Retinal Membrane - Steroid Drops Success?

A little background - a new ophthalmologist discovered my retinal membrane issue back in 2007 during a bad a bad retinal bleeding breakout during my last pregnancy. She had me try 1 month of steroid drops at the time to see if the membrane and associated swelling would shrink, but it did not work. As the membrane was not affecting my vision at the time, we took a wait and see approach.


Fast forward to 2010, and my eye appointment today did not go well. The membrane/swelling is now definitely affecting my vision - I am down to 20/50 in my right eye from 20/25 two months ago and I did horrible on a central vision test they gave me. They told me to try steroid drops again for a month and if that doesn't work we will schedule surgery.

Has anybody here had a similar situation and had the steroids work? I want to avoid surgery if at all possible - I have had many, many laser treatments on both eyes and I want to avoid anything more invasive. Looks like vitrectomy is the common course of action in a case like this, and I just dread it (along with the fact that most say vitrectomy has a recovery period where driving is a bad idea, and I am a military wife with two small kids who has to be able to drive - no family around to help!)

If the info helps, I have had Type 1 for 19 years now, and started having retinopathy issuses four years ago.

Any advice or words of wisdom would be much appreciated!