re: Detached Retina Surgey

This exact thing happened to me in 2009.

Your recovery experience will depend a lot on the location of the detachment.

IMX, the procedure was like this (all instruments used are very small):

-- A tiny (<= 1 mm) slit is made in the side of the eyeball, below the edge of the cornea

-- A tiny instrument (essentially a vacuum cleaner) is inserted, and the vitreous humor -- jocularly called the “jellyball” -- is sucked out. The eyeball is then re-inflated

-- Other instruments are used to manipulate the retina back into place against the inside curvature of the eyeball. This is a difficult and extremely delicate thing to do -- the retina is a single layer of cells, and it has the consistency of wet toilet paper. There must be not even the slightest wrinkle in the retina, and there must be absolutely no damage to any retina cell

-- Once the retina is back in place, a laser is inserted, and is used to make tiny burns, everywhere they are needed. When the burns (eventually) heal, they leave scars -- essentially spot-welds -- that hold the retina in place.

-- The eyeball is re-inflated, using (at the doc’s option) air or silicone oil

-- For two weeks post-op, you will be required to maintain your eyeball at a 90-degree angle to the ground -- you must always be looking straight down. In actual practice, you will be required to spend two weeks lying prone, with your face on a special pillow provided for this purpose. You will be allowed out of bed for 15 minutes, 4 X per day, for eating and bathroom breaks.

Failure to follow this regimen can result in re-detachment of the retina.

-- You will be prohibited from any reading, and from viewing any video screen, for [approximately] 4-6 weeks. The reason for this is that reading, or viewing video -- or even still images -- involves extremely tiny but jerky eyeball movements, and these can interfere with your retinal spot-welds, and possibly even cause them to fail.

-- You will be prescribed at least two, and possibly three, different eye drops, and a pretty rigid schedule for each.

-- One of these medications may contain -- forgive me if I spell it incorrectly -- Prednisolone. This is to combat post-op inflammation. WARNING: This medication is metabolized very slowly, and can, in some cases, induce nearly uncontrollable hyperphagia (abnormal desire to eat). IMX, it is easy to control, as long as you have been forewarned.

-- If your doc chose to use silicone oil (instead of air) to re-inflate your eyeball after the laser, then approximately 3 months post-op, the oil will be replaced with saline.

ATTENTION: My surgery was fourteen years ago. It is probable (but not necessarily certain) that protocols, both surgical and post-op, have changed / improved by now. As always, YMMV.

I wish you luck.