Vitreal Haemorrhage and Lucentis injections

[LPP]

Hello all,

Just looking for a bit of support and experience if anyone can provide it

I was an awful type 1, HbA in the teens for all of my teenage years, then in Sept 2012 aged 21 I went onto the pump, HbA drops to 8 and retinopathy began.

In Dec 2013 I was diagnosed with bilateral proliferative retinopathy, macula oedema (more in the left eye than the right) and retinal haemorrhage in the right eye.

I had laser to both eyes on the 10th Dec, laser to both eyes and an Avastin injection into the left eye on the 17th Dec, then a break in treatment for my university finals. I had a h£ll of a lot of laser into both eyes on 30th Jan and there was less oedema on the scans (Avastin had worked)- he wanted to inject the left eye again but I'm a very nervous patient and was in so much pain from the laser that I rebooked for both eyes to be injected with Lucentis rather than just the left on that day. On 20th Feb I had both eyes injected with Lucentis (he thinks I'll need monthly injections for 5 months) and ever since my vision has been awful. I went back and the right eye's haemorrhage has burst into the vitreous humor which in the long run is a good thing, but I can't see anything out of this eye and I have blind spots in the left eye which I don't think have gotten worse, but I've lost the use of my compensating eye if that makes sense. The consultant isn't worried and has assured me that my vision will return to perfect (yay!) but at the moment I can't drive and I'm missing a huge amount of my final year of university and I'm totally fed up!

Does anyone have any experience of either the vitreal haemorrhage clearing (the bleeding has stopped) or the oedema reducing with Lucentis and how long they took to clear up- everyone seems to be sitting on the fence a bit!

Thank you, just would really appreciate some experiences as I'm worried about how long this will last!

 

[czj]

Sorry to hear about your eye problems. But the good news is that the vitreal haemorrhage can clear.

I had had laser in my left eye, which seemed to be working but after about 6 months I had a massive haemorrhage. The hospital said "it's like a snow dome. If you can't get used to it we'll do a vitrectomy". I took them literally and didn't realise it was still bleeding when I moved suddenly. Once I had worked that out, with help from my optician, I moved more slowly, never abruptly, and lo and behold, it healed. It took approx. 6 months to heal completely. That was 10 years ago now and my eyesight has been clear since.

(The other thing that helped me was eggs. Not recommending this, just saying it worked for me. One day, a few days after a major leakage, I had 4 eggs, which wasn't my usual diet. The next day when I woke my eye was nearly clear having been nearly obscured for the previous few days. Probably the effect of the lutein)

 

[leb]

Sorry to hear about your eye problems. But the good news is that the vitreal haemorrhage can clear.

I had had laser in my left eye, which seemed to be working but after about 6 months I had a massive haemorrhage. The hospital said "it's like a snow dome. If you can't get used to it we'll do a vitrectomy". I took them literally and didn't realise it was still bleeding when I moved suddenly. Once I had worked that out, with help from my optician, I moved more slowly, never abruptly, and lo and behold, it healed. It took approx. 6 months to heal completely. That was 10 years ago now and my eyesight has been clear since.

(The other thing that helped me was eggs. Not recommending this, just saying it worked for me. One day, a few days after a major leakage, I had 4 eggs, which wasn't my usual diet. The next day when I woke my eye was nearly clear having been nearly obscured for the previous few days. Probably the effect of the lutein)

Hi
I can only spesk about the bleeds as I haven't experienced the other.
my first consultant said give it time and more lsser. When I met my 3rd consultant (notyby choice but am so great full that I got swapped to him) he laid it on the line. Basically my bleeding wasnt going to stop without vitrectomy because of scar tissue from masses of laser which was pulling on the retina and causing it to haemorrhage further. So obviously it depends whether yours will stop by itself but apparently mine wouldn't. I ended up with a vitrectomy in both eyes (6months apart) and a year since the last op I have very good vision even though 80% of my retinas have been lasered. So either way if worst case and you have the op, if the centre of your eye hasn't been affected (and as your doc said your vision willl return to normal I would guess this would be likely) then after a good few months of recovery you will hopefully be ok to drive. Obviously everyone's different and I'm only speaking from personal experience but you do have a good chance from what your doctor said. How long though is a good question my dad has waited nearly 2 years and although it's cleared somewhat his vision isn't great still. I personally would recommend a vitrectomy but bare in mind it does carry risks. For me it's been amazing, I really hope you are as fortunate