Question for Those With Retinal Hemmorrhages

[belyro]

For those of you who have experienced retinal hemorrhages in the past, did you need a vitrectomy, and if not, how long did it take to clear up on its own? (I'm not talking just a dot or two of blood, but a moderate to severe bleed.)

As some of you know, I have proliferative retinopathy that was exacerbated by my recent pregnancy and I experienced a moderate bleed on the day that my daughter was born by c-section (this past May). It bled again a little bit a couple of months ago. My optho wants to keep an eye on it (no pun intended) but let it clear up by itself instead of doing a vitrectomy - which is fine by me. He doesn't see evidence that it will cause any detachment or tearing of the retina and it's not impeding my ability to read, drive, work, etc. (it's just a major annoyance). It has been dissipating over time, but at this rate it feels like it'll be years before it's totally gone - if ever.

I'd be interested in hearing the experiences of others with respect to this! (John, I know your experience already, but why don't you post it here anyway for the benefit of anyone else reading this...)

Thanks!

[marianne c]

Hi Bethany, I have had bleeds in both eyes. The 1st one went totally black all at once. Had the vitrectomy. The second was not as severe, but had the vit. as a preventative measure. My main advice is that you should probably see a retina specialist who would refer you to a retina surgeon. Did your opth. suggest laser? Have you had laser?

[belyro]

Hi Bethany, I have had bleeds in both eyes. The 1st one went totally black all at once. Had the vitrectomy. The second was not as severe, but had the vit. as a preventative measure. My main advice is that you should probably see a retina specialist who would refer you to a retina surgeon. Did your opth. suggest laser? Have you had laser?

My ophtho is a retinal specialist/surgeon. He's known as the best in the area. I definitely trust his opinions.

I've had quite a bit of laser already. None since the hemorrhage, though. He had done some shortly before the bleed (which was from the proliferative vessels), and I guess it didn't make sense to do more at this point.

[VinceF]

I've had some serious bleeds. My worst took a couple of months to noticably clear and maybe a year to clear completely. One they caught 2 days after a check up (I lived 2 blocks from Kellog Eye hospital in Michigan) and said they needed to blast right away to stop the bleed or do a vitrectomy later. Some clear quicker than others.

-Dave

[genie86333]

I've only had one serious bleed - It took a few weeks before my vision was back to normal.