r/RetinalDetachment

How long do your doctors have you on the post-op eye drops? I’m curious about specifics….which ones, how many times per day, and for how long? It seems to vary from doctor to doctor.

Was anyone greenlit to wear contacts while still on some drops? I’m very nearsighted and rely on contacts while at work.

Hey all, I (30F) am scheduled to have scleral buckle surgery + cryotherapy to fix my RD (macula on) and a few other tears in the same eye in a couple days, and I have been having pretty bad anxiety about the whole thing and would love to hear anyone’s positive experiences to maybe calm my nerves a bit. Most of the posts about the procedure and recovery and life after the fact are overwhelmingly negative, because of course people would rather post their bad experiences and are looking for advice, I get it. But I could really just use some reassurance that its not as scary and awful as its made out to be. Give me what you got- experiences during the procedure, recovery, vision after the fact (i am high myopic already and i am very aware that my prescription will change, but have y’all dealt with any other distortions??), how soon you could drive, wear contacts, etc??

I’m sure I could find this if I dig deep enough in this subreddit, but I would love to have everything in one post to calm my mind now and in the future lol.

Thanks in advance!

Hi, my left retina tore on Halloween 2025 surgery the first week of November 2025 then it retore Christmas Eve second surgery 12/31/26 it’s been doing great since. They see lattice? In the right eye and just want to laser it end of the month 5/2026 has anyone had this done to prevent a tear? What can i expect I’m terrified it will mess up my vision and I’ll not be able to see. Just looking for any success stories thanks!

Hello please people who had flashes how they look like?Sometimes I feel like I see them but I’m not sure if it’s just the light source cause I don’t see the flash of camera juste like a rapid change of light .I have high myopia and just went to thé ophtalmologist a month ago and said retina is okay

Hi everyone. I’m 24. I had a detachment in my left eye in september which was treated with a scleral buckle and cryotherapy. Recovery was rough but the eye is stable back to 20/20 and i’ve lived a pretty good life since doing all I did before and more. In february I had my right eye lasered in some areas of lattice, and i really thought that would be it. Well today I went to the ER because I was having unusual flashes, and they discovered a tear on my right eye and some new holes that developed since february. I got them lasered immediately and will be having another follow up in a week. The doctor said if my surgeon isn’t satisfied he might laser some more or we’ll have to do another buckle. I will of course do whatever my surgeon thinks is best, and I’ve had a good outcome on the buckle once already, but I am just feeling so hopeless. I really thought I was on the tail end of all this and now i might need more procedure and more uncertainty. I have a trip out of the country planned in two weeks that would have to be cancelled if i need another surgery, which I know is a small consequence in the grand scheme of things but it just sucks. I feel like I am too young to be having these issues and I worry about what my future will look like.

Hello friends, hope you're all well.

I had a retinal detachment on the 23rd of April. 24th I was in surgery for a gas bubble. I followed the recovery request to the dot and on the 7th of this month, yet another detachment happened. On the 8th I went in for a silicon oil surgery.

So far so good, doctors appointment tomorrow to confirm again if its still attached. But honestly, since it detached again already I feel like I've lost trust in this process. And after reading quite a lot of other posts, it's quite a downer. Super sorry for those that had it happen to them 3 or even 4 times. I just feel like even if it stays attached until the oil gets removed, I'll need a lot to trust it.

Which brings me to the subject. I picked up running a little over a year ago. And I took it extremely seriously. I had me a coach, and never skipped or rescheduled a single session in that one year period. It's because I love it, and I prioritized it over absolutely anything in my life. And since my SO was onboard, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. I increased my mileage and got to above average levels. It was just the best thing to happen to me. I know I won't run anytime soon, but my doctor strongly believes that within the next few weeks (or maybe I misunderstood, but will clarify tomorrow), I should be able to do "light jogging" sessions.

Has anyone restarted running after RD? Any tips? Things that I need to consider? Am I ever gonna be able to run again?

