Monday, January 21, 2013

When I was younger I received laser eye surgery and now it's common for me to see a green light.?

Q. When I was younger I was hit directly in the eye with a tennis ball. I immediately went to the eye doctor and he told me that I needed to receive laser eye surgery or else my retina was going to detach from my eye. After surgery, it is common for me to see a green light flash in the corner of my eye, usually when at night or in dark areas. Is there a reason why this occurs?

A. OMG! You're the first person I've ever heard of that sees the same thing as me!

I dettached my retina in December of last year, so I am pretty much fully recovered. (surgery was about 2 months ago).

When I stand up or sit down too fast in dim lighting I see a lime green light move from the inner corner of my eye to the outside. I asked my specialist about it last week and he told me it was a common side effect from the buckle in your eye.

So everything is fine, its just very annoying huh?


Has anyone else ever had a retinal eye detachment?
Q. i had one when i was 16 and i had to get a scleral buckle put in.....it was possibly the most painful thing ive ever had to go through. i was just trying to find other people who had to go through this like i did.

A. Hey! I am 21 and I have had seven retinal detachment surgeries with cataracts also. I had scleral buckling in both eyes as well. It has been the worst experience of my life!!! I am now legally blind because there was a lot of damage done to my retinas and optic nerves. All of this happened in the past year. My detachments were found on accident and my right eye was already detached from the macula.

What's your story? You can message me if you want and i'll tell you alllll the "fun" details! :-)


Does anyone have experience with a detached retina?
Q. My mom recently had surgery for a detached retina. I'm looking for some info on post-op experiences. We want to know what we might expect. Thanks!

A. Retinal detachment surgery can be done a number of different ways.

The outer layer of the eye is called the sclera. It's white until it gets in the front where it becomes clear. That part is the cornea. When you look at someones eyes, you look through the cornea and can see the blue or green or brown or ? color. That layer going back, just beneath or next to the white part, the sclera, is a vascular layer. It has loads of blood vessels. The third layer is the retina. It lays against that blood vessel layer (choroid) and the outer half of the retina gets its nourishment from the choroid.

The center of the eye is filled with a gel called the vitreous. This vitreous is produced near the front of the retina, not too far back from where the white sclera meets the clear cornea (limbus).

As we age, the vitreous gel breaks down. It's sort of like jello not holding it's shape after a few hours at room temperature. Pockets of water form in the gel and as the eye moves around there's a lot of sloshing. If the gel pulls or tugs hard enough, it'll pull on the retina up in front where it's tightly attached (vitreous base). If it pulls hard enough, it'll cause a tear. These tears look like horseshoes and are called 'horseshoe tears'. Once a tear has formed the now liquefied vitreous can get beneath it and the retina will float off the wall.

This is called a retinal detachment. If it's caused by a tear, it's a rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. If the detachment is cause by the choroid leaking fluid and no tear, that's a serous retinal detachment.

The surgery for a retinal detachment sort of depends on where the tear is located. If it, or they (if more than one tear) are located between the 8 and 4 o'clock positions, one can put a gas bubble in the eye, in the vitreous cavity and tilt the head so that the upward going air bubble pushes or seals the tear. The fluid beneath the retina will be absorbed or pumped out by the retinal pigment epithelium layer which lays just beneath the retina next to the choroid.

Laser or freezing (cryo) is done around the tear so that a scar or adhesion will form which stops any further movement of fluid under the retina.

Some surgeons do a vitrectomy, then fill the eye with gas and laser around the tears. Some will push the wall of the eye in with a buckle, which is a piece of silicone material that is sewn to the scleral surface so that it indents the sclera right where the tear is located. This approximates the tear to the wall, and also reduces traction forces within the retina itself. This is done when there are multiple tears or inferior tears.

If she had just the gas done, she'll have to position her head for about a week. If she had the buckle, she'll sort of just have to take it easy for a week or so. If she had the vitrectomy done she'll probably be told to position herself as well.

The buckle can be the cause of a sore eye. The surgery itself is a bit rough on the eyeball with the four main rectus muscles isolated with sutures, called bridle sutures which help the surgeon move the eye around while placing the sutures and the buckle in place.

Usually people are up and around and not on much pain Rx within a week or so. The positioning is important if the pneumoretinopexy is done. People are told to park. Just park. Watch TV, go to the bathroom, sleep, walk, bathe...whatever with that head tilted! Don't do the 18 hours a day thing, do the 24 hour a day thing.

If she does, in 6 months this will be a memory she won't want to repeat, wasn't that bad, and she sees.


