Traumatic Eye Injuries

[Johnoc]

I was recently the victim of an assult by a gang of youths which resulted in major damage to my left eye. Injuries included: orbital floor fracture, orbital haemorrhage, lower lid laceration, traumatic hyphaema, traumatic ptosis, traumatic mydriasis and cataract. It has been 3.5 weeks since the incident and I still have blurry vision in my eye. I have been to specialist eye doctors at an eye hospital who were happy with how the eye was healing but said I must be patient with the healing process. At this early stage the vision recovery is still uncertain. They have said to give it at least 6 weeks and I have booked several follow up appointments. I was told not to do any physical activity for 6 weeks, however, being very interested in keeping my fitness and most of all my well being up, I was hoping to do some low impact exercise. My thoughts were to just use the exercise bike in the gym until the 6 weeks were up. Would there be any issues with this activity considering I wouldn't have done anything for 4 weeks? I am being patient and will give my eye the best chance of recovery. I understand the healing of these symptoms can take a significant time, including traumatic mydriasis which I've read may not recover but sometimes can take 6 months. Any help on how to best look after myself in the healing process is much appreciated.

[JohnHaganMD]

Johnnoc has not made any postings since 2009 its not likely that he/she will respond to your request for information

JCH MD

[Aura_Afifah]

Hi John, how are your vision now? Is it getting better since it has been years?

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

Discuss this with your doctor.  However, I would refrain from exercise.  You had a hyphema--a broken blood vessel in the eye.  This may take some time to completely heal.

Dr.O.

[Johnoc]

In addition to my questions above, will the application of an ice pack speed my recovery or hinder it in any way? The application of ice packs to soft tissue sports injuries is recommended to help recovery, but do the same principles apply to the eye? Obviously I do not want to do any further damage.