TS&M or medical people

[gert7to3]

Spencermm, it will take a few weeks for your eye to stabilize and the blood to reabsorb. The rubber band you had applied is called a scleral buckle procedure. A silicone band is applied behind the muscle attachments on your eyeball and a block of silicone sponge is applied against the wall of your eye where the detachment occurred. It pushes the wall of your eye in and helps the retina to reattach. This is far enough back around your eyeball that it shouldn't be visible and overlying tissue will hide it.

If you wear reading glasses, putting a post-it note on your glasses lens, over your bad eye, can help you relax and just use your functioning eye. Your brain is still used to binocular vision. Be patient about this. You should heal well and be back to your normal activities. It totally sucks right now, but you will get past this.

If you don't mind, how did you notice that you had an eye problem? Also, how long did you wait before seeking help? The reason I am asking is that it might help other people who have an eye problem crop up.

 

[Spencermm]

Spencermm, it will take a few weeks for your eye to stabilize and the blood to reabsorb. The rubber band you had applied is called a scleral buckle procedure. A silicone band is applied behind the muscle attachments on your eyeball and a block of silicone sponge is applied against the wall of your eye where the detachment occurred. It pushes the wall of your eye in and helps the retina to reattach. This is far enough back around your eyeball that it shouldn't be visible and overlying tissue will hide it.

If you wear reading glasses, putting a post-it note on your glasses lens, over your bad eye, can help you relax and just use your functioning eye. Your brain is still used to binocular vision. Be patient about this. You should heal well and be back to your normal activities. It totally sucks right now, but you will get past this.

If you don't mind, how did you notice that you had an eye problem? Also, how long did you wait before seeking help? The reason I am asking is that it might help other people who have an eye problem crop up.

thanks for the post- it was helpful.
you're last paragraph is an important one, as i waited so long to seek treatment that i nearly lost my right eye vision(the jury is still out on how much i will regain) and everything was handled by medical staff as an emergency.
4 weeks ago i had a weird, brief vision anomoly. i thought nothing of it, as i used to have these anomolies all thev time right before getting a migrain. when no migrain occuured i thought perhaps i scratched my eye in my sleep. the anomoly was actually my retina detaching, though i was unaware.
next day i started seeing floating spots (floaters). this continued for 2 weeks. (i'm sure going to a theme park during the floater period,with lots of jolting rides, didnt help matters) then i started losing vision in my r. eye from the bottom up.
by the time i was able to get an appt. with an eye doc it had been nearly 4 weeks!
ignorance and a reluctance to seek medical attetntion turned what could have been a 1 hour office visit laser procedure into a full blown emergency surgury.
if you start seeing floaters, you should get it checked out asap.
spencer

 

[gert7to3]

That sort of hesitation is very normal. Don't beat yourself up about it. That's just human nature. Especially in your case with a history of migrane related vision anomalies.

The one detail I would fix on for other folks, is that if you are experiencing a sudden, persistent vision problem, INSIST upon getting an emergency appointment. Don't hold off because you have a scheduled appointment in 8 weeks, or accept some scheduling person telling you that the next available slot is in 3 weeks. Tell them that you are experiencing sudden, significant changes in your vision, this should get you in the door ASAP.

Thanks for sharing your symptoms this way. Hang in there, there will be compressed air from heavy tanks in your future.

 

[ArcticDiver]

Interestingly I have a relative who just suffered a torn retina and had it repaired. Instructions were to do two things:
First: Do not do anything for two weeks that could jar the eye. That includes diving, biking, hiking or any other strenous activity. Then, at the first flash of light or any new floaters to report to the nearest ED for referal to to an opthmologist. Do not delay, go.

My experience is that while not life threatening detached retina or any other injury of that type is what is considered to be a True Emergency. In other words don't take any chances and don't dick with it. Get help and don't do anything that isn't proven to be safe.

 

[Jang]

Hi All,

I know it's been a while since this post was last discussed, but thought that those who responded could provide some feedback.

I am currently a DMC going through the classroom activities and decided to get a diving physician to complete my medical statement as I had a hernia fixed a few years ago. However, the topic of previous surgeries came up and I mentioned that I had partially detached retina repaired nearly 20 years ago (and I'm not that old) with no side effects. I was checked repeated by the opthamologist and then continued followup checks by my optometrist (one of whom is my sister) for the last 18 or so years.

The diving physician (lots of snazy sounding credentials) is concerned regarding increased pressure on the injury at depth. He will followup with my optometrist, former opthamologist and eye surgeon. He mentioned that there is a distinct possibility that he will not sign my medical statement and I will be forced to drop from the DM program. (As a side note, the medical statement has no mention of eye surgeries or any other surgeries not already listed. Who knew?)

I've been diving for two years now and have 50+ dives to my log. I was convinced by my instructor that I have excellent dive skills and recommended I take the DM program. I've had no ill effects from a vision point of view. My instructor is also concerned and has gone so far as to recommend if the diving physician will not approve my diving status, that I may need to reconsider diving altogether for my own health.

I see lots of folks on here that have continued diving after retinal detachment surgery. I will likely get a second opinion, but wanted to ask other divers of their opinion.

Thanks.

Kevin

 

[gert7to3]

IMHO your dive physician is being very cautious, maybe too cautious, but that's what he is paid to do. After proper review of your case, he should be sufficiently assured that there is no greater risk of retinal detachment from the stresses of diving.

What sort of detachment was it? Lattice degeneration, trauma, myopia? Also, what sort of treatment was administered to repair your retina?

 

[Jang]

Thanks gert7to3. I wasn't sure if any one would even read this post from so long ago.

To quote my ophthamologist's letter, "lattice degeneration with hole formation at 6:00 o'clock in the left eye requiring cryotherapy distal to the holes and laser therapy proximal to them and there are also band in the vitreous horizontally across this area".

My dive physician contacted my current optometrist, my former ophthamologist, the retinal surgeon who conducted the surgey, DAN and consulted his collegues from the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society. I contacted my sister, who is also an optometrist, and she had a collegue who is a retinal surgeon contact my dive physician as well. After reviewing the information and consultations, he was able to sign-off my medical statement. Whew!

I start my skills workshop on Monday and assist with my first OW class the following week.

 

[gert7to3]

Good luck with your certification. I am pleased to hear that your medical issue was resolved in your favor.

Between you me and the wall, you may not want to mention your successfully treated, now very much in the past, eye problem on dive questionnaires. It would be true pity to fly half way around the world, only to be beached or referred to a physician for approval, because you acknowledged an "eye problem" on some dive clearance boilerplate.

 

[Jang]

Thanks for the input. The medical statement is exactly the problem. No where on the statement does it mention previous surgeries not already listed. The topic of previous surgeries was during the dive physical.

This dive physician is one of two where I live and provides dive physicals for professional / commercial divers, is a member of the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society, is qualified in chamber medicine and is a DM himself. As I'm embarking on a semi-pro path, I decided I should really see a dive physician, not my family doctor who really can't comment on dive physiology.

I could have went to my family doctor and he would have signed-off (just as he had last year) on my hernia surgery because that is all that he was asked to evaluate. As you mentioned, my dive physician was just being careful.