• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Worried about Lucentis injection

Hannah Hill

Hannah Hill

Member
Messages
10
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all,

On Monday I have and appointment for my first lucentis injection and I am really worried and honestly quite scared. Should I be? Would like some input please.
 
Hi Hannah. I hope I have got the right idea here - Lucentis is an injection into the eye for to help macular degeneration. If so I can tell you my husband had a course of such injections a few years ago and said he felt nothing as his eye was numbed, His vision was blurred for a while afterwards but nothing painful. It certainly seems to have slowed, if not halted the deterioration in his eye.
 
Yea I'm having it for diabetic retinopathy. Just the thought of it terrifies me. The idea of seeing the needle go right for my eye lol. Did he literally feel nothing?

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
I had my first injection yesterday. I had watched a video of it online so knew what to expect. All I felt when the needle went in was the same sort of dull ache that you get when you strain the eye. It only lasted for a couple of seconds. The needle went in to the one side so, as I was looking towards my nose, I didn't see it coming. Afterwards it felt sore very much like when you are extremely tired. As the anaesthetic wore of I could feel where the needle had gone in. It was just like a piece of dust or grit had gone in. This ia ok today. During yesterday evening and through the night my eye had some discharge. Basically it just felt bunged up. In fact, this morning I struggled to open my eye. Once it had been bathed with some boiled water (cooled obviously) and cotton wool this cleared. It has been quite watery this afternoon so I have bathed it again. I was getting some odd twinges the same as the eye strain pain so I took a couple of paracetamol. As I am off to Wales tomorrow for the weekend, I called the eye clinic just to make sure this was all normal and they have assured me that it is. This morning I went out (not driving) and the sun was bright. This caused my eye to ache again. I was a bit worried but, once I had returned home, it is now fine. At the end of the day, it was a needle into the eye so I expected some sort of discomfort. Considering this, I can truly say, there is nothing to worry about.
 
I have had many of these. The first one is worst because of not knowing what is going to happen. In summary, you will have ait in a gown before being taken down for pre-injection treatment. You will be asked you name and date of birth at least six times - just in case! Your eye will be anaesthetised, using disposable drops. A cover will be placed over your eye and a hole cut in it with scissors before your eyelids are pulled back. More washing and cleaning. Then the injection - using a VERY fine needle. As ianjd20 says - more of a dull ache than a pain. Over in 3 seconds and you often see the fluid mixing with your vitreous humour. A pad will then be taped over your eye and left on overnight. It may feel like it is weeping a few hours later, but don't worry. It's fine.You will then rested for a while before going home. My consultant strongly recommends maintaining pressure on the pad for 20 minutes after the injection to minimise bleeding (see below). I must admit I get a bit tetchy for the rest of the day, but my wife has learnt to cope!

Immediately after the injection, and for a week afterwards you need to be very careful about rubbing your eyes. Lucentis softens some of the eye tissue around the lens/iris and rubbing it can cause problems (as it did for me). The consultant will mention "don't rub it" but you need to be careful and treat it very delicately for the next week - especially in showers/drying. Patting the eye is fine.

You are likely to get some discolouring on the surface of the eye due to MINUTE amounts of blood leaking from the injection point. It often covers 25% to 50% of the eye and looks much worse than it feels. I normally had no pain from it at all. It may get worse looks-wise for two days but within seven days has gone. The morning after the injection your eye will feel like it needs a wash. Do it carefully.

Sight is perfectly OK the day after the injection.

So, give yourself a careful week and try not to rub the eye.

Hope ir helps. Let us know how you get on.

Michael.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My husband has macular degeneration and last week had a new treatment called oraya it is new to the NHS
and at present its is being done in sheffield. It is a one off treatment like an xray and means you may only need one or two injections a year or maybe none at all. I have diabetic retinopathy but am not able to have this treatment as I have had previous laser treatment. My husband already feels it has helped him.
 
I've had around 7 or 8 of these over the last year or two.
First one is worrying but as I waited there were a number of (elderly) people getting it before me and it didn't seem to bother any of them as they came out.
The worst bit for me wasn't the injection which is only a sharp scratch (the eye is just another muscle) but the Lucentis being injected as the syringe plunger is pushed down and there is a what I can only describe as running water effect.
The reason people get a weeping eye is because the needle makes a very fine puncture hole which has to heal hence the weeping.
Prior to injection I had fogginess near the centre of my visual field in my left eye which went after the injection. At follow up the retina swelling had more or less returned to a state as would be found in normal eye.
You've nothing to worry about.
 
Hi,

Hundreds, if not thousands of these are done at eye clinics up and down the UK everyday.

You may feel a slight presure on your screla (the white of your eye) when the needle is inserted and you may notice the medication floating then settling quickly in your eye.

You may also have a new black spot for a day or two in your vision but this will go fairly quickly. This is just caused by the presure of the needle on the eye and the penetration of the needle. Nothing to worry about.

The nurse will put a drop of antibiotics into your eye post injection and you may also be given some antibiotic drops to take home after your injection but this is up to the Doctor/Nurse/Optometrist doing the injection if you need them or not.

Pretty much every patient I have spoke to said it is no where near as bad as they thought.
 
Back
Top