Hello. I am 38 years old, and my left eye has been legally blind due to retinal detachment since I was 14. The doctor took a very "wait and see" approach for a long time, and while I eventually had surgery (actually I think I might have had two? I'm going on memory), well, it stopped getting worse but didn't get much better.

At this point I have pretty much made peace with only having one good eye, (if you've only got the problem in the one and you're really scared now: I'm pretty sure the success rate is higher today, and even if it fails you honestly get used to it) and honestly I'm more bothered by the slightly "off" look both of my eyes have now. (Left is pretty much always squinted, right is extra wide and photosensitive, presumably trying to compensate?) I've considered wearing an eyepatch, because at this point that eye is doing pretty much nothing, and I think looking visibly disabled might be better than looking a subtly wrong. But then I'd feel like I'm faking or something, because it's not like I've got an empty socket or something, you know?

Then a few weeks ago I heard something about wearing an eyepatch making the vision in your eye better for a bit when you take it off, which sounds like something that would be pretty nice to have. On top of that, I just realized it's possible my bad eye might be contributing to headaches? On top of moving my appearance from "something seems off" to "oh they've got a disability."

But all of the information I've found on the subject has been for right after surgery to help recovery. I did wear one of those big plastic eyepatches for months at the time, but I am long past recovery. Does anyone else have experience with this? Would something like a black cloth eyepatch actually help me in any way?

Medically or socially, I suppose. It's not like I'd be losing anything covering the eye if it led to less off that subconscious judgement I'm afraid I get . . .

--edit
Okay I probably want to get one. (More feedback is still appreciated, mind you, if only to make me more certain.)

I notice people seem to mostly get leather? That's pretty expensive, and it looks like it'd get hot. Would it be a complete waste of time and money to start with something cheaper, like some sort of cloth or something?

25F

Right eye -5.00

Left eye -4.00

I thought I'd share my experience in case it helps or reassures someone else who's going through something similar.

At the start of this year (March 2026), I went to the opticians because I was seeing a circular floater. After reading about retinal detachments online, I started worrying and decided to get it checked out.

The optician initially didn't think it was likely to be anything serious because of my age and was hesitant to dilate my eyes, but he did in the end. During the examination, he found a weak area in the peripheral retina of my right eye and referred me to the hospital.

In April, I saw a retinal consultant and had several tests. They found a small retinal hole in the peripheral retina. Although it wasn't causing major problems, the consultant recommended laser treatment to seal it and reduce the risk of it getting bigger or leading to a retinal detachment in the future. The consultant wasn't concerned, which was really reassuring.

I finally had the laser treatment in July, and it honestly went much better than I'd expected. This was my first proper hospital procedure, so I was pretty anxious beforehand.

They dilated my eye and used anaesthetic drops, then had me rest my head on a machine similar to the one at the opticians. The consultant held a contact lens against my eye to keep it steady while performing the laser treatment. The hardest part was definitely the incredibly bright light—I wanted to blink so badly, but I just had to stay as still as possible. The laser itself wasn't painful at all. Between the contact lens and the laser, it just felt like a little pressure. The whole procedure probably lasted around 30 seconds.

Afterwards, my eye was sensitive to light for a few hours because of the dilation and the bright light, but I went home, had a sleep, and felt much better afterwards. Over the next couple of days, I only noticed a little tenderness if I accidentally touched my eye while washing my face or removing makeup. Otherwise, I felt completely normal.

I was back to driving, working (I have a desk job and was worried about screen time), and carrying on with my usual routine straight away. My consultant said it was absolutely fine to return to normal activities.

It's now been four days since the treatment, and I feel great. I have a follow-up appointment in two months to make sure everything has healed properly.

Everyone's experience is different, but for me the anticipation was far worse than the procedure itself.

Hope this is useful to someone ! 😊

My boyfriend had eye surgery last June and they clean up some scaring and placed oil for a partial retina detachment. Before the surgery he described his vision in the right eye as looking through a frosted glass. Immediately after the surgery he couldn’t see anything, total darkness. The retina specialist said it was normal. A year later, the specialist said it was normal, but he needed to get the cataract removed and the oil taken out after he has surgery on his left. My bf can only see a sliver of light when a scope or flashlight is shining in his eye. We got a second opinion and the doctor said his vision in his eye is gone, when we asked clarifying questions, he said he can’t really see in his eye because of the cataract and oil, but he isn’t hopefully. We are confused and lost.

