What is the timetable for healing post surgery

[BostonSue]

I had emergency surgery for two scleral tears on January 26,2009 at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. I evidently have severe lattice degeneration in the right eye, while ( luckily) no sign of it in the left.
They performed a vitrectomy, scleral buckle, laser and pneumatic retinopexy. I had no complications post -op. It has been deemed a successful surgery, although I seem to have sustained a minor loss of peripheral vision in affected eye.
I also developed a cataract almost overnight which has clouded the vision badly in that eye.

My questions are:
When would you say you finally felt healed post surgery?
When does the very significant redness in the sclera finally recede?
Any information regarding cataract extraction post buckle, good or bad?

My surgeons say they are in no hurry to remove the cataract and want the eye to be totally healed. I know this future surgery will be extremely delicate due to the condition of the retina. I feel so fortunate that I am near a large institution that has surgeons who specialize in difficult cataracts.
Needless to say I am scared I will lose vision totally in this eye after the extraction and yet the vision is negligible in it currently.Guess I am between the rock and the hard place.
Is there an optimum time to have this cataract surgery performed?
This is a great web site and I am so happy to have access to it.
Boston Sue

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

-

[BostonSue]

Hi Marshall,
Sounds like you are a very experienced " eye patient" and not by choice I am sure!

I am the totally healthy average health nut. I work out, cardio and weight train about 5 days a week. Never ever anything wrong physically. And excellent vision, just the usual presbyopia of aging. For that I wear ( or did wear) a corrective lens (2.75) in the left eye. My right eye ( the operative one) was my distance eye. I am retired from nursing.
I did know I had lattice degeneration though although I never gave it a thought. About 30 years ago we started using lasers a lot in the operating rooms here in Boston and my hospital 'mapped' all OR personnel's retinas ( I was the nurse clinician at BU Med OR at the time). They told me I had a mild case and to watch it. So I did. I watched it do nothing. Then out of the blue I lost partial vision in the right eye. In the shower no less getting ready to go to a party!
It's funny, as soon as it happened I knew exactly what was going on even though I hadn't thought of the old dx for over 30 years. Off to the ER.
Surprising that they confirmed exactly what I thought it was and sent me home to come back next day for surgery. In the "old" days you would have been admitted immediately and operated on as an emergency.
I did have the option of laser that night in the ER or waiting for the full shebang. I just had a sense that with the two tears and the " severe" condition of the retina that I should just get on with it.
The other thing I just could not believe was that after the operation ( about 3.5 hours worth )  I was sent home a few hours later and then had to come back over those same bumpy roads 8 hourslater in the morning.
WOW! Never do I ever want to do a ride over frost-heaved Boston roads again with my face down and feeling like I had a hatchet buried in my forehead and then turn around and go right back in town. Had I been even a little in charge of my senses I would have insisted on boarding overnight or at least staying at the Holiday Inn right next door. Talk about dumb. And the worst thing is I knew better. Alas my husband was as frazzled as I was and was not thinking clearly either.
However, that was the worst of it so I feel quite silly complaining.
So you say it has been 2 years post-op for you and still not completely healed. Did you have complications ? I assume it in the structure inside the globe that is not completely healed?

[BostonSue]

Ooops, yep, retinal tears, not scleral ! Just shows how nervous I was when I wrote yesterday.
Thanks so much for encouraging words and taking the time to answer.
Boston Sue

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

I'm sure you had retinal tears not scleral tears (the sclera is the white of the eyeball).

You're in good hands ask your surgeons. Generallly 6 months is "stable".

The vitrectomy causes the cataract. The buckle makes the eye longer and thus more nearsighted.

Cataract surgery is not that much more difficult after your surgery but it makes picking the IOL power more difficult and all cataract surgery increases the risk of a retinal detachment so I share their "wait longer" attitude.

JCH MD

[marsh613]

  Good questions,  I had vitrectomy 2 years ago and still not completely healed
- r e  l a x - You went to one of the best - in fact an old gf who had -15 used to fly to mass eye for everything (she had many issues) and we have Bascom-Palmer #1 in Miami!  They are right about cataract, if you had none pre vitrec then 99% you'll have one after.  After my early cataract operations at 45,  they corrected -11 of my myopia with IOL inserted with cataract op.  then still have -4.5 with glasses (orig -2 post op, but it got worse) I do not know about post buckle-i'll bet JodieJ does!  I just found this site too. I had complications post vitrectomy macular scrape 10 years post cataract, even done at duke aff, for inflammation, I would have know right questions to ask!! ,  What is your history, myopia? other?   write back public or private anytime, ciao , marshall