Plan B Forum

I have eye problems and am having surgery on Friday. I'm not looking forward to it and am incredibly nervous about it - I wasn't until last week but after meeting with the surgeon I went from apprehensive but excited to terrified and seriously concerned... which wasn't exactly what I was hoping to get out of the consultation

I started typing out a full background to whats happening but tbh it'd be like me posting War & Peace and you'd probably all have eye problems not to mention boredom issues long before reaching the end. So here's the Cliff Notes version which is still long

Note: I have always worn glasses for short sightedness and astigmatism - my shortsightedness is rather bad and I have a high prescription for both eyes.

1: 2 years ago diagnosed with PVD (posterior vitreous detachment) in left eye the PVD apparently caused a retinal tear, along with the PVD a cataract was discovered - no problems were detected with my right eye. Retinal tear means increased risk of retinal detachment so any issues with my eyes will carry increased risk.

2: Over the past 2 years cataract has increased and gotten more pronounce and now reduces the vision in my left eye and interferes with my daily life - not to mention bugs the shit out of me.

3: Just before Xmas I returned to see my original consultant surgeon to discuss treatment, BOTH eyes were checked & only the left eye was deemed to have any problems. Cataract needs to be removed via surgery - options and risks discussed (high risk surgery due to the tearing) natural lens will be replaced with a permanent contact lens (Inter Ocular Lens) risk of detachment post surgery rated at 50/50 however thats the same risk whether I have surgery or not. Told new lens will fully correct the vision in my left eye for the first time in my life I'd have "perfect" vision in 1 eye result of this would be no longer able to wear glasses as the difference between both eyes would be too great for brain to deal with leading to double vision/blurred vision solution would be contact lens for right eye and possibility of private treatment at a future date to have right eye fitted with IOL.

4: Got offered treatment at brand new specialist eye hospital with no waiting list - jumped at the chance - saw new surgeon 2 weeks ago. It didnt go well - we have language issues which hasn't helped - had BOTH eyes re-examined thoroughly again, got told without any warning or suspicion that I had a tumor in the right "good" eye - resulting BP reading was 166/98 also right eye now has a cataract. Risks for left eye surgery described as "substantially high" right eye surgery would not be recommended as an elective but given the presence of a cataract will have to be addressed at some future point. Deep joy (not). Then told left eye could not be fully corrected and I'd require contact lens for that eye too (but at a much lower prescription). Surgery set for April.

5:Consulted my regular optician concerning contact lenses had yet another full set of eye tests, confirmed presence of "tumor" in right eye but also was able to explain in plain English what it actually was i.e. a "freckle/mole" very common and completely benign (will be monitored for any changes but not worth worrying about may never ever change or require treatment) similarly cataract in right eye is only "just" there and wouldn't normally even be commented upon as it has no affect on my sight at present and wont for a goodly while. Assured new technology now means I can have contact lenses for long term use. Confirmed wont be able to wear glasses post op due to huge difference between eye prescriptions.

6: Started a lens trail last Monday - the first set of contacts were far too strong resulting in very blurred vision close up, was unable to see anything closer than about 100' away from me. Got new less powerful ones on Wednesday which are great for distance but still utterly useless for close up. Then got told my surgery is scheduled for 4th March so no time to sort out lens before surgery.

As I understand it until I have the surgery we cant do anything about the reading issue and after surgery I'm probably going to have to try mono lenses - one lens for distance one for reading - but I cant even get my eye tested until after surgery and then I wont be able to wear a lens in that eye until the eye has healed, so there's going to be an unavoidable time lag where my eyes wont work together properly. It means I cant work - which is an anxiety all of its own as I only get paid for the work I do so no work = no pay I have come up with a possible work around of my own take the fixed eye out of the equation by wearing a patch on that side and wearing my current glasses around the house so at least I can function normally until it all gets sorted out, whether it'll work or not remains to be seen but if it does at least I wont go stark staring mad whilst waiting for a more permanent solution.



So depending upon whether or not the patch will help and indeed whether they'll allow me to even use it I may be unable to use the pc after Friday until the lens' get sorted out.

Keeping you in my thoughts/prayers. I am confident you'll be back posting soon - but give your eyes plenty of time to rest and recuperate.

Ooh, that eye patch is you...

JK. I am sure that everything will be alright. I'll be thinking of you RB.

Many RB, that is a hell of a thing to have to go through.

I have all my fingers and toes crossed for you and am thinking extra special happy thoughts.

How long do they estimate you will be off-line before you should expect to see an improvement?

There are new intraocular lenses (IOL) that are multifocal. You should ask your ophthalmologist about them.

The cataract operation is simple and there is little risk for people with healthy eyes. Your retinal tear might be an issue, but I believe it is minimal.

The most important thing is that you get an ophthalmologist who has done hundreds of these operations and is someone you are comfortable with and can COMMUNICATE with clearly.

Good luck.

Swift Recovery!

Some lite reading for the mend-time;

Best wishes, and we'll be keeping you inn our thoughts.

