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How long after retinal surgery?

Dave G

Dave G

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How long after retinal pucker surgery before you could return to golf? Did bright sunlight cause any problems?
 
I'm following. I have macular pucker on my left retina and I debate whether to have it removed. Golf would be one of my biggest motivators to have it removed so I'm curious as to how long it takes you to recover and how long it affects your game.
 
My doc said to hold off but notify him if it changed. Today straight lines (telephone poles) are curving left and I can't read the car dash instruments with my right eye. For that matter, I just noticed that i can't read this text with my right eye. He still may still say hold off. We'll see.
 
Dave G said:
My doc said to hold off but notify him if it changed. Today straight lines (telephone poles) are curving left and I can't read the car dash instruments with my right eye. For that matter, I just noticed that i can't read this text with my right eye. He still may still say hold off. We'll see.
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How long have you had it. Just to be clear, you haven't had surgery yet, right. You're talking about the pre-surgery vision now.
 
No surgery yet.
First noticed it first week of May. Went to VA clinic and they diagnosed it and they sent me to a specialist. Specialist confirmed it and now I'm working with him. They just called and I have to wait until mid August.
 
Ok, so you're early in. I had mine diagnosed in Feb 2015. Doctor said he could remove it. My vision might get better, it might get worse (slight chance of going blind in that eye if they really botch the procedure), and it might not change at all. Basically, the gamut of possibilities. I'm holding off because I don't like people messing with my eyes as a general rule. Yeah, my vision sucks, but it's livable. If I look at an eye chart with just my left eye, the entire upper left quadrant is a blur. I have to look up and left to see those letters.
 
With my right eye everything is a blur and I can't read with it. I'm (or maybe I should say was) right eye dominant so I'm not sure how that's going to affect things.

As far as golfing with it I'm finding that I can't track my drives or longer fairway shots as well anymore and I can't tell the difference between a flower/leaf and a golf ball until I'm within 10' so I'm losing more balls.

So far it seems that my putting has not been affected.
 
Dave G said:
With my right eye everything is a blur and I can't read with it. I'm (or maybe I should say was) right eye dominant so I'm not sure how that's going to affect things.

As far as golfing with it I'm finding that I can't track my drives or longer fairway shots as well anymore and I can't tell the difference between a flower/leaf and a golf ball until I'm within 10' so I'm losing more balls.

So far it seems that my putting has not been affected.
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Maybe it's because I get so much practice looking for my ball in the rough, but I find that I can still find it as long as I see the line and flight characteristics (draw/hook/pull or fade/slice/push). I normally can tell about how far it went just by judging the solidity of impact.

I feel like, if anything stands out more than everything else, my putting has been affected more. The line is "blurry" for lack of a better word. I really just have to take a stab at it. The more I play a course, the better I get at it, obviously, but I'm all over a new course's greens.
 
Figured I'll use this thread to blog my experience. I'm noticing that drives beyond 200 yds are beyond the limits of my vision. Today I noticed that I can not plumb-bob my putter using my right eye. The shaft bends left and everything is blurry. My left eye can still determine slope and I'm not suffering stroke wise.
 
Today I'm starting to have problems reading my smartphone when using both eyes. It also seems that putting is getting worse (lining up). At least my Dr. Appt is tomorrow.
 
Affected eye tested out at 20/80 making it legally blind. OH GREAT. I scheduled surgery. (Sorry but I'm not in the best of frame of mind just now - I'm also a Cancer surviver so I'm a bit twitchy just now).
 
20/80 is legally blind? My left is at 20/200, I think.
 
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OGputtnfool said:
20/80 is legally bline? My left is at 20/200, I think.
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The Dr said I'd loose my drivers license if my left eye was at the same point as my right.
 
Dave G said:
The Dr said I'd loose my drivers license if my left eye was at the same point as my right.
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I believe that. If my right was as bad as my left, I'd be useless.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 
Well, one thing with this in conjunction with golf is that I'm having issues with depth perception and or hand eye coordination. I'm hitting all of My irons fat. The other problem is loosing balls. Today I played solo and I lost 3 balls that were all fairway shots. About 125 yds out is my visual limit.

