livinisfishin Posted June 9, 2010 Report Posted June 9, 2010 Found out I have retinal detachment in my right eye. Has anybody else gone through the surgery to correct this problem?
Uncle Buck Posted June 9, 2010 Report Posted June 9, 2010 holy cow, i thought your eyeball popped out... I'm with TJ on this... Good Luck
pikehunter Posted June 9, 2010 Report Posted June 9, 2010 Yes. Started as a long black line which stayed in place, did not move like floaters do. I thought it was just a large floater in my eye so I ignored it...tried to ignore it that is. Fina ally after about 3 days i went to the Doc. after it became worse. He immediately sent e to an eye Doc. (Dr. Singer, Burlington) he was good enough to fit me in at the end of his day. After examination he says I had a hemorrhage in my eye but couldn't see the extent of damage due to the amount of blood in my eye, and to go to emerge if it got worse and to come back in a week. It got worse. Went to emerge and they then sent me to Oakville Trafalgar Hosp. to see the eye doc on call as it was then Easter Sunday and she was the only one on call in the area. She examined the eye, looked into it, put some drops in it, xrayed it. Said I needed immediate surgery but it was beyond her ability. Said I would hear from her in the morning after she got in touch with a Doc. in Toronto. Next morning she called, told me to go to see Dr. Wong at T.O's St. Micheals Hospital right away. I was the only one there to see him as it was a holiday for them but he was in the office to clean up some paperwork. He wanted to operate right away but a serious accident had happened and the O.R was not available. I had to go back on Wed. for the operation. By then I had lost full vision in my left eye, everything was black. After the surgery (3 retina tears and the hemorrhage) I had to lay on my stomach for I think it was 2 weeks. During the surgery they remove the fluid from your eye and inject a gas so that is the reason for laying on my stomach, to keep the gas bubble in contact with the back of the eye to keep the retina from detaching. During the recovery the gas bubble slowly gets replaced by fluid. As this happened it was like looking at the world through the surface of water with little waves going back and forth as the fluid splashed back and forth! Also through the gas all was upside down! Really neat! At least I had some entertainment while recovering! Anyway sorry for the novel. It was a hell of an experience, fr me anyway. Hope yours is not as bad. Get it looked after right away, if your vision gets worse don't hesitate. Best of luck. BTW, he said I would have a cataract in that eye in 2 years....he was dead on the mark.
livinisfishin Posted June 9, 2010 Author Report Posted June 9, 2010 That sounds pretty serious pikehunter! How's your vision now?
Guest gbfisher Posted June 9, 2010 Report Posted June 9, 2010 My mother inlaw was complaining that she couldnt read very well because she could see the page. She went to the Doc on a Monday and was in surgery by friday to have it fixed. She's 82. She didnt complain one bit about the surgery and is happy to be able to read once again.
pikehunter Posted June 9, 2010 Report Posted June 9, 2010 Vision recovered fine after that, well back to my usual poor vision. As said, 2 years later I had to have cataract surgery in the same eye just like the Doc. said would happen. The whole thing was truly a miracle! Since my farsightedness was so severe I also had to have cataract surgery on my right eye also so that my vision could balance out and a cataract was beginning to develop in that eye, with just the one eye with a new artificial lens I was seeing double. After the cataract operation on both eyes my vision went from (-11? script)pop bottle bottom thick glasses to 20/20 in one and close to 20/20 in the other! Amazing, a scientific miracle no more glasses! I only need glasses for some close up reading now so dollar store cheaters are great! I did have go in for some laser surgery on both twice as I did (and still occasionally) see double if I look at a white object on a black background or at a light. Night driving is now a little more difficult but that may be because I'm now 54 years old.
livinisfishin Posted June 9, 2010 Author Report Posted June 9, 2010 That's good to hear your vision is still intact! How did you cope with being face down for two weeks?
fishnsled Posted June 9, 2010 Report Posted June 9, 2010 I have a condition called Lattice Degeneration, this can lead to a retinal detachment. Lucky for me it was caught during a regular eye exam. I've have several laser treatments to fix the holes and prevent the detachment. I have had a couple of ocular migraines which freaked me out. Looked like someone had taken a knife and put a slice in my "picture". Very strange, lasted about an hour. Sounds somewhat similar to the detachment that Pikehunter described. Pikehunter, good to hear your story and that all went well. Livinisfishin, there are some great doctors out there to help you with your problem. Sometime and rest and you'll be good as new. Good luck!