Joe Guy wrote:There are new intraocular lenses (IOL) that are multifocal. You should ask your ophthalmologist about them.

The cataract operation is simple and there is little risk for people with healthy eyes. Your retinal tear might be an issue, but I believe it is minimal.

The most important thing is that you get an ophthalmologist who has done hundreds of these operations and is someone you are comfortable with and can COMMUNICATE with clearly.

Good luck.

Multi Focal IOL's are not available on the NHS I'd have to pay for both the lens and the surgery moreover the multifocal lenses dont suit everyone and wouldn't solve the problem with the disparity between eyes. There are also multi focal contact lenses which have been suggested as an option if I cannot get on with mono lenses - again they are much more expensive and several opticians have told me they have yet to prescribe them successfully to people with such a high prescription as me -7.50 left eye -8.00 right eye. Surgeon has said that if I struggle with getting lenses to work he would consider doing the right eye with IOL but he would really rather wait until we can be sure the left eye retinal tear isnt going to cause a detachment.

I really do hope and pray I am wibbling and worrying over nothing, but my experience with the contact lenses has really unsettled me. With them in there really is nothing at all I can do at home other than watch TV - I cannot even make a ruddy phone call as I found to my shock when I tried to call hubby and tell him how I'd got on at the opticians on Monday I could neither see the address book in my phone nor the numbers on the pad and as I have never memorised hubbys work number I couldnt dial it by feel in the end I managed to find a cheap magnifying glass that came out of a Xmas cracker and by holding it at an angle was able to just about make out the letters on the screen. I can of course drive perfectly well as they are great for distance but when I get where I'm going I can't read or see anything close up so I could drive to work but when I got there I couldnt do anything.

I'd thought that I could maybe knock out the left lens from my glasses or have plain glass put in if they managed to fully correct the eye but I'm told that wont work because of where the eyes meet to focus so it has to be contacts.

Is there any chance of seeing another ophthalmologist before your procedure RB?

It is NEVER a good idea to have something done when you are feeling wibbly wobbly.

Is no one suggesting that the retinal tear be repaired, e.g. using laser? From my understanding (after experiencing a rather extensive - and incredibly scary - retinal detachment a couple of years ago), any retinal tear risks detachment by providing a conduit for intraocular fluid to seep behind the retina and rip it loose.

I was kind of thinking along Scooter's line of thought. I also am wondering if the eye left near-sighted couldn't be corrected by Lasic surgery? Do you have really thin corneas that would prevent that as a possibility? I am sure you would have to pay for it out of pocket but that would be better than dicking around with contact lenses.


In any case, I am sure you are going to do well and really need not worry as much as you are. (Easy for others to say they aren't the ones facing the surgery.)

Good luck and keep us posted.

Original consultant did mention maybe doing something during the cataract surgery to seal the edges of the tear, new consultant said that whats being called a tear (even by him) is actually a series of thin spots in the retina caused by it being stretched thin when the PVD occurred. Given that 2 consultant ophthalmologists and my bog standard optician have all examined the area I can only go by what they have said and none of them are now talking about doing anything about the tear at the moment all of them have said a detachment could happen 10 mins from now or 10 years from now, other than the surgery increasing the risk somewhat nothing I do is likely to make things worse or prevent it happening if its going to happen.

Lasik is not available on the NHS or at an NHS hospital - that would have to be privately funded - I'm not sure if it can be done after IOL surgery - havent really looked into that or asked about it, everything has been happening so fast.

So long as I can find a way to be able to use the pc, work and read after surgery then I'm not too bothered how long it takes to sort out getting the right balance of contact lenses its not knowing if my work around is going to work or be possible that worries me.

Oh yeah to add to my woes they also found my intraocular pressure in the right eye was raised which is a glaucoma indicator - none of them actually told me which eye or what the pressure was but I saw my GP on Thursday as they all said there was some evidence linking high BP with raised IOP so I went to get that sorted (I have been resisting pills and just monitoring my Bp daily for several months). GP told me its that damned right eye again and the pressure is 25 (pressure in the left eye is normal) that just makes me a Glaucoma Suspect rather than any suggestion of me having glaucoma or even ever going to have it, and I passed the field vision test with flying colours. So again something that will be monitored but no treatment needed for the present. Though he poopooed the BP link however I have now started taking blood pressure pills as my high normal has gone into the mild hypertension range - probably through all this flipping stress

Here's your answer;

Lasik! I knew I spelled it wrong but my over-tired and aging brain would not let me spell it correctly.

Try to chill if you can, it really is going to be alright.

Second that. There's almost nothing humans fear as much as something going wrong with their eyesight, but it really is amazing what miracles surgeons can work on structures that seem to be so fragile and delicate.

I had surgery on both eyes about 10 years apart for cataracts caused by arc welding (probably). Very fast, you'll probably only need reading glasses afterwards.

yrs,
rubato

I'll keep an EYE open for more post from you about this...

DO NOT come outta surgery with something like this;



Don't. I mean it.

Good luck

Well todays the day hopefully in a few hours time I'll be back wondering why I got so wound up and anxious about it all .... cya laters