by CLA4SAM on Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:08 am
Hi THERE I JUST WONDER WHAT I NEED TO DO BEFORE THE EYE DOC WILL LETME HAVE DECOMPRSSION?
I copied this message from a response on another thread ~ just wanted it to be easier to find.
Here’s my response:
The first thing you must do is to wait for your eye disease to enter the "cold phase." This is the last phase in the disease process, and it takes a while. The typical course for the eye disease lasts somewhere between 12 and 36 months (1-3 years). There are several reasons for this. First, any surgical interventions done during the "hot phase," (when changes are frequent and unpredictable) can trigger another onslaught of eye symptoms, which can undo all the benefit of surgery and make it even harder to correct after you DO get to the cold phase. Second, the final phase of the eye disease curve typically involves some improvement in the proptosis, so surgery done too early could overcorrect, leaving you with "sunken IN" eyes, and limited options to fix it. Finally, once you come out of the cold phase, you may find that you do not NEED to have decompression surgery at all. The improvements may be sufficient to allow you to perform much less invasive procedures in order to arrive back somewhere near your "normal" eyes.
These points are "trumped" if there is so much pressure in your eyes that the optic nerve is in danger of being compressed. That would cause irreparable vision loss, left unchecked, so weighing the risks (vision vs. no vision) they typically perform the surgery to protect vision and hope for the best as far as the other possible complications. Not that the possible complications are insignificant, but vision loss is the thing we MOST want to avoid.
If you are already in the cold phase (meaning that your eyes have not experienced any changes in proptosis or double vision for at least six months), then you need to have a frank discussion with an occuloplastic surgeon (these are ophthalmologists with extra training in surgical procedures) to determine what’s best FOR YOU. There really is no "talking them into" surgery, but defining for them the extent of your symptoms and the difficulties you have is important for them to evaluate your status. You can then discuss the options and the risks and benefits associated with each.
