I’m about two weeks into my recovery from a detached retina. The doctor injected some gas into my eye to push the retina back up against the rear eye wall and sealed it with a laser. The gas will slowly dissipate.
What was your recovery like?
When did you begin to see with the eye that had surgery?
Fortunately, I’m “right eyed” and my left eye had the detached retina so its not much of a hindrance.
It wasn’t from an injury. I just woke up with it one morning.
Sorry you’re going through this – eye stuff is scary. (I’m just nearsighted, but there’s plenty of detached retinas, glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration in my family history.)
That said – moved to IMHO, home of medical threads (from MPSIMS).
Ugh. It was and is awful. I was supposed to lie face down for 20 hours a day for three weeks. It was torture and I didn’t really comply. So the retina tore again and I had another operation last February, this time with an oil drop instead of a gas bubble. I was originally told that I would need yet another operation to remove the oil in “six to twelve months”. But two weeks ago (about 7 months after the operation), the surgeon told me that the eye was fine, but he strongly recommends against removing the drop (unless it begins to emulsify) since there is one chance in three of a new tear with any operation.
So now I have one good eye and one with an oil drop in it. The drop has two effects: everything I see through it is fuzzy; everything is reduced in size because of refraction through the drop. I get some binocular vision at a distance but I read one-eyed. Next Monday, I will see an optometrist who can prescribe glasses that can at least resolve the size disparity. The surgeon estimated that it would take a 5 diopter correction, which is coke bottle territory. I will see (so to speak) how well this works.
Good luck. In general, once your bubble evaporates, your vision ought to improve rapidly assuming you avoid complications. So they say.
Oh man… I feel for you guys. 
I had a torn retina, right eye, but didn’t have the ordeal you’ve all been through.
Or rather I should say it wasn’t a big deal - until the laser surgery.
It **hurt **like a mthrfckr and no one warned me it would. I cried like a baby throughout the whole thing and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
When he was done I was pissed and bitched him out about not telling me how painful it was going to be. Could’ve done plenty of hydrocodone beforehand (I was driven by my aunt) and it would have far less of an issue. Bastard…
It wasn’'t caused by an injury, either. Simply spontaneous. Even better, I was warned by both my eye doc and the surgeon that it could happen again - to the left eye.
Spiffy. :eek:
My wife’s retina detached three times before they finally got it right. There is some sort of band keeping it on, though she lost a lot of vision in that eye. She went through the lying in bed stuff also. I feel for you.
Here is what we learned - if your eye is acting up, getting splotches or black spots, go to the eye doctor immediately. She waited too long. When I was getting flashes in one eye, I called up the doctor. The receptionist said they had an opening next week and I said hell no, I want to see him now. I was okay. and when I reminded him of my wife he understood. Don’t let the office make you wait. You might have to sit in the waiting room for a few hours until they can fit you in, but it is worth it.
Did that receptionist still have a job the next time you were in there? Because that’s some pretty epic fuck-up–the very, very first thing they teach you about taking phone calls in an eye clinic is that flashing lights, sudden increase in floaters, sudden reduction in visual acuity or field, or the feeling of a curtain across the eye all equal “Come in RIGHT NOW. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Just put your ass in the car and get over here.”
Here is my story. I suspect that it might have come out differently had I known. I was having vision problems about 13 months ago and went to see my ophthalmologist or I should say ex-ophthalmologist. About 5 years ago, he withdrew from medicare so it now costs $120 to see him. But I liked him, my supplemental policy covers 70% of it so it cost me only $36. So he examined me and found nothing. I told him about seeing a lot of black spots and he said they were floaters, nothing to worry about.
Since things were getting worse, I made an appointment with my cataract surgeon in mid-November a few days before I was flying to Seattle to see my son and family. The surgeon told me to make an appointment with the head surgeon ASAP. The appointment secretary offered me one the following week. I explained I would be away till late Nov. and the bitch said that in that case, I had to wait till Dec. 29.
At that appointment, the head surgeon scheduled the operation for Jan. 4 even though the hospital was operating at half speed that week, but he considered this an emergency. I got the full Monty, vitrectomy, band around the eye and as related above, lying face down for three weeks. And it wasn’t enough. Would it have been better had I been sent to the hospital in September? I assume so, but I don’t know enough to know so.
