I’m sitting around in the waiting room at Wilmer’s Eye Institute all dilated, waiting for the doctor to come in and admire his work. I don’t expect any problems.
Update: Yep, no problems, retina healing well, no scarring or swelling. No limits on activity. I'm supposed to check in again after 4-6 months.
It's my 9th weekly post updating the progress of my left eye's recovery from the second retinal detachment/reattachment surgery. As I suspected last week, the freon bubble in the eye is not yet totally absorbed. It looks a little like a black pearl. I can still see the bubble as I look forward, as a small circle with very dark edges (where it reflects away light that would reach the retina, and a clearer center, that still works as a 2 or 3 power looking glass. However, it shrinks noticeably every day, and it can't have too many days left. I'm guessing/hoping it will finally pop out of existence Wednesday or Thursday and I can cut off this stupid wristband that warns first responders not to take me above 2000 ft, or give me nitrous oxide.
Otherwise, things seem to be well. The two eyes get along well in normal arm and room range use and give me decent depth perception again, even looking down at about 45 degrees. More than that, and the bubble interferes. Reading in close, the left eye is sharper, and only contributes a little waver. At far distances, only the right can form a clear image, and dominates the image, but I still have the "2 horizon" situation, a normal horizon from the right eye, and a right slanted blurry one from the left. If I stare at the horizon, the right wins, and most of the slanted one goes away.
As far as how it feels? I think I still feel the rubber band, excuse me silicone rubber buckle, they installed around the eye to help keep the retina attached the second time, but mostly I just ignore it. Once in a while it seems to bother me, but rarely. No other pain, and the redness around the white of the eye, especially on the left side is mostly gone.
Another quick update on the the 8th week of my recovery from the 2nd retinal detachment/reattachment surgery in my left eye.
Honestly, other than the supposedly 6 week freon bubble being still there, and still shrinking, there's not much to report. No pain, except a rare twinge. There's still a trace of redness in the white of the eye, particularly in the far left corner.
The bubble occupies an increasingly smaller arc in my lower vision while looking forward, and an increasingly smaller circle when I look straight down. I judge it's size day to day by comparing that circle to familiar objects, a small plate, a toilet bowl, my feet. I'm hoping before the next week is done, I can report the dissipation of the bubble. It may not happen, though.
Not much has changed in my vision. The left eye remains (as expected) quite nearsighted, as a result of the rubber band (scleral buckle) they put around it to help keep the retina attached. It also appears slanted slightly to the right (my Fox News eye), and straight lines are a bit wavy. I still see two horizons, but the left one tends to be overridden by the the right because the right forms a sharp image, and the left does not. The left eye is too nearsighted for easy use on the computer, but useful reading the tablet or phone. This of course, is subject to change when I get a new prescription and new glasses. I'm still a little worried about what happens when the two eyes agree on a focal plane.
The weekly update to my recovery from the second retinal detachment/reattachment surgery in my left eye. This is now the sixth week of the "six week" freon bubble that was installed at the surgery. The bubble shrinks daily, but not very noticeably; the top of the bubble appearing just below the rim of my glasses when looking forward. When looking down I see the bubble as a distinct circle that nearly matches the outline of the glasses lens in that eye. I would guess I'm still facing a couple of more weeks with the bubble present. The worst thing about the bubble now is that it reflects images down to the retina (which appear in my upper vision).
So, otherwise? As I hoped would be the case, the two eyes are getting along a little better. The left eye is, as I was told it would be, more nearsighted than it was, thanks to the 'rubber band' aka scleral buckle around it. But for near vision, reading, TV etc, the two eyes both achieve some level of focus. The left has a tendency to cause my total vision to be a bit blurry out beyond arm length, but the right eye provides a clear image within the blur. The left eye still produces an image that slants to the right, and has a bit of waver in it, but the brain is starting to merge the two view and produce a basically straight image. At the beach, however, I still tend to see two crossing horizons, one sharp and one blurry. I eagerly await getting glasses that sharpen both equally, to see if my brain can force them to align also.
As far as the rubber band, the pain is totally gone. I do have a sense of something odd I in there, but it's hard to separate from the bubble and blur. The eye still has some redness, and I keep applying the ointment they dispense with the ordeal, axel grease and erythromycin, which I use religiously, which is to say, without knowing if, or why it works.
My hope for next week's report is continued improvement in the cooperation of the two eyes, and that the bubble will be high enough not to reflect light most of the time. I'd dearly like to see a single horizon.
The continuing saga of my recovery from my 2nd retinal detachment/reattachment surgery in my left eye. I'm currently at week 4 in the new recovery. Last week, I reported being able to glimpse a bit of the world more or less focused, above the meniscus of the bubble (actually below, because the eye image is backasswards), but too high to catch the center of vision, and predicted that by this week the center of vision would be in the focused zone (looking forward, not up or down), and I'd be able to report on how it was looking.
