Eye surgery - Vitrectomy, retina reattachment and lens replacement we

[Katescurios]

Hello

I have macular detachment as a result of fluid build up behind the retina due to an haptic disc Colaboma.

I'm having surgery next week and have been told I'll need to stay in a specific position for 50mins out of every hour for 3-10 days, likelihood face down.

Has anyone had this done?
How was the recovery and when did you start getting sight back?
How long did you have to do the posturing and how did you keep from going completely loony toons from boredom?
What were the essential things you did to make it more bearable?

I just cannot think of enough things to do for potentially 10 days that can be done face down and 1 eyed!

I'm afraid I can't answer your questions as I've not had this done but I do have problems with my eyes and am high risk for retinal detachment so I just wanted to wish you all the best and a very good recovery

I had to posture for one week after this surgery. I was lucky as I had to stay on my left side so easier than face down. I watched daytime TV sideways(desperate I know), read my kindle and also slept a lot. I was probably fortunate in that I had a meltdown a couple of days post-op as felt traumatised from surgery - mine was done as an emergency, and had nobody to look after me, so my lovely GP gave me a supply of lorazepam so I was blissfully doped for much of it.

My gas bubble started to decrease after about nine days and from then it went really rapidly. Completely gone by the time I went back to work 2 weeks post-op. I didn't have lens replacement at the time as didn't develop a cataract until a year later. The surgery and recovery for that was a doddle.

After vitrectomy surgery you may get strange effects, coloured lights, strange shadows etc. This is what tipped me over the top as they don't tell you and I panicked thinking it was all going wrong.

Hope all goes well for you. The good thing is, it's painless.

Thanks for your replies. Good to hear it's painless and the recovery went quickly. Just had a call to say they've cancelled my surgery and moved it to the end of the month. Felling quite emotional because my eyesight is getting worse and worse plus I'd had to arrange the time off work and the childcare.

Oh how annoying Kate. Apart from all the practical arrangements you get yourself psyched up for it don't you? I suppose I was lucky in a way as I had a retinal detachment so it was treated as an emergency. I was operated on at Moorfields in London. Which hospital will you be under?

Yes very very annoying mainly because we've been explaining the operation and recovery period to my little girl getting her ready for it and understanding that I won't be able to pick her uo, play with her and so on for a few days after. Now we have to keep that up for another 3 weeks.

Op is at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Thought I'd update in case anyone in the future has the same thing done. On Monday I had a vitrectomy with simultaneous lens replacement, gas tampanade and laser around my optic disc.

Surgery lasted just over an hour under local anaesthetic, couldn't see or feel anything but could hear everyone in the room chatting away. I was given a little dose of sedative so felt very relaxed throughout.

Immediately after I was taken by wheelchair to a recovery area where I was advised to sit with my head resting on y arms on a table, this started 48 hrs of staying in a face down position with a maximum of 15 mins per hour upright.

I wore an eye shield for the first 24hrs and have to wear it at night for 3 weeks.

I have 3 types of drops, 1 = 8 x a day, 2 = 4 x a day

The gas is opaque and will take a couple of weeks to start to disperse so really can't we through that eye, I can just about make out a hand waving in front of my face but no definition.

Things they don't tell you about, you'll have a headache for several days, for the first 2 days if you dab your eye the tissue will be red, nothing to worry about just a little surface bleeding, you can feel the stitches when you blink (yuk) and laying face down makes your neck back and shoulders really ache!

Here's a picture of 2 days after for reference sorry for mardy face, wasn't feeling too happy this morning

Hope you feel better soon op. Sounds like the surgery went well.

Hi Kate. Glad to hear it's all done. Now you just have to rest and be patient! You just wait for the marvellous moment when you realise you can see a sliver of sky over the top of your bubble. Once the gas starts to disperse it goes quite rapidly. Hope all continues to go well for you.

Hope your recovery goes well. I had the hell of posturing 5 years ago now following detachment (emergency vitrectomy, buckle), 3 times plus lense replacement then final op to remove oil (was pregnant so waited until after baby born)

I remember that feeling every time my eye moved the pain! Sadly no success for me but hey ho I have my other eye - until that one started to deteriorate. Had lense replaced in right eye now too and things are stable.

Oddly my sister had similar though hers was the result of blow to head/car accident. Yes u can imagine just how terrified she was knowing what I had gone through and losing most of my sight but thankfully she has been left with no problems and no change to her eyesight.

I still trip over things/my kids if they are on my left side, can't pour wine in a glass without spilling some and really struggle with sports can't catch a ball/tennis sort of hung trip over what seems like fresh air and I have monocular double vision in my right eye the eye hospital still can't work out why/help with it but still manage pretty well. Reading is hard, haven't been able to read a book/magazin for years and struggle with the computer at work but thankful to still have one albeit a bit duff useable eye