OT: Anyone here ever had a torn or detached retina

shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
Ford SportTrac Forum

Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
R

Richard L

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2001
Messages
8,432
Reaction score
11
Location
Waco, TX
I was at work today when I started seeing a floater in the corner of my eye. it continued to expand until it had completely blocked the vision in my left eye. It's like looking through a frosted glass window. All I can see are light and dark shapes.



I got an emergency appointment with my eye doctor and he said I have a torn retina. He could not see inside my eye for all the blood so he could not assess the damage. He made an appointment for me tomorrow morning with a retina specialist who has an ustrasound device that will allow him to see the condition of my retina through the blood in my eye.



I know they can reattach retinas with a lazer but I suspect that I will have to have surgery with a needle or cutting to get the blood out of my eye.



Anyone here ever have a torn/detached retina? What did they do to correct the problem?



Thanks,



PS: pardon any misspelling or bizare word since I am typing with only one eye and that was is still a little blurry for the drops the eye doctor put in this afternoon.



...Rich
 
Sorry to hear that man, I wish you a fast recoverry...

Todd Z





Retinal detachment occurs when the two layers of the retina become separated from each other and from the wall of the eye. The retina detects light entering the eye and sends nerve signals to the brain about what the eye sees. If the retina detaches, it no longer works properly. This causes vision loss in the affected area of the retina. Vision loss from retinal detachment can range from very mild to severe and even to total blindness.



See an illustration of a detached retina.

The most common type of detachment occurs when a tear or hole forms in the retina, allowing fluid from the middle of the eye to flow under the retina. This causes the layers of the retina to separate.



SURGERY:

Over 97% of retinal detachments can be repaired with scleral buckle surgery or pneumatic retinopexy.1



But even with such a high rate of success for surgery, it is important to act quickly. The longer you wait to have surgery, the lower the chances that good vision will be restored. Once the retina loses contact with its supporting layers, vision begins to get worse. An eye doctor (ophthalmologist) who specializes in retinal detachments will usually perform surgery within a few days of your being diagnosed with a detachment.



How soon you need surgery usually depends on whether the retinal detachment has or could spread far enough to affect central vision. Once the macula, the part of the retina that provides central vision, loses contact with the layer beneath it, it quickly loses its ability to process what the eye sees.



Having surgery while the macula is still attached will usually save vision. But surgery restores good vision in less than half of people who have surgery after the macula has already become detached.1

If the macula has become detached, surgery may be delayed. If more than a few days have passed since the detachment occurred, severe central vision loss may already have occurred, and surgery is much less likely to restore vision completely.



 
Last edited by a moderator:
Holy cow man!!

I hope everything works out for you.

My wifes cousin had a detached retina about 6-8 months ago and they did the laser

surgery for it nad she is fine. Had to wear an eye patch for a little while but she is fine

now and regained her vision.

Good luck and I hope you feel better!!:):)

PaulH
 
Thanks guys,

While it doesn't make me feel better, it does confirmwhat I already knew, and that this is a serious as I feared.



...Rich
 
Rich, may God bless you and watch over you.



My grandmother had a detached retina repaired by the university med center in 1975. It lasted for the remainder of her life (25 years). She had no further problems and her vision was OK to allow her to function normally.



Today's technology and knowledge has got to be 1000 times better.



Hang in there, man. We are pulling for you.
 
Five years ago over a period of 6 months or so I had torn retinas in both eyes. The first one was treated by fusing with a laser from the front. The rest had to be fused from behind. They rotated the eye ball around to do this. In one eye they sucked the fluid out because the ball was full of blood. I was awake during all of the procedures. After 5 different tears I have had no further problems. The Doctor who treated me said that if I had these tears 20 years ago I would have been blind because there was no procedure to treat them back then.
 
Hello. Sorry to hear that your day has been so rough. This is JD's wife; he pointed out your post because I'm a medical student with an interest in ophthalmology. It sounded like you were looking for some answers and reassurance that you'll be ok.



Since you describe your "blocked" vision as "looking through a frosted glass window" rather than being black or dark, there's a possibility that you have a relatively smaller tear that simply bled enough to obscure your whole visual field. The blood will most probably take several months for your body to resorb on it's own, so things will be blurry for a while at best. But you can relax a bit as I've never heard of cutting blood out of anyone's eye.



