The visit to the ophthalmologist (at the University Hospital) was kind of a downer.
Ever since Marshall had cataract surgery on his right eye -- about a year ago -- there has been a kind of film floating back and forth across his eye and it really messes with his vision. It's not a floater, it is a film that moves around. We were hoping that some kind of minimal laser surgery could take care of it.
So today he had a very thorough examination by a retina specialist. He said that the "film" is actually vitreous fluid that has broken away and is kind of gummed up together. He advised that there are only two options: (1) live with it; or (2) have risky surgery. I asked the doctor what the risks were and he said infection or detached retina or, in the worst case scenario, loss of vision.
The doctor went to great lengths to be sure Marshall couldn't just live with the situation as it is and Marshall said it impairs his vision so badly that he really wanted the surgery. Since it is elective surgery we need to see if Medicare will cover it so the doctor's scheduler will call us in the next week or so to discuss it.
I asked the doctor if he had performed the surgery before and he said "many times," even though he looked like he was only about 18. I asked him how successful this surgery was and he said problems only occur in 1 out of 4000 patients. He also said that the results were usually very very good.
If anyone reading this has any input on this surgery, I would appreciate it.
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