Exercise after treatment for severe retinopathy?

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Liz1954

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Hello,
I have posted here before many years ago due to being worried about my son, who is type 1 diabetic.
Since then, he has had some problems, but I now care for him in a new home, the one thing he actually still enjoys in life is exercise and life has been difficult. Recently, he has started to lose the sight in his one good eye, his other eye has been totally blind from retinopathy for 2 years. He is having monthly injections in the eye and laser eye surgery, but has been told not to do strenuous exercise. There isn't much information on this, but once the treatment is complete ir his eye has been made stable, will he ever be able to do this safely again, if anyone knows or has experience? The doctors don't seem knowledgeable or helpful at all!
Many thanks,
Liz
 
Short answer from me is that I don't know - but I just wonder - have you tried asking the RNIB this? (as this seems more 'sight itself' oriented than specifically 'diabetes', to me)
 
Hello @Liz1954

I hope things continue to settle for your son, sight loss is an overwhelmingly frightening thing to deal with. I hope he’s doing well.

I’m blind in my left eye and have central vision in my right eye. At the time I was told by my eye surgeon to avoid contact sport and sudden strenuous sports. I went on to need crutches to walk due to feet fractures which limits what exercise I can do. Walking is my main thing but with limited sight my balance & perception of distance, steps, kerbs etc is poor.

I do swim when I am able to. There are quieter times to go & some pools have sessions for people with disabilities which I use as without my lens in my seeing eye I can’t tell where the edge of the lane/pool is and it makes me feel quite scared. Swimming is a good exercise without sudden strains & stresses on fragile eye vessels & retinas. I know there are some visually impaired rowing clubs which may be an option,

Does your son go to a low vision clinic for advice on adaptations available? They helped me with various groups & phone numbers for advice.

As Jenny says above speaking to the RNIB is a good move or searching for sports for people with impaired vision in your area. Is there a specific sport he used to do?

I wish your son well, it takes a lot of adapting after sight loss to feel safe enough to do things again. Best wishes
 
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Flower said:
Hello @Liz1954

I hope things continue to settle for your son, sight loss is an overwhelmingly frightening thing to deal with. I hope he’s doing well.

I’m blind in my left eye and have central vision in my right eye. At the time I was told by my eye surgeon to avoid contact sport and sudden strenuous sports. I went on to need crutches to walk due to feet fractures which limits what exercise I can do. Walking is my main thing but with limited sight my balance & perception of distance, steps, kerbs etc is poor.

I do swim when I am able to. There are quieter times to go & some pools have sessions for people with disabilities which I use as without my lens in my seeing eye I can’t tell where the edge of the lane/pool is and it makes me feel quite scared. Swimming is a good exercise without sudden strains & stresses on fragile eye vessels & retinas. I know there are some visually impaired rowing clubs which may be an option,

Does your son go to a low vision clinic for advice on adaptations available? They helped me with various groups & phone numbers for advice.

As Jenny says above speaking to the RNIB is a good move or searching for sports for people with impaired vision in your area. Is there a specific sport he used to do?

I wish your son well, it takes a lot of adapting after sight loss to feel safe enough to do things again. Best wishes
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Thank you for your reply and I'm really sorry to hear that you're also going rhrough this,

I think that the main concern for him was if he'd lose the remaining eyesight due to using weights or the rowing machine, they've told him just to walk carefully and stretch, but he's extremely depressed and angry and won't accept that.
I don't think that he feels unsafe due to the sight loss (his left eye has been blind for a long time), but life would be more difficult with no central vision. The doctors don't seem to know if it would have a serious effect on his sight or not, so they just seem to advise against anything, I was just wondering if anyone had lived with the same problems and if they'd had a good or bad experience after the retinopathy treatments regarding exercise. At the moment, he's unsure about being totally blind, but he has considered just continuing with his regular routine and learning to live without the right eye either, we've been told the retinopathy is irreversible and he does know that he may go blind even after the injections and laser. Maybe it's just a case of leaving to adapt to life and letting him continue to do the things he likes? He was quite involved in rugby and boxing (fairly casually), which he can't manage at the moment, but at home we do have a home gym that he wants to use again. It's difficult to know if he is going to regret losing his remaining eyesight because of this or not, its not easy for me to know that either! We will see what the eye clinic says next week, but he's extremely stubborn and won't do anything they say without fighting it, so I'm not sure about the eventual outcome.
 
The best option is to speak to the people who care for his eyesight. I was advised against all high impact sports and sports with sudden movements putting high exertion through the body such as weights and boxing. I was told to do things gently to minimise the risk of further retinal haemorrhages and damage to my remaining functioning retina.

I can understand the anger and depression, it is a devastating thing to live with as well as living with the constant 'what next'. I lashed out at everyone who was trying to help me and was so frustrated with life.

For me getting a bit of sight back was the most wonderful thing but sport wasn't really something I missed. I can understand how frustrating it must be to want to do something you used to enjoy versus the dilemma of how long to wait until you try to do things again. `

Best Wishes, I hope you can get some good advice.
 
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I think it may depend on the precise nature of the treatment but for most eye surgery it requires no strenuous exercise for at least a couple of weeks, likely not much of anything for a few days but you would need to check with the ophthalmologist as to what degree of exercise can be resumed and when.
It would be silly to compromise recovery by doing something too soon when by waiting a few more weeks there would be no problem.
 
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