Eye Surgery, Part 2

UPDATE: Neil here - Isaak came through surgery fine and Bekka is with him in recovery. (I'm at home with Penny,  long story).

So Isaak had about as much done as one could. It was a mess in his left eye. Blood vessels were dragging nerves around and growing in strange ways and there was quite a lot of scar tissue. Something had to be done or complete detachment was highly likely.

So what did they do?

• Removed the lens (he will wear a contact lens from here forward)
• Cut most of the scar and fibrous tissue pulling on his retina. They were not able to get to all of it, but were able to to get to most.
• Placed a scleral buckle around the eye. This helps to relieve tension on the retina. It might be permanent but will be in place for years in any case. It will have to be periodically loosened to allow for growth.
• Performed more laser surgery in his right eye. A couple of areas had started showing abnormal blood vessel growth. Unfortunately, RoP is a lifelong disease and we will have to stay on top of this. Overall his right eye is still doing really well.

Prognosis for the left eye? We have no idea right now. If these procedures have stopped the pulling on the retina, it will hopefully heal, stay attached and he will maintain peripheral vision.

Little guy has certainly had a challenging time of it in his short life. RoP rarely gets to this advanced stage these days, but in his case, too much hidden damage appears to have led to this situation. This was particularly frustrating as his eye appeared to have stabilized several time before suddenly worsening.

He's a trooper though and just keeps smiling through it all.

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Isaak was taken back to the OR at 7:30 this morning. (We've been here since 6am, which meant I had to get the poor little guy out of bed at 5am.) He spent his time talking, smiling and flirting while we waited.

The retinal specialist came out to talk with me a few minutes ago. She will also be doing some additional laser ablation on Isaak's right eye as there is still some abnormal blood vessel growth. Her main concern with his left eye is that the tugging on the retina caused by the fibrous tissue could cause a hole to tear in the retina. If that happened, the vitreous fluid could get behind the retina and cause a full detachment. Full detachment would mean no functional vision in that eye.

I'll post more updates as I have time and more info.