retinal buckel surgery

on June 20th I had a cataract surgery and also a wrinkled retina repaired. A few weeks later same eye, I had a hole in the macula and had a gas bubble put in to repair that. A couple weeks later, same eye I then had a detached retina and had to have the buckle surgery. The gas bubble is now gone, but I am still unable to read anything unless it's very large print and then it's even blurry. This last buckle surgery was August 7th, so it's been 5 1/2 weeks now. The gas bubble finally disappeared on Sept 2nd. Is it possible that it's not going to get any better? Is it possible the band around the eye is too tight changing my vision?

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear beartooth,

You had many surgeries on your eye.  Buckles can change the change of one’s eye and change the prescription; although it is entirely possible that you also may have some damage from the retinal conditions that you have.  I would recommend that you ask your eye doctor when you can expect some visual improvement, the time course and when to best determine the prescription for glasses as your eye may have changed.  It is best to ask your eyeMD who knows your eye.

Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California

[berrywoo]

It takes time for the eye to heal. Usually with any sort of damage to the macula vision is  not going to return to normal. The buckle is not "too tight" it just causes a myopic shift which your surgeon should have discussed w/ you prior to surgery.
I along w/ others here on the eyecare forums have posted much on this topic. Please search the archives.
Best of luck.