Although I admit to having greatly limited knowledge compared to the specialist you'll see tomorrow, I would advise you to relax and to try to sleep tonight sitting at least partly upright in a chair to allow the blood to settle. This will hopefully allow the doctors to see more during your exam tomorrow.



You've already done the absolute best thing you could by going to the doctor as soon as you knew something was wrong. So, avoid taking anything like aspirin or ginko that will thin your blood and encourage a bleed, and just relax.



Hoping you're well soon,

Mrs. JD



 
Yikes, best of luck to you, I hope it all works out.
 
Thanks Mrs JD,

I am not nevous about having surgery, but more curious about what they do to clear the blood out of your eye. I am really more concerned as to how long I will have to be blinded in my left eye before my normal vision may be resotred.



As it is now, it's far more than just blurry...I can not evern recognize anyone I know with just my left eye. I can only see light and dark blobs and there a still a few dark wispy steaks of blood that are visable around the outer edges of my lower field of vision. When I look down, I see a bright red patch that looks like I have a blood stain on my shirt, but there is nothing there, it's the blood in my eye.



Doe you know what the recovery time is for lazer surgery to reattach/repair of a torn retina? At least how soon can one go back to work. I am in the IT field and spend most of my day staring at a computer screen. I use a large-screen laptop and have a 19" LCD panel and docking station in my office, so I think that is eaiser on the eyes than a conventional CRT screen. I can limp by on one good eye but I am concerned that it may be a strain on my right eye.



...Rich
 
They don't clear the blood, your body does on it's own.

Best case senario is months

Laser will be right back to work, if it is physical surgury a couple of days.

3-4 people will get a patch on their eye after the surgury just to make sure they don't rub their eye, but it isn't totally required as long as you don't touch your eye.



These are the answers I got when I asked my wife since she's now half asleep on the couch.
 
RichardL,



My uncle, who is an eye doctor, had this happen in both of his eyes at the same time (ironic?).



He is okay now, but he had to leave his head unelevated for quite some time... 24hrs or so after the surgery. It was the pits.



He's fine now, but you may have some discomfort ahead of you.



Good luck, things will get better with some patience.
 
Well after a change of doctor at the last minute I finally got a more positive evaluation.



The retina specialist I was supposed to see did not accept my TriCare insurance and said I would have to pay $300 for today's visit plus the total cost of any necessary surgery !! I told him "No Thanks". My doctor got me an appointment with another doctor in Temple, TX this afternoon.



This doctor could not see much more than my own eye doctor (did not have an ultrasound machine) but he said that I had a hemmorage in my eye due to my diabetes.

Diabetes weakens the blood vessels and they are prone to rupture, especially in the eye.



JD's wife was correct in that they don't do surgery to get the blood out of the eye. The body will absorbe the blood but it will take 2-3 months or more. I have to go back to him every 2-3 weeks so he can evaluate my progress and see how clear the eye is getting. Once the eye is clear he will send me to the retina speciallist who will use the laser to zap any secondary blood vessels that have tried to replace the one that hemmoraged. The secondary blood vessels are even weaker than the original vessels and need to be zapped with the laser to prevent them from busting open later.



I did notice that my vision in my left eye improved a little from yesterday. Instead of only seeing light and dark shapes, I was able to see a bit more detail and could recognize my wife's face from about 3 feet away with only my left eye. I'm guessing it was about a 10% improvement over yesterday.



I was also advised to sleep with my head propted up on several pillows to help the blood drain downward to speed the absorbsion process.



Thanks for all contributed your experiences and those of your acquaintances. And thanks to JD's wife who really understood the blodd absorbsion process.



...Rich
 
Your eyes are nothing to screw with.



I wish you the best of luck with it all.



3 years ago I was in an explosion in Kuwait. My right eye popped out of my socket. They literally pushed it back in. It took about 8 months for it to heal to where it is today. I have a 1 to 1.5 percent twist to the right and slightly less vision then prior to the mishap.



in my case, it could have been much worse.



Once again, best of luck to you...

 

Latest posts

Top