Sister is scheduled for operation on Wed. She is scared of course. 6 yrs older than me and starting dementia. Lives alone in Retirement home with kids near by. Operation in Boston.

Worst experience of my life.

That does NOT mean your sister will experience the same thing.

Mine was an emergency. Diagnosis at 11 A.M., surgery at 3. No choices, just go. I had it at a relatively young age. My vitreous fluids (the liquid that fills the eye) were still relatively thick. They thin out and become more watery with age. That dictated a scleral buckle procedure. For older patients there are other options.

I was knocked out for over two weeks. The headaches were intense. And I had to stay flat on my stomach virtually 24/7 for the whole time. They insert a big air bubble into your eye and staying on your stomach allows the bubble to become a patch over the surgical spot on the retina. The bubble dissipates over time and is replaced naturally by more of your own vitreous stuff.

Unfortunately, my eyeball became slightly tilted so I didn't recover binocular vision. This went on for several months, while I was told "it'll just come back on its own." Eventually, I threw in the towel and told them to remove the damn buckle. They did, and my eye recovered its proper position. Unfortunately, two massive surgeries did real damage. My left eye is not very mobile. It periodically hurts and is perpetually dry. To top it off, my pupil won't contract with light. It's perpetually wide open, which means my left eye (what's left of it) doesn't do well in bright light.

Worse, the eye pressures didn't resolve and much of the optic nerve then died. I don't see too much out of my left eye any more. Now I have glaucoma and am on permanent treatment for that.

Not much fun for me, I'm afraid.

But some people bounce back really quickly, and have really good results. It's a crapshoot, sort of like life in general.

P*D wow, that sounds horrible! And I'm sorry that you've had so many lasting effects from it all.

My uncle had... I'm trying to remember but I think it was surgery for cataracts, and he decided to do something other than the standard surgery, perhaps to further improve his vision? (My memory of this is a little vague).
Anyway, something went wrong and he ended up in a spiral of a series of corrective surgeries and two times of having to the do that stay-horizontal thing. The whole thing was a 6-month ordeal but he is much better now and his vision is back to what it was pre-surgery.

LL, this isn't much help for your sister, I'm afraid. Given that she's not having emergency surgery the way P*D describes, likely the surgery will be fairly routine and she won't have to worry about complications. Best of luck to her!

Ugh, P*D, your situation sounds awful.

I don't know anyone who has had the surgery, but I did have a friend who had some sort of non-surgical intervention after being hit in the eye by a raquetball. IIRC (it was years ago), she ended up having to lay flat on her back for like 2-3 weeks, in some sort of Xanax-induced stupor so she didn't go crazy. It didn't sound pleasant, but it sure sounds better than what P*D had to go through.

It sounds like they definitely do try to make the recovery period as easy as possible. Best of luck to your sister, LL.

So sorry PD. Sounds horrid.

Hope sister doesn't have the same procedure.

Hoping some one else has better results to share.

I think there are a few different procedures for treating a retinal detachment.

My friend had emergency surgery and had the gas bubble in her eye that necessitated her mostly staying in bed for a couple of weeks until the bubble did its thing. It was a longish recovery but her vision is pretty much back to where it was before the detachment.

Mr WTG had two small retinal tears that were dealt with in the office of a retina specialist. He had to have cryosurgery because the tears were located where they couldn't be dealt with using a laser. He had restrictions regarding eye movement (reading? I don't remember) for a week or so after the procedure and he recovered fine. It was a bit of a nuisance, but not a huge deal. But that was a tear, not a detachment.

Does the doctor know about your sister's dementia? Can she still follow instructions regarding head movement/lying down/etc.?

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Worst experience of my life.

...My left eye is not very mobile. It periodically hurts and is perpetually dry.

Sounds just awful. An unpleasant reminder that pretty much any medical procedure is indeed a "crapshoot" although we can improve our odds by choice of surgeon and facility...

I'm writing just in case (doubt it) you aren't familiar with the benefits of Restasis to treat dry eyes. That's only one of the godawful side effects of your procedures, but everything that relieves pain is worth trying provided the cost-benefit warrants it (Restasis is quite expensive - one of the medications whose price was recently jacked up.)

Your ordeal sounds truly nightmarish. I guess using a patch like Moshe Dayan wouldn't help - apart from the glamour of it?

Restatis works for a very different set of conditions than what I have.

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Moshe Feldman. Love it ...

Spoke with sis tonight. Laser tomorrow in Boston at 1. Followup on thurs. 2/3 can't see in one eye. She has 2 daughters with her and special care at retirement home. She is anxious for it to be better which is a healthy attitude.

She writes everything down to help her memory.

My mom had a spontaneous detached retina as a young adult. She had problems driving at night after whatever repair they did, but otherwise could see normally. I don’t know anything about the procedure then or now. I hope it goes well.

Cousin has that.
Two weeks with her head facing down.
She drives and reads. Seems to be ok.
She is not a relative I care to stay in contact with.