I was right (remember, I've been here once before). I can now see forward with a band that includes the fovea. It ain't pretty. As before, the vision is slanted to my right, maybe worse than before, and somewhat distorted, like on crumpled paper. If I work at it a bit, I can get both eyes to agree on the location and shape of an object directly in front, but away from the center, not so much. It's a bit disorienting to try to put both views together, so I close the left eye a lot. As I was told to expect, as a result of the rubber band around it, the left eye is now considerably more near sighted that it was, with its unaided focal distance of about a foot. It's not really very much use for reading at this point, although it can, alone, if necessary.
I really have no more pain from the rubber band (excuse me scleral buckle) they put around the eye to help the retina stick, just a slight feeling that there's something back there. I'm still a little leary of lifting heavy weights or bending down too far, it might cause a twinge of pain.
In theory, I did my last round of eye drops this morning. Now it's on it's own to continue improving. I'll continue with the antibiotic salve for a while though. It seems to help.
Barring the unforeseen, I don't expect a dramatic change by next week, the window of focused vision will widen, but since the bubble isn't expected to entirely dissipate for at least two or more weeks, the zone of better vision should be wider, and the two eyes maybe working better together, I hope.
According to Hunter/Garcia.
Today is the third week anniversary of the second retina detachment/reattachment surgery in my left eye, and as promised, I'm updating this as a guide for others going through this ordeal.
I'm at week three of the perfluorpropane bubble that supposed to last about six weeks, so presumably that bubble is about half gone (although, at six weeks last time, I still had some residual bubble). Looking straight out, the line of the bubble is near the center of my vision, so it has quite a ways to drop. If I look down, I can barely make out the edges of the bubble around perimeter.
Last Monday I predicted that I would get a glimpse of the mostly focused world through that eye again in a few days. I was right. I started seeing the thin line of sight that was actually passing through fluid and back to the retina on Wednesday. Every day since, the band has grown a little wider. It's still above the center of vision in that eye though, so I'm not really sure how close it is to a decent focus, and at what distance it will really focus. The eye surgeon told me that the eye would be more nearsighted than it was due to the effect of the rubber band (excuse me, scleral buckle) they put around the eye elongating the eye slightly. It should only be a few more days until the band includes the center of vision, and I can really see what it's going to be like. I can already see that it still slants right (my Fox News eye), but I'm not sure how distorted it might be.
Speaking of the rubber band, I continue to adjust to it. I can alway tell something is a little off, like having a bit of grit in the back of the eye, but it's not really painful. I've cut my pain regimen down to 1 or 2 doses of acetaminophen a day; the eye feels pretty decent when I get up, but through the day, occasional eye movements elicit a twinge of pain, not horrible, but something I'd rather avoid. Bending down too far might cause pain too. Eventually, by later afternoon, the acetaminophen is called for and then one for bed, more for arthritis than eyes.
Today the eye drop routine declines to once per day, a steroid to suppress inflammation, and another drop to counteract the steroids tendency to raise eye pressure. I continue to goop on the antibiotic salve they added to the mix. It seems to help some. The white of the eye is still somewhat red and tender.
My prediction for next week is that I'll be able to see text clearly in the widening band of better vision. I hope that it will be good enough (and close enough to my old prescription) that I can actually read with it.
Just another update for the progress of recovery from the retinal detachment, vitrectomy and retinal reattachment surgery in my left eye (find links to the complete story here). As of Thursday, it's been 5 weeks since they implanted the bubble of C3F8 (perfluoropropane) in the eye to keep the retina in place as it reattached. It is expected to last about 6 weeks, and that timeline still seems plausible. The bubble still occupies about a quarter of the visual field in that eye when I look straight forward, a curved arc on the lower edge of vision, because the image formed on the retina is bassackwards to reality. When I look down, I can easily see around the whole bubble, and watch it shrink day by day. If I actually try, I can still use that as a low power microscope, seeing in focus about two inches from the eye. I hope that by next Saturday's report, I can report the bubble is gone, but that might be cutting it close.
As far as my vision, I can see above the apparent bubble pretty well, and with both eyes I have decent binocular vision, depth perception and decent peripheral vision looking level. If I look too far up or down the bubble interferes. The view from that eye is not entirely straight; straight lines have some "wiggle" in them, and vertical and horizontal lines lean right. I call it my Fox News eye. Using both eyes diminishes the waver and lean, but does not entirely eliminate it. I'm still hoping that it's caused by the bubble, but, alas, I'm not convinced. However, the focus is surprisingly sharp, and it seems my old glasses prescription is still not all that far off. I was about to get a new one two days before this whole thing started anyway. If I have any new complaint, it's that the bottom of the bubble is acting like a mirror, and casting annoying images on the retina, particularly in bright lights.
Anyway, I hope that this might be of some use someday to somebody beginning a similar journey. I have to say one of the failing of the medical system is for the doctors to slow down, and tell you what to expect, and what represents