livinisfishin Posted June 9, 2010 Author Report Posted June 9, 2010 I hope rest and time is all I will need! Thanks fishnsled.
camillj Posted June 10, 2010 Report Posted June 10, 2010 Good luck with that bud ! The good news is that nowadays they can do amazing things with little or no pain - hope yours is a speedy recovery !
livinisfishin Posted June 10, 2010 Author Report Posted June 10, 2010 Thanks camillj appreciate it! I'm finding the hardest part is the waiting game leading up to surgery! I am pretty nervous!
pikehunter Posted June 10, 2010 Report Posted June 10, 2010 How did you cope with being face down for two weeks? First few days were the easiest as I didn't feel like doing much anyway. After that it got harder to keep my head down. I didn't spend every minute laying face down after the first few but did keep my head down 90% of the time. It was interesting to close my right eye and look around with the other operated eye because everything appearing upside down 'cause of the gas bubble. As it was gradually naturally replaced with fluid then things were really neat! The gas filled part of my eye saw an upside down image while the fluid filled part of my eye saw the world right side up! I had nothing much to do all that time so I played upside down/right side up games...almost like a mild acid trip. All the best with your retina repair. Hopefully you will not have to go through all of this, you should be OK from the way you described the problem.
JohnF Posted June 10, 2010 Report Posted June 10, 2010 A couple of my friends have had it done. All had no bad after effects and were quite pleased with the results. JF
PERCHER Posted June 10, 2010 Report Posted June 10, 2010 (edited) I also had detached retinas in both eyes caused by diabetes. Hem raging caused the retinas to detach.After surgery it took a while but made a full recovery. Quite similar to Pikehunter.Actually Dr Wong did one of my eyes at St.Mikes also.Now 17 years later I have 20/20 with my glasses. Best of luck .Hope all goes well. Dan Edited June 10, 2010 by Percher
12 Volt Man Posted June 10, 2010 Report Posted June 10, 2010 (edited) I was born premature and see only out of one eye due to a detached retina. last year I had a cataract develop in my only good eye and had to have cataract surgery. it got bad enough that I was unable to drive for a few months. however given that my eye was not normal (ROP from the early birth) I had Dr. Wai Ching Lam at Toronto Western Hospital do laser work to strengthen the retinal attachment prior to the cataract surgery (done by Dr. Hassane in Oakville) which all went very well (thank god). Dr. Lam was very good and is an expert when it comes to retinas. Dr. Patricia Harvey is also very good. Good luck with everything and have faith in modern medicine. We are lucky to have some brilliant opthamologists locally. Edited June 10, 2010 by 12 Volt Man
livinisfishin Posted June 10, 2010 Author Report Posted June 10, 2010 You guys are actually making me feel optimistic about getting the surgery , despite some of the stuff I have read! Thanks a lot!
Motorhead Posted June 10, 2010 Report Posted June 10, 2010 I don`t have a detached retina but was diagnosed with chronic Iritis in my right eye 3 months ago... Like Pikehunter I saw Dr. Singer in Burlington (GREAT Dr. BTW)... After having to put 3 different kinds of drops in my eye, one every hour, one 3 times a day and the other 2 times a day I found it getting worse...Went back to see see him earlier than the once a week I had been seeing him and found out I had an allergic reaction to one of the drops.. He said it was unusual because people don`t usually have that happen until using these drops for a few years Still can`t see squat everything is blurry and bright sunlight is a pain but the Dr. is optimistic that I`ll regain my sight... Looks like I`ll be on the drops for a while, when I picked up my prescription I noticed there was 20 repeats WOW... Hope all goes well with your surgery livinisfishin, It scares the hell out of me to think I might lose the sight in my eye, but fingers are crossed... Doug
livinisfishin Posted July 11, 2010 Author Report Posted July 11, 2010 Well I am now post op by 5 days after getting a scleral buckle put around my eye. It is slightly painful(not nearly as bad as I thought), very little swelling. However my near sighted vision has decreased. I was told this would happen so no real surprise. I can't do anything at all for a while because any strain could cause the buckle to fail. 3 weeks off of work to start!
pikehunter Posted July 12, 2010 Report Posted July 12, 2010 Take it easy livin, I'm glad to hear you made it through OK and I hope the buckle does it's job. Motorhead, hope Doc. Singer get's you all fixed up and stick with the eye drop routine even when it becomes a pain in the butt.
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