TS&M or medical people

[spectrum]

Good luck!

 

[ScubaTexan]

Good luck, Spencer!

 

[gert7to3]

Cyclops, the gas bubble that was injected was not to keep the area dry, but to press the retina into place so that it would reattach. That's why they instructed you to lie in a particular position, so the bubble lands against the right spot.

Spencermm, you didn't specify which therapy was used to reattach your retina. Care to share? If a gas bubble was applied, diving would most likely be contraindicated until it's absorbed.

Take the long view in this matter. Let yourself heal, then dive safely and confidently.

To everybody, become familiar with your visual field in each eye. Keep both eyes open, then cover one at a time to assess your vision. If there is distortion, greyish spots, inability to read today what you could read yesterday, then get examined. Don't self diagnose or simply hope it goes away.

Special notes about retinal detachments. They are usually accompanied by the sudden appearance of floaters and flashes of light. The flashes are visible in well lighted areas. The people most susceptible to RD's are myopic (nearsighted). The flashes and floaters are, at first, more often visible off to the periphery of your visual field. If left alone the spot will grow and grow.

Finally, don't go losing sleep over this. Most people don't have these problems.

Disclaimer, I am an ophthalmic photographer, not a doctor. However, my work is done for retinal specialists.

 

[Cyclops_Diver]

Cyclops, the gas bubble that was injected was not to keep the area dry, but to press the retina into place so that it would reattach. That's why they instructed you to lie in a particular position, so the bubble lands against the right spot.

I forgot to add that part, but when the doctors were explaining the process to me they did say it was to keep it dry as well.

Interesting.

 

[Spencermm]

If your surgery was anything like the six surgeries that I had for retina detachments, you will probably be "healed" in a couple weeks but the Doc will be monitoring the gas bubble they might have put in your eye, waiting for it to fully be absorbed by the body and disappear before he cleares you to dive again.

When I had my six detachments, each time they injected a gas bubble in my eye to keep the part they worked on dry so that it could heal. I had to lie in one spot for two weeks without moving and causing that bubble to shift. Talk about misery!

Good luck, keep us posted, and safe diving!

same here. why so many cyclops(6)if i can ask?
forgive poor typind- using 2 eye,1 hand, laying on 1 side

 

[Spencermm]

Cyclops, the gas bubble that was injected was not to keep the area dry, but to press the retina into place so that it would reattach. That's why they instructed you to lie in a particular position, so the bubble lands against the right spot.

Spencermm, you didn't specify which therapy was used to reattach your retina. Care to share? If a gas bubble was applied, diving would most likely be contraindicated until it's absorbed.
.

they said it was pretty bad and used both bubbles and a a silicone band wrapped aroud my eyeball. cant open my eye enough to have a good look. can see that my white is pretty bloody though- not "bleeding" but blood shot.
thanks for the input- helpful.

 

[Spencermm]

same here. why so many cyclops(6)if i can ask?
forgive poor typind- using 2 eye,1 hand, laying on 1 side

meant to type 1 eye

 

[Cyclops_Diver]

No worries Spencer, it's an interesting story usually. lol

I got a piece of plastic shot into my eye. Shattered the lens and ripped up the iris. They believe that the sudden trauma and deflation of the eyeball, then three surgeries to clean all the crap out and sew it back up, was the initial cause of the first two detachments. They didnt want to go lasering all around excessively so the first two grew within a few months of the first retinal detachment surgery. Same thing for the last two I believe. The initial accident weakened spots...then I got to playing sports again and it was too much for the weakened spots. Those last few are "best guess" scenarios. Residual effects of the initial accident.

I've got the silicone band as well as a"buckle" which is when they take a band that is wider than the first one they put in my eye, cut a segment out of it, and put that under the band around my eye in a strategic spot to support the retina there. I cant see the band either, but every so often the killer "eye aches" remind me that it's there.

 

[Spencermm]

No worries Spencer, it's an interesting story usually. lol

I got a piece of plastic shot into my eye. Shattered the lens and ripped up the iris. They believe that the sudden trauma and deflation of the eyeball, then three surgeries to clean all the crap out and sew it back up, was the initial cause of the first two detachments. They didnt want to go lasering all around excessively so the first two grew within a few months of the first retinal detachment surgery. Same thing for the last two I believe. The initial accident weakened spots...then I got to playing sports again and it was too much for the weakened spots. Those last few are "best guess" scenarios. Residual effects of the initial accident.

I've got the silicone band as well as a"buckle" which is when they take a band that is wider than the first one they put in my eye, cut a segment out of it, and put that under the band around my eye in a strategic spot to support the retina there. I cant see the band either, but every so often the killer "eye aches" remind me that it's there.

how goes it with diving? Are there any precipitating events that cause the "killer eye aches"? and how long do they last?
i may be assuming and comparing too much, since yours was caused by aggressive trauma and mine was not.

 

[Cyclops_Diver]

how goes it with diving? Are there any precipitating events that cause the "killer eye aches"? and how long do they last?
i may be assuming and comparing too much, since yours was caused by aggressive trauma and mine was not.

No problems with diving at all. I've been trying to discover the actual source of these headaches. So far I've come up with dehydration, lack of sleep, sleeping with that eye down pressing on the pillow, and too much time looking at bright lights. Bright lights to an eye without benefit of an iris can include tv's, computer screens, sunlight, bright ambient light, and welding arcs (Damn did THAT one hurt!).

I'm sure you have heard and experienced the checking of the pressure in the eye. It fluctuates naturally with changes in the amount of vitrious in the eyeball from what I understand. My other thought was that too high of pressure in the eye, and thus on the silicone band making it constrict the eye harder, might be a cause. The pressure may be a completely normal amount, but when you factor in the unnatural silicone band it may be causing the pain. But that one is purely speculation at this point.

But again, back to diving. I've never had one of these eye aches during or after diving that I can recall.