Anyone ever have their detached retina reattached using the gas bubble method? (!
Question: - what is the recovery period like?
- the doctor says will have to be face down for 18 hrs a day for 3 days then 12 hrs a day thereafter for a week or so, did u have to go thru this? what is it like?
- is it possible to actually stick to that schedule of being face down?
- how do u sleep face down and still get air?
thanks in advance for any help!
Answers: - what is the recovery period like?
- the doctor says will have to be face down for 18 hrs a day for 3 days then 12 hrs a day thereafter for a week or so, did u have to go thru this? what is it like?
- is it possible to actually stick to that schedule of being face down?
- how do u sleep face down and still get air?
thanks in advance for any help!
This sort of depends on whether you have a retinal detachment, with a tear over at some area, or you have a hole in the macular area. If you have a macular hole, after the vitrectomy, they peel some surface membranes, then fill the eye with a gas that'll stick around for awhile. You then want to keep that air bubble or gas bubble right over that hole back there, so you'd need to be face down. The face down thing SHOULD be for about a week. After that, the macula will be on,
if you look up during that time, the fluid will wash off the fibrin over the hole and the % chance of it working drops tremendously.
If you have a peripheral tear, we usually place a small, expandable gas bubble in the vitreous, then tilt you so that the air/gas closes the hole. After the retina flattens, we laser the retina around the hole and that will heal in about a week, enough for you to be able to get up and move a little more.
If your posterior retina is detached from a macular hole, there are companies that rent special chairs and bed items that have massage face holders. These chairs have little mirror systems that allow you to watch TV while sitting there. The don't look up part of macular hole surgery is a lot more important than most surgeons say. But I've done hundreds of these and the ones that Didn't look up, worked. the ones that did, not so good.