Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterT
Well saw the Doctor today. He was pleased but when I asked about the Silicon oil he made it sound like for me it will be permanent.
When asked about recovery he was not very reassuring, saying that the main objective now is saving the eye, and that vision is a secondary matter, and that I shouldn't expect a great deal  |
I remember having those conversations with my surgeon.
Re silicone, there is a potential risk of neurological issues later on, so whether they decided to do the 'oil change' and remove it later really depends on the patients age. If you are old enough, they figure something else is likely to happen before a neurological problem could happen.
The likelihood of retinal reattachment surgery being successful in restoring normal vision depends on a lot of factors, especially the severity of the detachment and the amount of time that has elapsed between the detachment and when the surgery is done. The way my surgeon put it was that in my case, the best he could promise was to restore 'walking around vision' which he described as enough vision to be able to walk around without bumping into walls.
You are born with two eyes for a reason - if something happens to one, you have a spare. My doctors have all made it very clear that with extremely compromised vision in one eye, I need to take special precautions to protect the other eye. So while I only really need readers, I choose to use bifocals instead so that I have physical protection for my good eye. And when using tools, I always use safety glasses.
Sometimes those discussions seem brutally frank. Some patients will hear what they want to hear and not what the doctor is actually saying, so frankness may be necessary to get the message across. I've often thought that was one of the more difficult things about being a physician - it's sometimes necessary to deliver bad news, and I suspect doctors have to be pretty tough-skinned to deal with the emotions that can be involved.