she went to get it checked up, and then we went home.

She was sleeping most of the drive home. We visited her grandmother on the way, and then went home, and she would lay on the couch. If she had pains, we gave her a painkiller. The next day there were hardly any pain at all, just teardrops running a little. In Friday the pain were gone and she is doing just fine. She has been checked 2 times after, and the eye is totally healed. There is of course a little scar on the cornea, but it will get smaller and smaller. She says she can see a difference.

That was the story about Emma and the KC. Sending along pictures from the day of the operation and the day after. Hope it is useful. Camilla

By Camilla