mulitple retinal tears

I am a female, age 55, and have usable vision in the left eye only due to childhood amblyopia which was uncorrected.  I am very nearsignted and have astigmatism in the left eye.  Apparently some "old scarring" was noted on both retinas when I was a young adult, cause unknown,  .As an avid reader, I have often experienced "eye fatigue", but have not really been limited by my visual problems until the last couple of years.  In September 2011, shortly after returning to my work as a itinerant school speech language pathologist following summer vacation, I was diagnosed with multiple retinal tears after experiencing symptoms including a shower of floaters, flashes in the outer periphery of my vision, marked eye fatigue and discomfort in my left eye, and severe eye pain behind my right eye.  The tears were repaired with laser surgery.   Additional tears were detected at a follow up visit several weeks later and repaired.  No further tears were detected at a later follow up visit.  I continued to experience severe eye fatigue and eye pain as above for some time and was only able to return to work on reduced hours after several weeks.  Over several months I was able to resume my normal workload and duties, but noted increased eye fatigue and discomfort when reading, driving and using the computer.  Last week, 2 weeks into the new school year, I began to experience symptoms similiar to a year ago, and was subsequently diagnosed with new retinal tears in my left eye.  I am now experiencing marked eye fatigue, have not yet returned to work, and am wondering about the pattern which seems to be evident with these retinal tears.  Am I putting myself at increased risk in carrying out my normal duties at work?  If so, are there ways to reduce this risk aside from reducing my work hours?  I have been unable to reach my opthamologist to discuss my concerns.  Any information would be much appreciated.

[Houman Vosoghi, MD]

eye fatigue should not result from the lasers.  You need to get a carefull refraction (recheck of your glasses) to make sure you have the corrections you need for all distances (computer, reading, etc).  Other than that, you may want to try placing artificial tears in your eyes as they may be drying out (you are the right age and gender for this one).  Good luck.

HV

[myopicmomof4]

Thanks so much for the clarification re the eye fatigue, and that it is not  a result of the laser treatments.  I am still wondering what possible  connection  there could be between my return to work these past two years and the onset of retinal tears.  I am most concerned that there may be something I am doing that is precipitating these occurances, especially since I do find the work I do so fatiguing to my eyes.  Any thoughts on this matter are most appreciated.