Hello,

Back on Dec 2025 I had cataract surgery on my left eye and then January 2026 I had cataract surgery on my right eye. March 7th 2026 I ended up having laser surgery to repair a tear to my retina in my right eye. Unfortunately that didn’t do the trick and I ended up with a partial retinal detachment and had a gas bubble vitrectomy for that on March 17th.

Around the beginning of April I noticed my peripheral vision seemed more distorted and I was experiencing floaters and my night vision seemed really poor in my right eye. I had follow up appointments with my retina doctor on April 7th and April 14th and both times the doctor said my retina was still attached and looked good.

By the end of the month it definitely felt like it was getting worse (I could tell I was missing more peripheral vision) so at a follow up appointment with my cataract doctor on April 28th I asked and he also thought my retina looked fine.

I was starting to feel like I was losing my mind as it still felt like it was getting worse, so on May 1st my retina doctor squeezed me in for another appointment and… I had another partial retinal detachment. That’s where I learned this second detachment was due to scar tissue because I have Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy (PVR).

On May 1st I had another vitrectomy, this time with the silicon oil bubble. The doctor was pretty honest that each subsequent surgery will have less of a chance of succeeding. If this surgery doesn’t work he’ll try the buckle. If that doesn’t work we may be running out of options.

I will be receiving Methotrexate injections to see if it helps with the PVR, but knowing I have PVR scares me a lot.

Can anyone else share their experiences with retinal detachment and PVR? Were you able to save your vision? Or is this a losing battle?

A week or so ago I (59 yrs F) noticed what I now know are floaters in my right eye. There was no trigger that I can recall, except maybe driving over a big pothole.Now I keep thinking I’m seeing a bug out of the corner of my eye. I looked it up and started reading about light flashes, retinal tear, detachment, loss of vision, etc.
In the past couple of days light flashes come at times in my far right eye. I’m starting to feel the eye is sensitive and feel pressure in it, but I also read all about those symptoms when I googled it, so maybe I’m being paranoid. Unfortunately I’m an avoider so I waited until today (Friday afternoon) to call the ophthalmologist.

The ophthalmologist said go to an ER or urgent care immediately. My problem is I have terrible insurance and am living on a meager retirement income. I have a huge dislike of ERs because they charge so much to waste your time and tell you what you could have figured out anyway.

Am I safe to just stay out at home as much as possible til Monday morning? Should I cover my eye, lie down, stay in the dark until Monday? Is there a best position to stay in as long as possible?

Hi there!

I was diagnosed with a retinoschisis 5 months ago and the doctors told me that it just needs to be monitored twice a year. However, a doctor told me that I should go to the retina specialist where they have the OCT devices which can capture more than the standard optic nerve OCTs I've been getting twice a year.

Then, on 25/2 it turned out to be an old detachment which progressed very slowly and was caused by round holes in the retina. Apparently, I had them for a long time but my doctor never saw them...

The retina specialists wanted to wait for 1-2 months to see if a demarcation line develops, which is basically a barrier built by the body and indicates a stability/old detachment.

It actually never progressed but I noticed more flickering in my peripheral vision - I always thought that it's visual snow syndrome.. as soon as I talked about my symptoms, they scheduled a surgery, which was on 5/5.

Surgery went well and the subretinal fluid is draining slowly. There's still some fluid under the retina but they're just waiting till the body "absorbs" the fluid. I still have the symptoms I used to have before surgery but the light wave I saw 5-6 times per day is almost completely gone.

The buckle obviously increased my nearsightedness, and due to the fact it's my only functioning eye with -7 before surgery and almost -10 prescription after surgery, I'm very worried about my situation.

I really want to know if we can use lubricating eye drops 1.5 weeks after buckle surgery as it feels like there's sand in my eye.

Thanks in advance :)

44 yo female. I started out with a laser retinal tear repair at the end of December to prepare for cataract surgery. The specialist commented the retina already had liquid behind it and I had been living on borrowed time already. Contact lens was -10.5 prior (the other eye was -12 and has had relatively few problems, weirdly). Cataract surgery was on 3/3/26. Retinal detachment happened on 3/11, surgery on 3/13- laser repair, vitrectomy, scleral buckle, and something about how they had to inject liquid in the front to keep the front of my eye from collapsing. I had the C3F8 gas, which is still there- I cannot WAIT for it to go away. Why is it taking SO LONG?!

