Detached retina

Sorry to hear that your sister IL has this problem. DD knows a lady, in her 50s, who had successful surgery for a detached retina. She doesn't drive (never has), so I am not sure how good her vision is now. All I recall is that during the first few weeks of her recovery she had to lie face down all the time, which was inconvenient to say the least!
I hope to hear of a good outcome for your SIL.

I had a torn retina many years ago (I guess I was about 45) and it was mended with laser surgery very successfully. People who are very short-sighted like me are at risk because the elongated eyeballs that we have put the retina under constant tension. It is also more common the older you are as the the tissues become less elastic.

I believe that a full detachment requires non-laser surgery and does carry some risk of not regaining full sight and has a slow recovery. Speedy treatment is the key. I was told that if I ever saw floaters or bright lights in my eye I was to keep still and get to the eye hospital pdq.

It sounds as though your SIL has had a speedy diagnosis and is in the right place. I do hope it all goes well for her.

It's worth knowing the symptoms which lead up to this too. I had emergency laser treatment when my retina was threatening to detach. It was literally caught just in time, otherwise it would have been this operation.

It's more common than you'd think, especially at about 60 and if you are short sighted.

Crossed posts Mishap agree absolutely with everything you posted.

Both DH and I have had detached retinas, mine was 14years ago and his only 2 years. Straight forward operation, , me in hospital 48 hours, him 24' so guess things had moved on in the 12 years between . We both had to put drops in for sometime afterwards. No restrictions on movement. Provided it is caught in time then everything should be fine.