I’d posted a bunch about a year back, when I had first been diagnosed with severe retinopathy in both eyes, and was going through my first laser surgeries. (For any who remember, I finally got health insuance, yay!) I just had my fifth laser surgery and Avastin treatment on Friday, and I’m frustrated that my Doc can’t seem to give me any answers about what the future holds for me. I’m turning 30 this summer, and reaching my 20th year with Type 1, and I have a lot of living left to do.
My biggest concern with my eyes is that in my right eye, I have a large abnormal vessel growing right over my optic nerve, and they can’t laser it. I know a large hemorrhage is in my future, and then a vitrectomy surgey…but can anyone tell me what things are like after a virtectomy? I have to figure out if I’ll still be able to drive, or what? I’m young and I’m still working full time, and trying to live a notmal life, and it’s really hard being in Limbo like this. My Doc tells me there are too many variables, and that he can only tell me what is going on in my eyes right when he looks in them, and can’t predict the future course of my condition at all. Can anyone help me with any information from experience?
I will tell you MY experience, but please don’t go ahead thinking yours will be like mine
I was diagnosed with proliferative diabetic retinopathy about 3 years ago. In the first year I had about a dozen laser treatments to each eye. I had a major hemorrhage in my left eye in January of 2009, which my doctor chose to wait on, to see if it would clear on its own. It did not, and in early April of 2009 I had a vitrectomy. The recovery from the vitrectomy took about 12 weeks. The first few weeks were the hardest - eyedrops every few hours, swollen eye, itchy where the stitches were, eye always dilated because of drops, etc. My eyesight did not start to return in that eye until about June. Took another month to come back fully. My left eye has been stable since. My right eye continues to bleed sporadically and I’ve had another half dozen laser treatments on it.
At this point I am unable to drive, but this is NOT due to my vitrectomy. This is due to the laser. Because I had so much laser done, I lost some color vision, some peripheral vision, and some depth perception. I have not officially been told I cannot drive - this is a choice I’ve made. I honestly don’t feel like I can safely get behind the wheel with the way my eyes are now; I don’t want to hurt anyone.
My eyesight is VERY SLOWLY getting better. I am hoping to be able to feel that I see well enough to drive again soon.
