If you already know "my retinopathy story" you can skip this paragraph:
I’ve had proliferative retinopathy for a number of years but it was stable prior to the pregnancy – the pregnancy kicked it into high gear again in one eye and the pregnancy-related hypertension contributed to the hemorrhage. I had great bloodsugars during the pregnancy, so it was just "one of those things". It’s not bad enough for a vitrectomy (ophtho isn’t concerned about permanent damage at this point and I can still see reasonably well b/c most of the blood is in the periphery and only one eye), and I had a bunch of laser treatments shortly before the bleed (ophtho doesn’t feel it is necessary to do more at this point, nor can he see well to do more b/c of the blood in the vitreous), so it’s kind of a really ****ty waiting game.
So, big bleed in May. Started clearing up FINALLY in late summer. Then another small bleed. It was still messy in there, but slowly….SLOOOOOWLY…..clearing up, and then yesterday I started to have more bleeding again! UGH! This time it was in the periphery at the bottom of my eye, so again it’s not really impeding much of my vision, but it’s SO discouraging! I really expected to have most of it gone by Christmas, but now there’s no way that’ll be the case. I’ll be lucky if it’s all cleared by my daughter’s birthday in May! Heck, I’ll be lucky if it stops BLEEDING by then!
My bloodsugars are good, my blood pressure is GREAT…I’m doing the right things, but it’s still dribbling like a leaky faucet. I’m SICK OF IT!
This whole eye-thing is going to be the deciding factor in the question of whether or not we have another baby (in a couple of years). We really want another one, but the more this continues, the more scary the thought of that becomes. My daughter is definitely worth this – 1000 times over – but deciding to do it again could be another story. I just don’t know….
Sorry to be so negative. I’m not looking for advice or second opionions to that of my ophtho. Given all the information in the picture (not all of which is in this post), I’m very comfortable with the decisions my ophtho and I have made for the time being. I just needed to unload in a place where I know there are others who have been there.