laser treatment

[painthorse]

just got back from my first treatment of laser shots in my right eye. My question is how long is the recovery period normally? I got out of the chair made a follow-up appt. and drove home. I got about 920 bursts today and need to do 1 more treatment and also some for the left eye. After todays visit I don't really understand why we couldn't do both eyes today. Also I understand the risk of retina detachment but when is the danger period over? Or is it ever present? It did make me feel kinda like the screen on a Game Boy. I told the doc that if he was really going to laser aliens that he should take off his jacket, loosen his tie and get comfy. After he left, I looked at the screen to see what his score was but he had already turned it off!

[xMenace]

Wow. Your a real workhorse. The most I ever got at once was around 500.

No detachment risk from the laser. Recovery is pretty quick. Your basically just fighting a headache.

The detachment risk is from hemhorrhaging neovascular blood vessels. They are not supported by tissue and are unstable. The resulting scar tissue is weak and leads to detachment. The whole point of the laser is to kill peripheral tissue which is starving. This starving tissue releases proteins which cause the body to grow new vessels to feed it. By killing the tissue we stop the protein and neovascularization. Existing new vessels shrivel up.

[painthorse]

Well, cool beans! Nothing to worry about then. My eye seems to be about the same as it was when I went in so I guess it's ok. My eye guy is a hyper little fella - maybe that's why so many. I do remember the faint sound of bacon frying though!

[xMenace]

I find proliferative retinopathy one of the most intriguing human maladies. It still sucks, but it is very fascinating.