Vitrectomy recovery fears?

[Susanelle]

I had a lattice degeneration that caused a small detached retina. I had surgery to reattach the retina, as well as detach some micro adhesions that were about to pull on my retina. I did face-down for a heavy gas bubble for two weeks. My surgery was December 23, 2016. Doc said I was healing great February 6. But, I am in the “am I really going to be okay” stage. Freaking out, really.

My question is… my gas bubble disappeared Saturday! Hooray. But, now I see a red patch in my lower left field of vision. I saw this from the beginning, and Dr. told me to ignore it. Then I didn’t see it. Then it came back last week, days before my bubble left. And it has a bit of a flare or glow to it. Especially in the dark. I have seen a series of glowing lights when I am in a dark room, which I blamed on the glowing gas bubble. The doc said to not worry about it “as long as you have your gas bubble.” But I still see it, and in fact, it seems more apparent.  I suspect the red patch is the self-dissolving stitches or something. I think vitrectomy patients should definitely have a support group. Like…”did you see this?” or “did you have this?”

Any words of wisdom would really be great. I need to calm the heck down, I know!

Thank you!

[MrPresley]

Have patience with your recovery.  It's taken over a year for my left eye to settle back to some degree of normalcy after vitrectomy/macular pucker surgery, and the last piece of my recovery still to go is cataract surgery in March, 18 months afterward.

[Susanelle]

Thank you for your wonderful words! And good luck with your upcoming surgery. I will send you good, healing thoughts!

[JohnHaganMD]

Take good care of the unoperated eye its your most important eye.

[MrPresley]

Thanks for the healing thoughts!  Be expecting the accelerated development of a cataract in the eye in which you had the vitrectomy.  It's a common side effect, although it is not guaranteed  that you'll be affected.  I already had them, but they were never causing any significant issues with my vision until about nine months to a year after my eye procedure.  I'll return to wearing a contact lens in my unaffected eye for distance correction, and so far that eye needs nothing done.  It did have a peripheral retinal tear that was discovered and successfully addressed by my ophthalmologist on my first visit, so hopefully this cataract procedure will be my final eye surgery.

[JohnHaganMD]

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[JohnHaganMD]

If you will use the search feature and archives you will see many posts by people that have had this surgery, your experience is common. People often note permanent dark or bright spots 180 degree away from laser or freezing. You may still have a tiny gas bubble still in the eye.  The red patch in not likely to be sutures at all as none are put inside the eye where you would see them.

[Susanelle]

Oh, thank you, Doctor! I had been worrying that the red spot was inside my eye and that it was going to detach my retina! It seems to move, and the glowing really frightened me! I looked through the posts, but I couldn't find one that sounded like my red patch and filament glow,

[JohnHaganMD]

Best of luck

[Susanelle]

Thank you! Will the glowing lights go away if I am patient? It is pretty scary!