30 yr old boyfriend w/ Macular Pucker plus depression

[birdeyes]

Hello there,
   My boyfriend of 30 years old was diagnosed with Macular Pucker about 2 years ago.

Along with it he has symptoms of Floaters and recently has experienced increased Floaters plus the addition of BLURRED VISION.  

He is extremely scared and is depressed.

He is a bird guide and is passionate about birds and the thought of not being able to do what he loves as a profession is just devastating.  He is scared of loosing total vision.  Can anyone please tell me if they know of the best Dr. to see in Houston Texas for his diagnosis. And when is a good time to decide when surgery is necessary.

  And can someone please give me some advice on how to comfort him, he tells me " I don't understand what he is going through", I try to be in his shoes but I guess I cant seem to say the right things to him or even know how to comfort him. Please give me some advice!  
   I'm really sad this is happening to him and to everyone who is suffering from this horrible disease!

    

[JodieJ]

Tell your boyfriend that this is not painful surgery.  I did not even need an ordinary Tylenol.  My surgery was in the late afternoon.  About 90 minutes after leaving the OR, I was having dinner at an Italian restaurant and feeling fine.  Visual recovery is slow and takes about 3 months or longer, but most people gain 2 or more lines on the eye chart after surgery.

There are probably competent local retinal surgeons your boyfriend could see, but I don't know who they are.  I'd advise anybody in Chicago to travel to Memphis for surgery.

There are currently a number of effective antidepressant medications that might help your boyfriend to jump start his emotional recovery.  Counseling might be very helpful, too.

[birdeyes]

J:
Once again, I can't thank you enough for your fast responses and advice.  My boyfriend has dealt with this for about two years and I hope that he can finally see an expert and hopefully have surgery. I will look into Dr. Charles information.
  
   Oh one more: any words of wisdom on how to encourage my boyfriend to keep going and help him out when he gets really depressed?

    Thanks Jodie!

[JodieJ]

It took Dr. Charles less than a minute to identify my problem in my Spectralis OCT image.  I would not describe his personality as being timid.  His website address is www charles-retina com.  It has contact information and some educational material about macular puckers (aka "epimacular membranes").

It's been over 10 months since my surgery with Dr. Charles, and I've experienced about a 50% reduction in the image size disparity between my eyes.  Although it's still possible for me to see (literally) additional improvement, I've been advised that the presence the scar tissue (pucker) in my eyes for 3+ years may have caused some irreversible macular damage.  That's why I advise everyone who is considering surgery to peel a macular pucker to make a decision now.

[birdeyes]

Hey Jodie,
     Egads, Crazy how surgeons think they have solved the problem and neglect to listen to their patients continued problems.

Jzz, glad Dr. Charles had the guts to not just push you off to the sidelines and really looked thoroughly into your problem.  So with the new surgery, how are you doing now....?

   Could you please give me Dr. Charles's information: office number, office address, maybe website info too, please.

    Thank you soooooo much for responding to my concerns for my boyfriend!

[JodieJ]

I was unhappy with the outcome of my 2006 surgery to peel a macular pucker, which was performed by a highly respected local (Chicago) surgeon.  That surgery restored my acuity, but it left me with a larger image size in my affected eye, which caused many problems.  So I consulted three additional local retinal specialists.  They all told me to go home and live with my problems.  On the advice of my general ophthalmologist, I saw Dr. Charles in Memphis last March.  Dr. Charles immediately identified the source of my problems--my first surgeon had left pieces of pucker (scar tissue) in my eye.  He suggested that the Chicago retinal surgeons I'd seen lacked the skills to remove small pieces of scar tissue.  I had successful surgery with Dr. Charles the next day.  I truly wish that I had gone to Memphis for surgery in the first place.  Dr. Charles sees many patients from all parts of the world.

[birdeyes]

Hey Jodie,
   Thanks for the Dr. referal. Do you know that Dr. personally, do you know anyone who has had surgery by him? what was the outcome?

Dr. O:
    How certain is it to have a good outcome from the surgery?

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

Any competent retinal vitreous surgeon can fix this.  Get a referral in your area.

Dr. O.

[JodieJ]

My suggestion is that your boyfriend go to Memphis to see Dr. Steve Charles.  The best time to decide about surgery is within a few months of the onset of symptoms from the pucker.  Early surgery gives you the best chance of a good outcome.

[birdeyes]

ps- I forgot to mention that he has been noticing flashing lights and stars in his vision. When he does computer work, sentence lines don't line up for him.

would anyone know if his constant usage of binoculars (from being a bird guide) aggrevates his condition?