Vitrectomy

I am not sure what Vitrectomy is but I knew someone who went through a number of eye operations due to having two different conditions in each eye. There were no problems with eyes or operations.
Wishing your DH all the best for the op.
SPF

My Mum had this done and she said it wasn`t painful , her eye was frozen with drops which she said just felt strange but didn`t hurt. I think it was about two weeks before her vision was back to normal , it was a few years ago so can`t remember anymore details sorry .

Hi Yogagran.

I have only just seen your post - I had a vitrectomy last summer.

My sight had been deteriorating whilst reading for some months and I ignored it. Not good/exceedingly stupid! At least your husband is having (presumably) prompt treatment.

One day as my husband was driving along, something made me 'test' my eyes. I covered up what I thought was my 'bad' eye and was horrified to find that the 'good' eye I was looking through gave me only a 'black hole'. I was focusing on a traffic sign but although it had a wavy pole, the sign itself was just a black nothing. Ditto everything I looked at. I rang my GP (we were babysitting and couldn't go to the eye hospital until that evening) for advice and she told me that I ought to be seen as soon as possible. I'll keep this short(er): I was seen in the eye hospital's A and E department and a week later given an appointment for 4.5 months after that. Initially I was fine with the appointment but the more I researched (I know, I know, it can be dangerous!) I realised that 'time is of the essence' with a macular holes as they usually increase.

I rang the hospital and a nurse offered to double-check that it was indeed OK for me to wait 4.5 months to be seen in clinic. She rang a week later to say I would fine to wait.

However, after pondering for another week or so, I decided to see an eye surgeon privately which itself took a week or so to set up. When the slit test (the test that shows the depth of the hole) was next performed, I was horrified to see that mine had increased from 205 (at the initial A and E hospital visit) to 358, an increase of 75% or so in less than five weeks. What would have happened had I waited for the clinic appointment many months away.........?

Right, that's my background. The operation itself was absolutely fine. Having had many surgeries and being fine with them all, I was surprised to find myself very apprehensive about this procedure but there was really no need. The operation took an hour or so and I could leave later that evening, however, this is where the fun begins.....

Have your both been told about 'posturing'. I do hope so as you will need to gear yourself up for it. Posturing is lying face down (so that the gas bubble that has been put into the eye is forced up by gravity and held in place). When vitrectomies began, patients had to lay this way for a month. Later it reduced to a fortnight, then ten days and thank goodness, in my case it was 36 hours, which, I can assure you is bad enough.

After this initial period, I had to ensure that I slept on my side - but the side away from my operated on eye or sitting up. Under NO circumstances can one sleep on one's back. If you imagine sleeping sitting up, it is very easy just to slide down the pillow and find oneself sleeping on one's back!! There is a company that will rent out equipment to keep one's head in the best position but I thought the cost (skinflint that I am) for a short period of time was prohibitive. I was also operated on within 36 hours of seeing the surgeon privately as he was also shocked by my slit test numbers and wanted to stop the rot asap, so had no time to order anything.

Once the period of posturing was over, things improved rapidly. There will be no sight in the eye to begin with but after several days, I could see the sky above a line in my eye below which there was still no vision. Every day, the level of this line dropped until after several weeks I was left with odd floaters bobbing around - the remains of the gas bubble. I still have one which I hope will dissipate in time.

My overall result has been good. Uprights, such as poles are still slightly wavy, but a traffic sign is now visible and reading is heaps better. I was told that it could take up to two years for my sight to reach its optimum and that that I should have a sight test every six months.

I have always worn spectacles and was stunned, the morning after the operation to open all the eye drops (ahh, I forgot about those! Your life will be ruled by insertion of these drops, although I am sure that they must all be necessary. I had four different drops and we made a matrix showing which drops should be given at what time. I had my husband insert them for me - think he enjoyed the power!! - as I couldn't do it safely without touching my eyelashes, myself) I opened the packets and sat reading the instruction leaflets. Without glasses!!!!! I was so shocked when I realised what I was doing that I yelped. I had not been able to do that for years! Read without glasses, I mean, not yelp!

The only odd thing about the whole process is that my sight should, after the operation, have given me excellent distance sight whilst I would only need off the peg reading glasses. In actual fact, both middle and distance sight is not good but reading is fine. I wonder if my lenses had been put in back to front!!!

As you probably know, a cataract operation is often done (mine was) at the same time as the vitrectomy and there was relatively little pain about the whole procedure.

A month later, I had a very small cataract (which normally would not have been operated on at this stage) in my other eye done, to even the sight up. This all went well too and thank goodness, no posturing!!! Yippee.

I had new glasses made as soon as I could (I had to wait three months after the operation before I could have an eye test and this was a little testing) and needed new specs. I will have another eye test in a few weeks to check progress and hope in a way not to have to replace my specs yet again but what will be, etc!

I hope I have not droned on for too long but feel as much information as possible is helpful. I could find very little about what actually happens online.

Please feel free to ask any questions (however silly that may seem) and I will be delighted to help anyone going through this rather worrying business. It's worth doing!

Regards

PS
I do make typos when typing as I still can't quite see them! apologies if I have done so.

Thanks for that Candelle, I'm pleased that your surgery has been so successful. I think that we were very lucky in that my DH eyesight deteriorated so suddenly that a visit to the optician was followed within a few days with an appointment with an eye specialist (thank goodness that we kept our BUPA membership going). Less than a week later he had the surgery and is now recovering much faster than I expected. The way that his vitrectomy was done did away with the need for any "posturing", the vitreous was replaced with air rather than gas. Eye drops (just one kind) four times a day. Already his eyesight is better than it was before surgery although he is aware of the bubble. We were told that there would be a bubble that would slowly disappear and it seems that it is already getting smaller. It's going to be anything between 3 months and a year before his eyesight will have settled down but everything is looking good so far.
Eyesight is, to me, the most important sense that we have and I think most of us are a little squeamish about eyes so I'm relieved that it all is going well

I'm resurrecting this thread as I'm having the procedure to repair a macular hole next Tuesday and looking for ideas for things to do while posturing i.e. sitting or lying face down. I should be able to read and watch tv on a tablet.The radio should be a great help. I was told I would have to keep face down for 50 minutes out of every hour though I can sleep on my left side (right eye being done). I am not looking forward to it.

Good luck with your surgery chelsea.