Will It Ever End?

by Anonymous
(Rockland, ME USA)

In June of 2016 I was diagnosed with a macular hole. The surgery to correct this was performed in Sept. 2016, the first appointment available. The face-down recovery was very difficult and frustrating but I did my best with the help of family. Before I had this surgery (vitrectomy) I was informed that the healing process would cause a cataract and I would need cataract surgery to follow. Approximately 11 months later I had the cataract surgery. The very next day I was surprised and thrilled that my vision had improved dramatically. However, the next day my vision was completely blurred with some distortion in the center. The surgeon told me that there was a lot of swelling of the macula causing my poor vision and prescribed several eye drops, including steroids. I stayed on the eye drops for 8 months, going back and forth to my appointments every 6 weeks and the vision slowly improved. During my last regular appointment my vision was 20/30 and I was thrilled. I returned 6 weeks later and my vision had decreased to 20/70. I was not given any explanation but from what I could understand of "doctor speak", it was probably cloudiness due to some opacity forming over the new lens. I was told that it could be corrected by yet a third surgery - a simple laser surgery that would clean off the lens. I read that one of the possible side effects could be retinal detachment. I was told to use one set of eye drops for another 6 weeks and I will return for my next appointment at the end of this week.
This seems to be a never-ending problem. It's one surgery to fix a problem, then another surgery to fix a problem or side effect with the previous one. I'm on a limited income and my co-pays for medication and surgeries have nearly wiped out my meager savings. Every 6 weeks I was driving a 12 y/o car 160 miles to my appointments.
I doubt I'll have anymore surgery with that eye and possibly not on the cataract forming in the other eye. So far it's been devastating and a complete waste of time, money and energy. I've now developed daily headaches from either the eye strain or frustration and fear of what will happen next.
I'm very discouraged and ready to give up.
I believe the doctors are very good but I continue to research every procedure and the side effects have finally scared me off. It's not worth the risk at this point.