One think I do know is that I don’t have to pay $120 for bad advice. Bad advice can be had for free.
I’m curious, for those who have had a retinal detachment, were you ever told by your ophthalmologist or optometrist this was something you’d have to worry about? I wouldn’t say it’s been a “fear” but something in the back of my mind much of my life has been the possibility. My grandfather had one when I was young, and I remember it being really unpleasant. I was later told in my 20s by an optometrist (and have been told fairly frequently by subsequent optometrists or ophthalmologists) that given my high myopia I was at increased risk of retinal detachment.
So while I like to hope it never happens, I’ve been told it’s somewhat likely most of my life so I don’t know that I’ll be very surprised if/when it happens (certainly won’t be happy though.)
I had mine when I was about 22. I was lucky in that i was asymptomatic, my optometrist caught it during a routine eye exam for a new glasses prescription. I had proceedures in both eyes - one, which wasn’t detached but had ‘thin spots’, got cryogenically frozen (this was in about 1977, before lasers came into general use, as I understand it). Before that proceedure, which was done as an outpt, he injected an anesthetic through my eyeball along my optic nerve. Not much warning given, for obvious reasons. I still get the willies thinking about it.
The first operation was inpt, and my retina was somehow tacked onto a piece of silicone inserted into the back wall of my eyeball, where it remains to this day. Yeah, lying still on my back for a long time. No precipitous blows to the head, MD figured it was probably some mild form of connective tissue disorder (I tend to sprain joints a little more easily than most people). I still get double vision when I get tired, from the stretched ligaments.
My eye surgeon was the best ever, he didn’t care if I had any money or not.
He was also David Lee Roth’s father.
I’m just a lowly COA who put in a year under quite possibly the worst ophthalmologist in the nation and now can’t find another job, but the broad strokes of that history don’t really sound like a detachment that was there in September–they tend to cause enough loss of vision the patient considers it an emergency much more quickly than 2 months out, because the loose bit pulls at the stuck bit and keeps growing, like a loose corner of a Band-aid. What it sounds more consistent with is vitreous detachment leading to a retinal detachment–the jelly that gives your eye form slowly thins out as you get older and the thin places can collapse on themselves, making the whole thing fall away from the retina and sometimes the fallen jelly can pull on the retina and detach it. The vitreous detachment can cause new floaters, sometimes a lot of them, but isn’t actually harmful or cause for treatment and/or surgery in and of itself.
It does, however, put a patient at increased risk of a subsequent retinal detachment so you do have to make sure they understand the other symptoms of RD and know to come in as soon as possible if there is any worsening of current symptoms or new symptoms arise. Because you have to treat RDs as soon as you possibly can–the longer you wait, the more of the retina can detach, and the more that’s detached and the longer it stays detached, the less vision the patient is likely to recover.
If the detachment was there in September and your regular ophthalmologist just outright missed it, then your odds were already shit when you went to see the second one in November, although the further delay in treatment probably didn’t help. But if it was a new detachment when you saw the cataract guy…I hate to kick somebody when they’re down, but in that case you may be the cause of your own crappy outcome. Even if they’d been able to get you in the day you came back, that extra week or two of delay can very easily make all the difference in the world.
Martin, high myopes are very much more prone to vitreous detachments, which is a risk factor for retinal detachment. It’s not something to worry about, exactly, more something to keep a watch on. On the bright side, treatment is a lot better than it was when your grandfather had his, so while it wouldn’t be fun, it almost certainly wouldn’t be anything like the ordeal you’re remembering.
Truman, David Lee Roth? Really? That’s so cool.
His office used to have black and white portraits of his daughter leaning over a guitar, long blonde hair hanging down…
At some point Dr. Roth corrected my misperception:)
He was a quietly great man. I owe him my vision, every day of my life.
Was about 15 years or so ago for me - I’m now 41 btw.
Had a detachment in my right eye plus more than a dozen small tears and a little less than a dozen tears in my left eye. Most of the tears were tiny but old. Optometrists over the years had missed them all and then one day I was like 10% or so blind in my right eye, way in the periphery.
Got a band and a bubble in my right and the whole laser thing (whatever they do) in both eyes to fix all the tears. Was told I have “lattice degeneration” where the retina is pulled apart and gets tears in it which appears like lattice work or some such.
