Retina Tear

[kab449]

A week and a half ago I had this happen to me. It tore in two places and one was across a blood vessel. The blood mixed with the vitreous in my eye and clouded my vision. Went through two laser sessions (painful) with success. I'm sure with the depth of experience on this forum that someone else went through this. My question is how long did it take for your vision to clear and did it ever go back completely to what it was?
Doctor said I was at risk for the tear because of my extreme nearsightedness and age.

[Bruce Lenhardt]

I also had a detached retina. Mine was off to the side and did not have a problem with a blood vessel so I may not be able to provide much help. I had the laser (Yes-painful) and it detached again and had to have surgery. It seems like it took about four weeks for my vision to return to near normal. I have some peripheral vision loss but not bad. Feel very fortunate that it was not worse.

[Icehouse]

Bernie had a detached retina last year. The eye doc sent him to a retinal specialist. The specialist did laser surgery in the office right then. He wouldn't let us leave! Thankfully he has been fine since! And his retina tore because of his nearsightedness as well. Bernie said after the surgery he saw various colors for several hours afterwards, but his vision was back to normal the next day.

[kab449]

Thanks for your responses. Helps me deal with the uncertainty. The laser surgery certainly excited the retina, I saw the colorful sparkles also for a while.

[kampk]

I too belong to the detached retna club! After 3 vitrectomy surgeries Mass Eye & Ear could not save it, so one is able to adjust to the use of one eye. After about 3 months of self pity, I decided life had to go on! Fortunately the good eye has actually gotten stronger and I am a little more cautious than most with Montie hooked up, but after 5 years now, get along pretty good at work and even play ball with the grandkids! You just learn to do the best you can with what you have!

[kab449]

Alan:
I certainly thought many times since this happened what life would be like without my sight in one eye. I'm inspired by your optimism and resilience. I hope and pray my eyesight returns but hope I can deal with it as you have if it doesn't.

[steelpony5555]

Well I didn't really need to read about all the lazer pain????? Got an eye appt. this afternoon since I have a large floater in my eye and yeah I am at risk for tears cause of diabetes and nearsightedness etc.........Hmmmmmmmm I am allergic to pain....

[BB_TX]

Must be different ways to correct it. I had retina tears and partial detachment 9 yrs ago. Went to my eye doctor late one afternoon due to some new vision problems. He immediately sent me to a retina specialist same day. He immediately scheduled me for surgery 6 am next morning. They don't wait around with retina issues.
On mine they drained the fluid from the eye. Tacked the retina in place with laser. Then put some kind of gas in to lightly pressurize the eye and keep the retina firmly in place until it reattached itself and healed. Took about a month to 6 weeks to heal but vision is near 100% of what it was before. But I had virtually no pain.
The wild part was when the eye began to fill back up with fluid. Obviously the fluid fills from the bottom up, but because the image on the retina is inverted it appeared as if the fluid was filling from the top down. Took several weeks for the eye to completely fill again. I could not see thru the gas (except light/dark) but could see thru the liquid part as it began to fill the eye. So for several weeks I could gradually see more of an image thru the slowly filling liquid. And while it was partially filled, I could see the liquid "sloshing" back and forth (but upside down) when I moved. Weird!

[kab449]

Mine didn't detach, had two tears. The doctor said the tears allow the fluid to get behind the retina and cause the detachment. The laser procedure I had was to seal off the tear and prevent the detachment. Appointment today yielded cautious optimism that the laser, so far, is holding but for the next few weeks I need to take it easy. No bending over and no lifting over twenty pounds. Thank god my Monty has the Level-Up system. I'll just camp for awhile and convalesce.

[kab449]

quote:Originally posted by steelpony5555

Well I didn't really need to read about all the lazer pain????? Got an eye appt. this afternoon since I have a large floater in my eye and yeah I am at risk for tears cause of diabetes and nearsightedness etc.........Hmmmmmmmm I am allergic to pain....


Let us know how you made out. Hope it is just something minor.

[kampk]

Take it easy and dont over do! I had to lay face down 24/7 for 2 weeks and could only get up for restroom breaks. Watched a lot dvds on the portable player while it was on the floor! It will get better!

[steelpony5555]

Well mine the doc says yes there is a large dense floater and yes it is most likely a pain in the butt but he says there is nothing they can do. There are no retina tears and says the surgery is more risk then just letting the floater try and settle somewhere. He claims lazers don't remove floater just breaks it up. So he says may take months but will most likely settle somewhere and I have to learn to live with it. This getting old and learning to live with it stuff is getting my goat........

[kab449]

quote:Originally posted by steelpony5555

Well mine the doc says yes there is a large dense floater and yes it is most likely a pain in the butt but he says there is nothing they can do. There are no retina tears and says the surgery is more risk then just letting the floater try and settle somewhere. He claims lazers don't remove floater just breaks it up. So he says may take months but will most likely settle somewhere and I have to learn to live with it. This getting old and learning to live with it stuff is getting my goat........

Glad that it was nothing real serious. I to have had floaters for most of my adult life and have learned to ignore them along with the constant ringing in my left ear. I'm gonna totally identify with your statement about getting old and learning to live with this crap!