Retinal Tear

Mine were too bad for laser so had surgical repairs both eyes. Although it broadly worked, recovery was really unpleasant and I have needed further surgery since. The last one was fun. The surgeon told me to stare into the distance and ignore him, then told me off for moving my eyes. Thing is, he was planning his incisions and it's really difficult to ignore a man who is trying to draw on your eyeball with a Sharpie!

 

Depends which eye really

 

To be honest, if the tear propagates beyond laser treatment, surgery is more difficult and any delay then means success rates fall by about 10% per day from diagnosis so if it's laserable, it's better for them (and you) just to crack on. It's one can they really can't kick down the road.

 

Hope It goes well for you.

 

apparently Charles Dickens suffered from an anal fistula (crudely speaking a 2nd arse hole). To rectify this (no pun intended) he was operated on without anaesthetic.

Painful.

 

Yep, just a progression in the PVD, nothing to see here (!).

Hope your appointment is going well, @Prince of Risborough.

 

I have glaucoma and had laser treatment to lower eye pressure this year. The laser treatment felt like a series of very tiny pin pricks, which was slightly uncomfortable but not painful and my vision wasn't impaired afterwards.

 

Exactly the same happened to me a few days into this year. I spent 9 hours in A&E to be told to come back the next morning (Sunday) as there will be an ophthalmologist in the hospital. 4 hours wait the next morning, to be told there isn’t an ophthalmologist in the hospital. Appointment in eye clinic for Monday. The snow came down and didn’t stop, so no ophthalmologist made it into hospital, or any of the opticians in town. Finally saw someone at the hospital on the Tuesday and thankfully it wasn’t a retinal tear, as I could have been in a bit of trouble due to the delay. They shoved this horrible implement onto my eyeball and diagnosed PVD, telling me to come back if it’s still flashing a week later. It’s still flashing, but 8nhaven’t gone back, as it seems to be improving and I don’t want that thing sticking on my eyeball again.

I spoke with my uncle, who had exactly the same thing at my age, but was told he was dehydrated and that rehydrating would help. So he upped his fluid intake, it went away and never came back. I’ve done my best to up my fluid intake, as I know I don’t drink enough, but I keep forgetting. It does seem to help though, when I remember.

 

Good to hear, I'm waiting for that procedure.

 

Hard Times

 

Man had laser treatment for cataracts on both eyes at a youngish age (early 30s) and all was a success. Nan had same in her 70s with great success.

Will had laser eye surgery last year and it took a few minutes and then he had to wear dark sunglasses for a few days and not get his eyes wet for a week. His eyesight is fixed but his eyes can get dry at times. He suffered from that anyway but he reckons it’s a bit worse now. It was completely painless except they itched like mad for a day after it was done.

Hope all goes well!

 

Good God, that sounds perfectly horrific.

There definitely is no fun getting older, as my mum is fond of saying. I hope to God that I never have to go through that.

 

The first injection was the worst. Once the anaesthesia started to work, the other two weren’t as bad.

Certainly a memorable day at Hallamshire, planned with military efficiency and carried out with utmost care and professionalism.

Just hoping my sight returns as the tumour continues to shrink in that eye.

 

Really hope you get it sorted.

 

Anybody want the full match report? I can just about see now having had three hours sleep and finding my left eye has stopped hurting.

Well, what a perfectly unpleasant experience that was! I arrived 20 minutes early and was seen straight away but only by a nurse who did a bit of admin and then put two types of drops in both eyes. I was then told to sit in the corridor to wait for the doctor. An hour later I did.

I was disappointed to find that she had not been sent the pictures taken at my optician the day before and had no idea which eye was the problem. She spent quite a long time shining bright lights into my eyes while I struggled to keep my head at just the right angle on the chin support of her machine. It became more and more uncomfortable swivelling my eyes in all four directions while she struggled to find a retinal tear.

I was sent away for a cup of coffee while she did something or other but was then phoned by the department photographer who wanted pictures for the doctor. At least half an hour was spent in there leaning into a different kind of machine - same process though. Look this way, that way etc, while dazzled by bright lights looking behind my eyes.

More sitting in the corridor followed before the doctor told me she could now see images of where the tear was and she would be lasering my left eye. Not yet though! Time went by before this other instrument of torture was ready. Again I was in a sitting, leaning forward position and constantly getting told off for not having my head exactly right.

The laser beams were quick shots of green light and, at first, painless. But then it started! It hurt more and more as she turned the power up presumably. We must have had at least four sessions of this from minutely differing angles. Throughout all of this she kept administering two different kinds of eyedrops which stung a bit. Eventually my torture stopped only to be told that she had managed to cover about two thirds of the damage and that I would probably need to see another specialist at York to complete the job.

Yet more waiting in the dazzlingly bright corridor where I had to hold my hands over my closed eyes as I was in quite a bit of pain. I could barely see out of the affected eye. Once more into her office to find out that York could see me at 1130 tomorrow for either more laser treatment OR some kind of freezing action. What fun!

I staggered out of there about four hours after arrival and walked the 20 minutes down the road to my Harrogate flat. So that’s the end of the first half and we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Who knows if her work today was successful. At least the pain has subsided - for now anyway. I’ll give you a summary of the second half tomorrow (some time). I just hope Darrell Clarke isn’t there bringing on the ineffective substitute eye doctors and staff.

 

Hope you recover fully and quickly.

 

Thanks. I had a good sleep so let’s see what today brings

 

Not had that but I got an appointment yesterday, completely out of the blue at the ophthalmic treatment centre for a week on Saturday. I had a scan at the opticians during a routine eye test and they mentioned something about the centre part of my left retina but didn't think anything of it.

 

I had this done, it is like spot welding the front and back of the eye together. No pain or discomfort and walked out immediately afterwards.
However, be absolutely sure that they know the reason it occurred. The vast majority of times it's age related. There can be other causes in a very small number of cases.

 

I had an Ocular Melanoma 8 years ago. Detected following a retinal tear repair.
It had grown to such a size and positioned such that the risk of the gamma knife not working was very high, so elected for removal of my right eye.