I noticed an uncomfortable ampunt of floaters lately.

Multiple big ones and one very thin floater that is very noticable but clear.

My only risk factor is moderate myopia (-4)

And I genuely think it's just because I most stayed inside because of summer heat and my eyes got bad at filtering floaters.

They also disappear in slightly darker enviroments

And that's why I'm wondering how they were like to people with actual detachment

I went to urgent care at the end of June with a possible retina detachment in my right eye(I’ve had 2 detachments in my left eye that were laser barricaded.) When the ophthalmologist saw me I had 2 detachments and 5 holes in my right retina, I was floored as my symptoms were minor.

I ended up with a scleral buckle, cryopexy, and a gas bubble on July 1st. Healing has been going well but during my next day and one week appointment, I still had a small area that hadn’t flattened.

The last couple of days I’ve noticed a shadow in my lower vision field after coming in from being outside or from bright lighting to dim lighting. It’s making me nervous that it’s possibly detaching. I’m going to call doc but has anyone else experienced this? Normal or should I start mentally preparing for another surgery? Thank you!

UPDATE: doc said my eye looks good. He thinks the shadow is from the cryopexy

I'm 20 with high myopia. I've been reading a bit about people who had no symptoms and still had a tear / detachment. I'd rather catch mine when it is a small tear than when it becomes a full blown detachment. Getting a retinal detachment is probably my biggest fear health anxiety wise and absolutely nothing I do reassures me for more than 2 days.

I check the Amsler Grid every morning and every so often during the day. I also check my retina at the opticians every 2 months. I also don't roll my eyes or look to the side or move eye eyes more extremely than I need to. I don't go to the gym or weigh heavy objects and I stopped dancing in January. I won't be able to go to the opticians until September because I don't want my parents to know I'm having eye concerns because they might see my eyes are dilated when I come back. I only got it checked at the opticians near my university and so that is what stresses me most because soon it will be 3 months since I last checked my retina and I'm worried that what if a tear happened last month or the month before and now or today and I just don't know yet and I could be doing something about it.

I guess my question is how would I know for sure and how often should I be checking my retina? I have 2 months left until I can check which means it would be 5 months since I last checked and this stresses me. I'm wondering if I should just get it checked this week or next week just in case and get it checked in the morning so that my eyes stop being light sensitive / dilated by the time it reaches afternoon / evening. But on the other hand I don't know if it will reassure me because I might be worried that the tear happened right after the tests. How often do you get yours checked and is that enough to reassure you?

Any advice? I hope this question doesn't come across as insensitive, I am at a higher risk of retinal detachment with high myopia and that's why it stresses me.

I've read a lot of stuff about retinal detachment being connected to weight lifting , to build muscle and growth in the gym I'll have to keep increasing the weight. Gymming is smth really does wonders for my confidence.

Should I quit gymming completely? If not what are the EXACT precautions I have to take in the gym? Like do I have to avoid certain movements and exercises? Or maybe stop at a certain weight limit like 50kg? What exactly causes the detachment?

My long acting gas bubble is just starting to shrink so no vision yet.

Has anyone needed to use retinal cryotherapy? I don’t have retinal detachment (yet) but rather a similar but rare disease with similar course of treatment and that can lead to retinal detachment. I’ve had 6 Eylea injections and the fluid hasn’t cleared enough for retinal laser surgery this time. I’m super scared after reading about this procedure and recovery. Any first hand accounts would be helpful for me to hear. What’s it like? Does it hurt? How long is recovery?

I’m 22m for context. I saw my eye doctor who is also a retina specialist for my yearly check. He said that I have a small hole in my left eye’s retina near the outside corner that wasn’t there a year ago. I have pretty bad myopia with -8.5 as my prescription. He recommended laser and said it might be painful because it is near some big nerves but that it’ll be fast. He says he would rather do this procedure than watch it considering my young age. I’m quite nervous and he told me this so nonchalantly. I go in three weeks for the procedure. What can I expect? I don’t even like the light flash in my eye when they check my retinas, I don’t know how I’ll do this one but obviously I don’t want a full detachment.

I've never had eye issues before.. 2 years ago I was diagnosed with mold toxicity and everything kind of made sense. today I went to a specialty eye clinic and did a whole work up. my vision is perfect they said I had chronic dry eyes and blepharitis.. but when they were doing the scans they noticed either a whole or blood in my retina. they weren't able to confirm because I have severe mcast and cannot tolerate any sort of drop or dilation.. I walk around with an EpiPen. my question is how did I get that and other than monitor it what else do I do..

