Healing time for detached retina?

[joebill]

Doc diden't give me much info about healing time for the surgery except "well, you have to get it or go blind inthat eye, so I guess you'll have to find out". Not quite that blatant, but not very informative. It's bruising and quite painfull and can't get the eye open very far. Anybody have exsperience with this? thanks......Joe

[jwal10]

My Mom had one, took about 3 weeks, 2 weeks of drops. She did have to have another procedure again, just a tick with the laser, seems it was called a leaker? Yes, get it done as quick as possible. Much better than deal with the aftermath of a detachment....James

[gapeach]

Bless your heart! I had a detached retina 5 years ago. Mine was completely detached and I did not know what it was. I went through the weekend with it so really got jumped on by the eye doctor. I had emergency surgery in the operating room at the hospital. It took about 4 months to be able to really see well. The doctor had given me a 50/50 chance that I would ever see out of that eye again. I also had to have laser surgery several months later in the eye. I don't mean to scare you but get it done as soon as possible! You can go blind in that eye. Good luck to you. I am anxious to know how your recovery goes. There is a lot of information online and also support from others who have had the surgery.
When are you having it done?

[joebill]

Thanks, everyone!

It's already done. That is how we celebrated the new year......in surgery. Got home Wed and not until this morning was the numbing agent completely gone and I was climbing the walls. He inflated the eye with gas along with some other procedures, and when we came home to 4200 feet elevation the gas bubble (and the eye) of course got bigger and I was having a pretty bad time of it. That's when I wrote the first post in this thread.....wondering how much of that I was going to have to bear. I have since made friends with the Vicodin perscription and it is better. Still bad, but livable.

For some unexplained reason, he3 also put in a layer of silocone oil, so I can't see much, but once in a while I get the eye pried open for drops and get a flash of fair vision, so unless something goes wrong, i think i will be able to see out of it OK, eventually.

Again, thanks, everyone........time to stop reading and typing for a while.....Joe

[gapeach]

Joe, that is pretty much the same way my recovery went. I had the silicone oil in my eye too. It is not a fast recovery and the eye is sore for a long time and looks so bad. I wore the dark glasses and my husband drove me everywhere for the first month. One thing they told me was not to sneeze. I wondered how you can keep yourself from sneezing. The doctor told me to put my finger right above the center of my top lip if I felt a sneeze coming on. Any questions pls feel free to pm me.
It sounds like your procedure was pretty much like mine. We only had one retina surgeon in the area when I had mine but now we have 2. I think I had excellent surgery and have 20/20 vision now. It took a while for the right eye to get there though so don't get discouraged if it is slow to heal.

[joebill]

I'm not likely to get discouraged now that the pain is managable. i have resigned myself to losing the eye several times over the last 20 years, so I can hold out for better vision.

I got hit in the head with a jack handle about 20 years ago and the eye was swollen shut for a couple of weeks and when it opened the vision was pretty bad, so they did RK on it and helped it a bit, but then the cataracts started growing on it and kept getting worse until it was pretty near useless, so I had surgery and a lens implant that was botched and I was legally blind in that eye for a few months before getting a first-string surgeon to re-do it. he brought it back to 20-20 with glasses, but I only had six months of that before the retina detachment......back to ground zero, but I'm blessed to have a good chance of recovery, which is more than I could have hoped for after all this trouble.

Thank you much for the input. I like knowing what to expect, even if it is a drawn out process.....Joe

[JeffreyD]

I pray you make a full recovery!

[joebill]

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the prayers......Joe

[Sanza]

I wish you a fast and total recovery with full eyesight in that eye!
Joe, the first week will be the worse, unless of course if you have to position face down.....then the remaining weeks could be mental torture because of having to keep your head down 23 out of 24 hours a day.
However they tell you to position it's very important to do it to keep the bubble pressing on the spot where the tear was so it would heal up.
I also had a dr with a terrible bedside manner and she never took the time to explain anything, and of course it's scary to go through.....TG her surgery skills were excellent and she saved my sight!
I had a totally detached retina (off macular) about 6 years ago. I didn't have oil put in my eye instead I got the silicone buckle that's still around my eyeball, but I did go home with the gas bubble which I think lasts about 3 weeks.
For me, once the pain was gone after the first week the whole healing procedure was one of optical illusions and quite funny. I did have to "position" and sleep upright, and I considered myself very lucky because a friend had to keep his head face down!

First of all when the gas bubble starts to break up toward the end you could have a dozen little bubbles, every day they are different, and one day you wake up and it's all gone!

Maybe it was because of the macular being damaged or maybe just from the surgery, but when I looked at a picture the heads were funny shaped with small pointy chins and big wide foreheads (alien looking), and if it was a full body picture the heads were little tiny pin head sized on a normal sized body.....no I wasn't on drugs then! lol
For the longest time everything looked smaller in that eye too.
Straight lines like walls and picture frames are wavy and that too gradually disappears without you noticing the gradual change.
One thing I noticed was when I first woke up my sight was very dark and was told it was the "cones and rods" in the retina needed time to warm up - like an old picture tube.

Within the year I developed a cataract in that eye and once that was done I could see pretty well. The dr did a ooops and gave me a lens for close vision so I no longer had the need for reading glasses
Back in March I had a bunch of floaters let go in my other eye about 6 months after having that cataract removed, so I had a vitrectomy and laser done to fix the tear on that retina, and so far it's been holding. I had a different dr do it and he was the most reassuring, patient doctor ever! He takes the time to answer every question.

Again - best wishes for a quick and complete recovery and if you have any more questions ask away.

[gimpy]

I seem to remember being told to stay off tractors or anything that is going to make you vibrate a lot for 2 months

[jwal10]

joebill, How are you doing, good I hope. Take care. Wishing you a good speedy recovery....James

[joebill]

Thank you good folks for all the prayers and good wishes.

On my way back to Tucson today. I got some sort of swirly action going in my peripheral vision so the doc wants to take another look. Here's hoping he is not honing his knife again............Joe