2 weeks at home on my stomach or left side only as much as possible. If walking around or sitting up, I was supposed to keep my chin to my chest.
After the first week, trying to stay in the recommended positions got really old. At my 1 week follow up I was complaining to the doc about it. My wife commented that I should shut the fuck up, stop whining, and deal or go blind. She has a way of putting things into perspective sometimes.
For those two weeks I kept that eye covered at all times except when washing, and I think probably for a total of 4 weeks with a patch. I don’t exactly remember except that I do recall being disappointed about the lack of cool eye patch availability. I distinctly remember calling around to various pharmacies and eye wear/care stores looking for a cool bad-ass eye patch to wear and nobody had anything.
Had to get new glasses right away first thing, and then again like 3 months later. I was driving myself to work again after 2 weeks, likely with one eye - wearing a contact lens in the left, right covered.
The first two weeks I remember being the worst, but after that things got much better pretty fast. But I was in my 20s again. Younger people heal more quickly.
I was told, with my lattice degeneration condition (I think that’s what it was called) that I could expect a detachment at some point in my left eye plus more little tears here and there for the rest of my life. But - it’s been 15+ years and I haven’t had another issue. I get dry eye in my right eye once in a while due to the band, but it’s never too bad/annoying. I never need drops or anything for it.
I really don’t wear contact lenses at all since then though. Those just dry my eyes out too much no matter what I do. So I’m 100% glasses. Can’t get the LASIK either because my correction is out of the range. I could get an intra-ocular lens implant, but that’s $8,000+ per eye.
I still see the optometrist regularly and always remind them of my history and to please be as thorough as possible when checking my retinas. All good since way back when.
Hijack: I work in ophthalmology and one of the retinal docs I work for talked about being at a conference with Dr. Roth, and ending up discussing his son. Apparently Dr. Roth counseled him early on about the importance of understanding contracts, which is probably what led to the no brown M&Ms rider language that VH added to make sure people had properly wired, etc., their shows.
I might not have been clear when I first asked for the appointment - but when I did insist I got the appointment without a lot of grief. Not so the clinic my wife went to, but she was not a patient when she started. On the other hand, once she was, she started getting symptoms before we were supposed to leave on a trip, and her doctor pretty much turned around on the bridge and opened the office in the evening to see her.
How long ago was it when they could start doing something about RD? The laser and microsurgery treatments today couldn’t have been available even 30 years ago. If it happened before treatment was available I guess you were SOL.
I wasn’t there for my grandfather’s treatment (just his recovery), this was before I graduated high school so would have probably been late 1960s. He was treated with some form of cryosurgery. I think cryotherapy for various ocular problems was basically the extent of the cutting edge of eye medicine in that time.
I think that’s right, see my post #9. It was sort of cool that when he put the freezing pen against my eyeball, it froze the retinal cells, which would go black in a decidely pixilated way.
First let me apologize for any major typos… obviously I am right eye dominant and having had retinal detachment surgery on that eye has left me on a bit of a bind… especially since I’m trying to type on a tiny tablet. I know there’s been no recent posts on this thread but I’m hoping someone will reply. I had emergency surgery two weeks ago for a retinal detachment with the gas bubble surgery method. Its been very difficult and I’m very worried. Four days after surgery the surgeon said my eye was full of scarring and cataracts and needs more surgery. I’m pretty much at his mercy because I don’t have insurance and was lucky to even find someone to help me. He told me after the surgery that I could just go right back to work…no restrictions and I was glad but really worried. I told him repeatedly that I do heavy lifting all day but he said no worries. So I took one day off and went right back to work. Everybody kept telling me that he’s wrong and o shouldn’t be working. I read a lot online from others saying they had major restrictions after this surgery and I questioned him on it but he blew me off. The gas bubble is not visible any more…but neither is anything else! My right eye is just total white fog and a big black spot off to the far right. I don’t know what to do. I can’t get in to see the surgeon again until June 22nd and no way I can have !ore surgery which he now said there are restrictions after. I fee
Like I’m going crazy. Please… someone… anyone…tell me I’m not? If going right back to work caused this…then it’s not my fault. I appreciate any feedback from anyone. Hoping someone can respond. Thanks for your time.
Pamela
Emergency room.
Emergency room NOW if you haven’t gone already.