On the bright side, my putting is not suffering. I got 4-7 footers today and 5 2 putts. One of the two was from 15 yds out that stopped 2 feet from the hole.
 
Surgery was yesterday. The staff at the hospital was outstanding! I was on the table for just over an hour and I was out the door in about 4 hrs. They start off with light anastesia so they can use a local on the eye. Then you're awake throughout the procedure. My eyelids were held in place so my fear of unintended movement was relieved.
Of the entire process, the most painful part is starting the IV (so no pain). I left with a patch which is annoying but no worse.
I was told I might have eye cramping or other problems but thankfully had no pain or cramping throughout the night.

This morning I woke up noticing what I can only describe as a high water level line - kind of like a bubble level. I already had a post opp follow up exam scheduled so I figured I'd just wait. By the time I got to the office the level was down almost halfway. (I had thoughts that the incision was leaking the viterous fluid and was getting a little concerned). Thankfully the Dr. told me that it was normal and actually the goal (whew).
So at this point I have blurred vision above the bubble and light and color (no shape) below. Ive been cleared for driving (car) but only have purifery view to the extent of that provided by my left eye.

No activity for a week but I did get the Dr to ok putting ;-)
 
Update: DO NOT bend over. Squat so that your head remains in a upright position. Otherwise it raises the liquid level line - which is opposite of what you want.
 
The first two days following surgery the eye was 80-90% filled with a bubble. The upper 10-20% was all blurry to the point where no object was discernable.
Each day following, the bubble is receding and the vision in the non bubble area is improving.

I'm now at the end of day 6 and the bubble occupies maybe 5% of the bottom of the right eye. Vision in the rest of the right eye varies. In my case if you divide the field of view into 4 quadrents, the left bottom quadrant has a shape in it that's fuzzy. This might just be the cateract? The other 3 quadrants have normal vision that is comparable in clarity and focus to my left eye. The large floaters are gone but I think one small one still remains. Also, the affected eye still has discomfort at the lower right side of the eye which is occurring when changing focus from distance to reading. (No discomfort when changing focus from reading to distance).
 
It's 8 days since my surgery and I went for my second follow up exam today. I'm now able to read all but two characters on the 20/20 chart. The Dr was very surprised and excited to see the progress in my recovery. I still have some blurred vision in the left lower quadrant of the right eye but it's not too bad and it is improving every day. No more discomfort/pain when changing focus. I have two more follow up exams, one in 3 weeks and one a month following that. So I'll give two more reports and then end the thread.

Overall my vision is better than before the surgery so, to me, this was definitely the right choice.

One more week of eye drops and I'm done. He lifted my activity restrictions so I'm setting up a tee time for tomorrow. Two weeks of no golf... I wonder how my game will be?
Oh well, WOO-HOO I can see again!!!
 
Shortly after that last update my eyes changed again. As expected, the cataracts accelerated. Two days ago I went for my first appointment for them. I also have astigmatism so I'm opting for the lazer surgery and special lenses that are supposed to correct the astigmatism.
I have other events that preclude a quick resolution to this so hopefully this will all be completed and behind me by late January.
 
First cataract surgery was completed about 3 weeks ago. I had something that caused my eye pressure to increase to 63. Problem with that is that as eye pressure increases it restricts blood flow relative to your blood pressure. No oxygen and things start to die. Thankfully I'm 3 weeks out and my right eye (the one with the retnal pucker is back to 20/25. Monday I go in for cateract surgery for the left eye. It seems to me to have been a long process. Longer than what I went through with my cancer.
Would I do it again given the knowns, YES! But what a long process with unexpected / unexplained results.
 
About 10 days after the final cateract surgery in my left eye something happened to my right eye - all of a sudden I had a blur in the center. Talked to the cateract surgeon and he referred me back to the retinal specialist. After the exam he told me that I had a inflammation on the retina. He gave me two new meds (drops).

Well, about a month later (this past Sunday) it finally cleared up. I'm still on the meds for two more weeks and then it's back for another exam. The good news is that I now have 20/20 in both eyes. Whew, what a long process, almost a year!
 
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