I’m afraid the scleral buckle has completely changed the prescription so the lens I just had implanted is now the wrong strength because my vision is still so blurry. But… my pupil is stuck dilated because my iris has scar tissue that has adhered to my new lens. This probably accounts for some of the blurriness. The dr is saying I will have to have another surgery to detach my iris from the lens. What are the chances my insurance would cover switching out that lens during the other surgery? Has anyone else faced this, and how was the recovery? I am so afraid of this causing another detachment.

I’m spiraling, scared shitless and I just need advice from people who’ve had tears, or detachment of any kind. I’m 100% convinced it’s PVD. For some context, I’m 19 and ive had floaters and flashes for many years now. I’m myopic with -4.75R and -3.50L. The flashes developed I think around 2 years ago but I didn’t think anything of it. I’m also a HUGE hypochondriac, and have been to more than 10+ eye appointments in just 2026. I’ve gotten checked about a month and a half ago I think or 2 months? I basically developed VSS or visual snow syndrome and basically had to run a bazillion tests. They said they scanned my eyes and that they were completely okay and that I just have lattice degen and that the vitreous inside my eyes were tugging due to my myopia but nothing concerning. For the past couple of days, I feel like the flashes got more prominent, but I can’t tell honestly due to my anxiety or hypervigilance or smth. I’ve had flashes when I blink or when I turn my eyes around but they just feel more idk. I’ve basicallt ran out of money and cant go to any more appointments any time soon and I’m scared of blindness. Ended up googling and spiraling and it said if you have a curtain coming down or a shower of floaters or smth it’s an emergency, but I never see my floaters anymore cuz I’m so used to them that I like rarely see any, and I have yet to see a curtain. Can anxiety amplify these visual disturbances? Is it just PVD progressing? I’m so scared they missed something.

I have my scleral buckle removal surgery booked for 01Jun26

Please can you give me some good stories of removals? I’ve only had it in 5 months but I have had pain and worse vision than before surgery every single day. I had not lost my vision to begin with, I just had a few flashes of light every so often. After surgery everything is objectively worse.

I regret having surgery in the first place every single day but I want to move on with my life.

I’m torn whether to postpone my surgery or keep this date. Dr. Says the retinal tear is healed and that some people’s eyes just don’t like the shape of the buckle.

I had a Mac off retinal detachment in my left eye and keep checking my right eye. It’s tearing (no pun intended) on my mental health and I feel like I’m running to the doctor constantly if there’s a slight change. I can’t stand this!

hello! about 2 weeks ago ive gotten a vitrectomy, is it normal for my eye to still be swollen and red? also ive been getting constant headaches that make it impossible to relax sometimes. and its only on my upper right side of my eye (i got the procedure done on my right eye) also ive noticed my vision worsening. i now have astigmatism only on my right eye and im afraid im developing cataracts. i know after a vitrectomy there is a risk of cataracts but is chronic headaches and astigmatism also a side effect?

UPDATE ON MAY 12 2026:

ok so i checked with my doctor and he said the headaches are probably because of my glasses! the prescription of my right eye has changed and the more i use my glasses the more strain its putting on it, thankfully its nothing serious

Last week I went in for a routine eye exam, my previous was 2-3 years ago. The optometrist saw the detachment and referred me to a specialist that confirmed.

She was very surprised when I told her I don't have any of the symptoms. I'm not sure if this is a blessing or a curse because she says it looks like I've had it for awhile and I have 2 lines of scar tissue.

I am seeing her again next week to do a peripheral test and then we will discuss my options further.

The laser sounds like the ideal surgery to do but from my understanding it is not recommended for large detachments and when there is scar tissue.

If anyone has some insight or advice I'd really appreciate it.