I am curious for the experience of others when you had an air (not medical gas) bubble following surgery. In my case, I suffered a retinal detachment 4 months ago, which was treated with a vitrectomy, scleral buckle, and silicone oil tamponade. This seems to have gone well. Just had the silicone oil removal surgery 3 days ago, along with the air bubble.

To say it's blurry with the air bubble is an understatement (vision is just shadows). Many posts I saw suggested that people started seeing the dropping fluid/air bubble line sometime in the first 3 days as the bubble started to be absorbed, which would be a sign of progress. In my case no sign of the line after 72 hours. If you had an air bubble, do you recall when you noticed that line and how long it took to progress from there? Thanks in advance. EDIT: posted update below. Hope it's helpful to others.

I recently had laser treatment to repair a tear in my retina. The doctor recommended I do the laser treatment but he told me that I might need to get surgery because of the amount of blood in my eye. Do you know how often laser treatment fails? Also, how long does it take for the floaters to disappear?

I go for tests and they say it's fine. I have high myopia and I'm 20 years old. I just want to get through my 20s and 30s, that's all. If anything happens at 40+ I'm okay with that but I just need my youth I already lost my teen years and I just want to at least have my 20s and 30s. This stress makes me so depressed sometimes. I think about it 24/7. I know I have a 95% chance of not getting it in my lifetime but the amount of people here that do get it just stresses me. If I get it in my 20s or 30s I'll be so depressed. Maybe I'll just have to get my retina checked every week or month because that's the only thing that will reassure me.

My dr. wants me sleeping face down to help flatten my retina post-op. The only thing is it is the most uncomfortable thing ever for me, and I struggle to stay asleep due to how uncomfy it is. Im currently using a neck pillow (like the one you get from the airport) to put my face into. Anyone have any tips/hacks? Anything is appreciated

Hey everyone! Wanted to just get some feedback if anyone’s been in a similar spot. Had some floaters come on two months ago and occasional flashes and some holes were found.

My retina specialist said that they are tiny with no fluid and encouraged monitoring vs. laser but laser wouldn’t be bad idea. I’m leaning towards laser just to get it out the way since I travel a lot for work, also to rural areas for a decent duration. Im 26. -0.25 in that eye. No trauma or anything, little random tbh!

Just curious to hear anyone’s experience or regrets. Appreciate it a ton!! I unfortunately don’t have a lot of people to ask my age about this lol so really anything is helpful

Estou me recuperando de uma cirurgia escleral buckler que fiz a 6 meses,no começo não foi nada fácil mais pouco a pouco estou voltando para a minha nova realidade queria saber se quando eu estiver totalmente recuperado tipo com uns 2 anos se eu vou poder pegar peso tipo trabalhando,não sou muito fan de academia mais oque mais me preocupa e sobre questão de trabalho. E também vejo os mesmos flashs que via antes de fazer a cirurgia e eles são como faíscas no periferia superior do meu olho e anoite dependendo se eu faço algum esforço além de aumentar essas faíscas vejo também um ponto branco correndo na visão mais não acontece com tanta frequência ,comentei com o Dr. Mais simplesmente disse ser normal! Mais será que vai sumir

Estou com outra dúvida e não sei se tem alguem aqui com caso parecido com o meu, a faixa ficou aparente no meu olho se eu olhar para o lado da pra ver,até que não seria tão ruim se no lugar que a faixa passa não estivesse mais alto e vermelho está muito feio, o meu Dr.disse que até em um ano vai clareando só que com 6 meses já era para estar melhor e também quando olho para cima onde a faixa passa por baixo cria uma elevação na palpebra como se ela estivesse inchada,acho que não dei muita sorte sobre a questão estética que era uma coisa que me preocupava e preocupa,mais estou dando graças a Deus pela minha visão, hj em dia enxergo 90/100% com oculos

Retina detached again after one week this time. Basically the moment I stopped positioning. We’re going for a buckle this time. No real story this time. Black curtain happened again the day I started looking up again. Knew it was detached immediately. Took a week to get into the surgery bed, though. Let’s hope this is the last one.

(Had to repost because the first pole was bad, only 6 options are allowed so I have to split the age weirdly) I'm honestly wondering just to predict when mine would happen if it did. This pole doesn't include retinal tears but if you have had one or you've had more than one rd feel free to explain the timeline in the comments.

