Upon returning home to Portland, I went to a retina specialist. He could not directly observe my retina because of the amount of blood inside the eye. He did ultra sound on the eye and was concerned about an elevation of the retina and blood under the retina. He scheduled a vitrectomy to remove the bloody vitreous (the gel-like substance inside rhe eyeball). Here's a description of that procedure from the Lions Club:
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Vitrectomy is the surgical removal of the vitreous gel from the middle of the eye. It may be done when there is a retinal detachment, since removing the vitreous gel gives the surgeon better access to the back of the eye. The vitreous gel may also be removed if blood in the vitreous gel (vitreous hemorrhage) does not clear on its own.
During a vitrectomy, small instruments are inserted into the eye and the vitreous gel is cut and suctioned out. After the vitreous gel has been removed, the surgeon may treat the retina with a laser (photocoagulation), cut or remove fibrous or scar tissue from the retina, flatten areas where the retina has become detached, or repair tears or holes in the retina or macula.
At the end of the surgery, silicone oil or a gas (perfluropropane) is injected into the eye to replace the vitreous gel and restore normal pressure in the eye.
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My surgeon found a lot of blood behind one part of the retina, so he had to poke a hole in the retina and remove the blood, then "weld" the hole with a laser. The final step was to fill the eye with silicon oil to maintain pressure on the retina until it is completely healed. At some undetermined time in the future, I will need to go in for another surgery to remove the silicon oil, this could be months from now.
There is a risk that scar tissue will form on the retina and affect my vision; only time will tell.
The surgery was yesterday, and I have some vision in the "bad" eye that will continue to improve. As you can guess, I'm able to use the computer, read the paper, etc.
By the way, the hemmorage was related to macular degeneration in my eye.
So here's looking at you - with two eyes!
- posted from the fisheyepad
Location:Portland, Oregon USA
