2 weeks .. no problems. The surgery was a breeze...local anesthetic,
great staff, suregon is fantastic.. No pain. Taking drops as
prescribed. Follow-up concultation every 3 weeks.

Background
I have Keratoconus in both eyes. My first cornea transplant was at
Kaiser, in April 2004 by David Gritz, MD, an Oakland CA based surgeon
on Kaiser's staff. The recovery is about 1 year from the time of
the procedure (outpatient - performed at Kaiser's Richmond facility)
until the last stitch comes out.  I could see 20/20 out of the surgical
eye until the last stitch came
out. After that my vision seemed as bad as it was before the procedure.
Dr. Gritz performed an AK on the transplanted cornea which helped me
regain vision to about 20/40 with glasses ... which I am told is still
a good result. The astigmatism left in the transplanted eye is in an
area of the eye which causes contact lenses (even GBL lenses) to pop
out. Now, about 2 1/2 years later, I find my surgical eye is fatigued
by 5pm and the Keratoconus has progressed to the point that my piggy
back contact lens in my right eye can no longer be tolerated. Thus I
can not see in the evenings so it is time to make the next big
decision.

Last week I had a consultation with Edwardo Alfonso, MD at the
University of Miami Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. He comes highly
recommended by both my optometrist, Dr. Heidi Wagner at Nova University
and my cousin who just had the new, minimally invasive, cornea surgery
procedure called DSAEK (performed by Dr. Alfonso). Dr. Alfonso
indicated that he may (or usually does?) leave stitches in the eye
(forever) if 20/20 vision is achieved.

Has anyone had a transplant where the stitches remain in the eye beyond
the usual one year recovery period? The implication is that if Dr.
Gritz had left the stitches in when I could see 20/20 I may have had a
more favorable result from the first transplant.

If anyone in this newsgroup has had a transplant by Dr. Alfonso please
post a reply.