What should i expect by having a scleral buckle?
Q. I know its going to stop my retina from tearing any further but will they put me out? are they going to stab me with a bunch of needles? will i feel it during surgery? its my first surgery and im so scared

A. i'm 23 and i've had 4 detached retinas (twice in each eye). i'm now blind in my left eye and have poor vision in my right eye so i can tell you from experience that it sucks! sorry but its true.
you'll need to ask your dr what type of anesthesia you will have. it will most likely be general anesthesia (totally knocked out). although i've had it done with sedation as well. see i easily get sick from general anesthesia and i guess eye surgery can make you feel very sick anyways so the combo made me feel really sick. so when my retina detached twice with in 6 weeks back in 2008 my dr opted to give me just sedation. problem with that was i could feel the pain and he had already given me local anesthesia shots when i was to out of it to know what was going on but it wasn't enough. he ended up putting me under general anesthesia in the end cuz i was crying out in pain.

i'll try to give you a run down of what happens from the time you get to the hospital to the time you leave.

first you'll probably be told not to eat or drink anything effective at midnight the night before surgery.

you'll go to the hospital and go to the admission desk. they'll put some info into the computer and put a wrist band on.
then you go up to what ever floor they tell you to and the nurse will put you in a room, ask you a bunch of questions, take your blood pressure and temp, and maybe ask for a urine sample. then they'll give you a gown and tell you to hang out on the bed until they come get you. you'll then be wheeled on a cart down to the preoperative area. depending on your age they may ask your parents to go to the waiting room or they may let them come to the preoperative area with you.
down in pre-op they will ask you a bunch of the same questions that you were already asked just so they can be sure everything was written correctly. they'll take your BP again (they will put a cuff on that does it automatically every few minutes and this will stay on for the entire surgery and while you are in the recovery room), take your temp again, and also put a pulse ox monitor on your finger. it just measures how much oxygen you have in your body so they can regulate it(this will also stay on during surgery and in the recovery room) it doesn't hurt or anything. and they'll start an IV in the back of your hand or in the bend of your arm. the dr doing the surgery will usually appear to ask if you have any last minute questions and run through exactly what he is doing again. then if you are extremely nervous they may give you something in the IV to calm you down. it will most likely give you a burning sensation in your arm for a minute but it goes away quickly. it may make you feel tired, looopy, or just chilled out depending on what drug they used.
then they will wheel you into the operating room and help you scoot over onto the operating table. they'll then put an oxygen mask on your face and heart monitor patches on your chest. then they will either give you the anesthesia through the mask or through the IV. if its through the mask you will just breath it in. it smells like nail polish remover. you may feel like you can't breath cuz the smell is sooo strong but with in a minute you are out like a light. if its given through the IV you will have a burning sensation in your arm for a frew seconds and then you may start to feel dizzy or sick but before you can even tell someone you don't feel good you are out like a light.

when you wake up you may feel like you just closed your eyes and then opened them again. you may not even realize for a second that the surgery even started let alone it being done already.
you'll almost certainly feel really tired. you may also experience uncontrolable shaking, being emotional and crying cuz you don't know whats going on, feeling dizzy and possibly fainting, and/or feeling sick and possibly throwing up. these are all common side effects after anesthesia.

you will start out in the recovery room where there are nurses and other patients coming out of anesthesia. they will monitor you and bug you every few minutes to make sure you are alright. they don't really expect you to full wake up in this room. once you are stable you will be wheeled back up to the room you started in when you got there and that is where your parents can see you again. at this point a nurse will come in and really start to try to get you to wake up. they'll try to get you to drink something like apple juice or 7up. they also try to get you to go use the bathroom.
they usually try to get you up and out as quickly as they can so they can make more room for other patients.
if you don't feel like you can get up and go then don't let them rush you. its best to go at your own pace this will lessen the chance of you getting extremely sick or dizzy.

one little thing that i always try to let people know is if you get the least bit chilly ask for a blanket. they have a "warming oven" so when they give you a blanket it is nice and warm. if you are still cold ask for another one and another until you feel comfortable cuz when you get cold you get more shaky and in my opinion then get more nervious.
oh and if you are prone to cold feet wear a pair of regular socks and then also a pair of those soft fuzzy socks and it will keep your feet toasty.

as for recovery you are gonna look like they punched you in the eye a few times. you'll be swollen, bruised, and your eye will be blood shot.
it will hurt like someone punched you a few times as well.
it sucks cuz all you can use is "extra strenghth tylenol" which does absolutely NOTHING for the pain.
after a few days it will start to feel better.
you'll need to wear a plastic sheild on your eye when you are sleeping until its healed enough.
and you'll have to take about 4 eye drops 4 times per day for the first couple weeks.
you'll be going to the dr quite often for the first 6 months for check ups. \

like i said before it sucks but don't worry you will get through it i had 4 detached retinas and i'm living my life to the fullest.





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Title Post: When I was younger I received laser eye surgery and now it's common for me to see a green light.?
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