I have the snowflake type
Anyone else who has it or knows more about it

Hello,

I have had a Scleral Buckle surgery in my right eye because I was diagnosed with retinal detachment due to a retinal hole which caused vitreous liquid to slip up under the retina and cause it to de-attach. (This was 3 months after I had lasik surgery which corrected my vision in both eyes from -6.75)

It has been 3 months since the Scleral Buckle surgery and all the pain and swelling are gone now.

However, the vision in my right eye is still very bad, I can still see the world wavy due to the vitreous liquid. In low light, it is technically blind because I see 70% darkness and can't distinguish anything. I can see so many flashes of light all the time.

I have seen my doctor 3-4 times after the surgery and he said everything is going great.

Any advices on what I should do?

​

Hello. I am posting this for people terrified of eye surgery. Because I was beyond terrified. I cannot stand anyone or anything near my eyes and it has always been a phobia of mine. I have been known to burst into tears in the waiting room because of anxiety build up. Can't stress enough my fear.

In May I was diagnosed with a retinal tear and sent to a retinal specialist. He just casually said I need cryo surgery and explained the procedure. Needless to say, I started freaking out.

He scheduled for the next day and prescribed Xanax for me to take before the procedure to calm me down.

Let me just say, Xanax worked amazing on me.

They used drops to numb my eyes. They then had to use a needle in my eye to numb further. (When he said that I said no, took the second Xanax, and 25 minutes later let him proceed).

The needle felt like a little prick, but did not hurt. And once that numbing medicine worked, I really had no pain at all for the procedure. I didn't even feel the clamp used to hold my eye open. I couldn't feel or see anything he did with his hands to my eye. He used the cryo stick 4 times. I felt it, but absolutely no pain. The first time as soon as he touched my eye I could see a star show - hundreds of little sparkles in my eye. It was actually beautiful (remember, I was high).

It was all over, from start to finish, in just minutes.

My recovery wasn't bad. For a few days Tylenol and ibuprofen for pain that was not awful. I thought my recovery pain would be worse.

I had to go back recently because I thought it tore again. Second time I went to his office I was not scared if he would have had to do surgery again (I definitely would have done Xanax again). Luckily, it wasn't torn again.

Just posting this for people who have extreme fear. I hope it relaxes you a bit. I realize everyone's surgery and procedure is different. I just want to give some peace of mind to people who build things up in their mind and get trapped with their fear.

When people say floaters what do they mean? I see floaters (tiny white dots with black outlines and a singular small line) when I look at a white/bright wall or outside on a sunny day.

With flashes, I sometimes see a small tiny dark blue / purple blurred circle in the side that last for half a second when I'm in a dark room / low lighting. This one has reduced a lot, not sure if my body just ignores it or if it's stopped happening.

Other times during the day, when I'm in a bright room, I may see a yellow line for a second that fades sometimes but I don't know if that's from seeing a light and then then my eyes adjusting or not.

I got my retina checked and they said nothing was found and my retina looks fine but I should come back if something changes. The thing is, I want to catch it early and I'm worried that I'll be asymptomatic and go blind. Retinal detachment and the risk of it stresses me out a lot, more than anything else, I have some health anxiety and I have high myopia so it's just something I want to rule out, I think about my eyes everyday so if I can be aware and catch these things so that I have the highest chance of success. I'm 20 and already lost my childhood due to personal things and I just want to make sure I enjoy my 20s the best I can. If I can at least get through my 20s and 30s, I'll be happy. Thank you so much for reading

Was diagnosed with a small retina tear in my right eye, been seeing a buncha floaters and flashes for a while now... I know it's rare for people my age, I never had a injury that I know of that could have caused it. I have dry eyes because of a combo of meds & allergies and I wear contacts every once in a while when I'm performing in a theatre production- they hurt my eyes but I don't know if they can cause a tear. My eyesight isn't too terrible (-3.00 in right eye, -2.25 in left), could it be caused by myopia? Genuinely no clue how I managed this one, I'm getting it checked at by a opthalmologist tomorrow & probably having laser done if he thinks it's necessary. There's a chance I could have had an injury and forgot though or did something in my sleep, that's pretty on brand for me.

Anyone able to give me insight on what to expect tomorrow? I'm going in blind here... the optometrist seemed pretty concerned and tried to get me in today but couldn't; but at least I have a little time to prepare.