Retinal Detachment Recovery

[nooc]

A week and a half ago on Friday was my girlfriend's traumatic car accident resulting in a "detachment" - I still have not been told exactly what kind of detachment it is (vitreous or retinal) or the severity, if the macula was detached or not.  She believes they did some laser work on her eye when she was brought in.  Is it possible to do some retinal detachment surgery with a laser so soon after the accident?

Without knowing this about Friday's work on her eye, I urged her to go back into the hospital on Monday, which she did.  She says that they did some more laser work, and as they took the patch off, her vision was blurry.  Is it common to do two laser repairs only a few days apart?  Is blurry vision a good thing?

She peeked underneath her eye patch yesterday (Sunday) and said her vision was blurry at best.  

What has been your experience with retinal detachment recovery?  Any opinions on how you think her recovery is coming?

[nooc]

Thank you for your comments and information berrywoo and Dr. Oyakawa.

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

Retinal tears can be treated with laser, not retinal detachments.

Dr. O.

[nooc]

Hello Berry.  It's a unique situation.  I live in Canada, she lives in Alabama.  She was about to move here, but the night before her flight, was the car accident so I wasn't with her when they took her to the hospital.  I am unable to fly to her, and she doesn't want me to see her in her current condition.  Her friends took her to the hospital, but she doesn't want to release too much information to me, for fear of making me worry.  Of course, the less I know, the more worried I am.  My imagination plays with me, and researching such topics on the internet will only make it worse.  I am my own worse enemy, I'm sure.

[berrywoo]

If you went with your gf to the hospital for surgery, than you should have looked over the consent forms with her prior to her signing them. Which would have told you what the surgery was, and what it was being done for. Actually, before any surgery, the nurses and doctors, should ask the patient point blank: Do you know what's being done to you?
Even if you didn't go with your gf, she should by now know what is going on with vision. She needs to take it upon herself to get the necessary information.

Judging by the blurry vision, I'm guessing your gf had retinal detachment surgery. If only laser was done than that would have been a simple in-office procedure. Is she under the care of a vitreoretinal specialist?

She also need better post-op instructions...most doctors allow patients to remove the patch after the first post-op visit (which the next day after surgery) and the patient can leave it off, although some tell you to put the patch back on before you sleep.