Laser eye surgery and pregnancy

[Claire T]

I have been a type 1 diabetic for 23 years. I gave birth to my daughter in March 2009 and during the pregnancy, they noticed damage to the back of my eyes. Shortly after my daughter was born, they advised that I had reached the stage of requiring laser for my eyes.

I was checking to see if anyone has had experience of laser eye surgery both during and after pregnancy. Also, has anyone went onto have another pregnancy and experienced the same problem.

Any advice/support would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Red Pumper]

Hi Claire,

have they explained whether the damage was due to the pregnancy or just diabetic retinopathy?

I've had extensive laser treatment for my retinpathy, so feel free to ask any questions.

Obvioulsy, none of my teatment was during or after preganancy

 

[Claire T]

Hi Claire,

have they explained whether the damage was due to the pregnancy or just diabetic retinopathy?

I've had extensive laser treatment for my retinpathy, so feel free to ask any questions.

Obvioulsy, none of my teatment was during or after preganancy

Hi, they are not sure whether it was there before pregnancy but that apparently hormonal changes can accelerate the condition a lot if it was there beforehand.

I finished the laser surgery a few weeks back and I have had a troublesome bleed that I got a few days before my last session. It is going away slowly but it is very annoying. Did you have many problems with bleeds during laser? Having a baby daughter does not help as lifting her apparently is not recommended. Did you also notice a dramatic change to your peripheral vision?

 

[Red Pumper]

No I didn't have any problems with bleeds during laser. Not a pleasant experience though is it?

You may find that you peripheral vision gets better again over time. Though there is bound to be some degree of permanent loss due the laser treatment. I have proliferative retinopathy and have had 3000 - 4000 lasers in each eye, so my fields are affected to the extent that I can longer drive. Hopefully they have caught yours early enough and it won't get to that stage.

Yes, they tell you not to do too much lifting but that's impossible when you have little ones that need carrying everywhere.

Your bleed will clear, it just takes time. One tip that I was given by the opthalmologist that you could try was to sleep with a pillow or something propping my head up. This will encourage the bleed to move out of your vision (you should see it drift upwards) and also helps the retina to absorb it.

 

[Cate]

Hi Claire,

I had laser treatment before, during and after pregnancy, and have had another pregnancy since (have a 9 week old baby just starting to wake up so best be quick!). I also had a vitrectomy when my 1st was 6 months old due to a bleed that wouldn't clear - had it pre-PG and still had it 6 months later.

I did have changes severely accelerated by the PG hormones, also my eye consultant recommended a csection delivery to avoid any pressure from contractions/labour/pushing, which my antenatal consultant agreed with.

Annoyingly sometimes the laser treatment can cause mild bleeds, as it creates scar tissue that catches and pulls - at least, that's what I've been told

Despite having around 4000 burns on each eye I do still hold my driving license (for the moment! not something I take for granted these days).

 

[Claire T]

Hi Claire,

I had laser treatment before, during and after pregnancy, and have had another pregnancy since (have a 9 week old baby just starting to wake up so best be quick!). I also had a vitrectomy when my 1st was 6 months old due to a bleed that wouldn't clear - had it pre-PG and still had it 6 months later.

I did have changes severely accelerated by the PG hormones, also my eye consultant recommended a csection delivery to avoid any pressure from contractions/labour/pushing, which my antenatal consultant agreed with.

Annoyingly sometimes the laser treatment can cause mild bleeds, as it creates scar tissue that catches and pulls - at least, that's what I've been told

Despite having around 4000 burns on each eye I do still hold my driving license (for the moment! not something I take for granted these days).

Hi Cate

Thank you for your reply. You have certainly helped ease my worry about laser a great deal.

Congratuations also on your new arrival, did you have a baby girl/boy?

It is really good that the laser did not arise again in your second pregnancy. I would like to have another brother/sister for my daughter but my worry is that it will kick off again. It's not like pregnancy dosen't bring enough stresses!!

I just completed a driver assessment form to see if I can keep my licence. I hope to hear back in two/three weeks - finger's crossed.

Claire

 

[Claire T]

Hi Red Pumper

Thank you for your reply. I know what you mean about laser being unpleasant - it does not help when you have an unsympathetic opthalmologist who nearly pokes your eye out with the protective lense!!

That it is a really good tip about the pillow - hopefully that will help clear the bleed. I will try that tonight.

Have a good weekend.

Claire

 

[Red Pumper]

Hi Claire,

you should have no trouble keeping your licence.

I assume you stated on the form that you have had laser treatment for retinopathy?

The DVLA will probably request that you have a fields test before they agree to a new licence but that shouldn't be a problem as you've not had that much laser treatment.

Hope the pillow thing works for you.

 

[Claire T]

Hi Claire,

you should have no trouble keeping your licence.

I assume you stated on the form that you have had laser treatment for retinopathy?

The DVLA will probably request that you have a fields test before they agree to a new licence but that shouldn't be a problem as you've not had that much laser treatment.

Hope the pillow thing works for you.

Hi,

I stated on the form that I was getting laser treatment for diabetic retinopathy. I got a reply back very quickly and they asked me to have a visual test carried out by my optician within two weeks. I passed the visual field test and sent this form back to them. A further form was then sent by them, which they asked my GP to complete!! This has now been sent off and I am awaiting to hear back from them.

I tried the pillow tip at the weekend and I think I am getting a slight improvement day by day. Here's hoping that by the end of the week, it will improve further and I can enjoy the scenery on my holiday (if the plane ever takes off!!)

Thanks for your help.

Claire

 

[Red Pumper]

Hi Claire,

if you've passed the fields test, then you'll have no trouble getting your licence renewed.

Glad your eye appears to be clearing. It's a slow process.

 

[Admin]

Hi Claire
Just a quickie - I had a lot of laser surgery during my pregnancy - I had problems with retinopathy years ago - and it flared up again during pregnancy due to the amount of extra blood floating around my body - yee ha! Apparently it can be quite common. I was gutted though.
All was OK. Like you only thing is, for first time ever I had to have a field test for DVLA - and passed - so all OK.

Eye been fine since having baby! Phew!

 

[Claire T]

Hi,

Thanks for replying. I am still awaiting a response back from DVLA even though I sent my form off approx 6 weeks ago!! Hopefully, I can hear back soon and that it has not got lost in the post.

The doctors told me that a certain pregnancy hormone flares the back of the eyes up even though my blood sugars averaged about 6 during pregnancy.

That is really good news on your eye being fine post pregnancy. Our poor eyes are starved of sleep post pregnancy without extra laser to worry about!!

Claire

 

[Twitchy]

Hi Claire,

I had background retinopathy prior to my first pregnancy, about a year after baby arrived this progressed to proliferative needing lasering to both eyes. It was a bit decision to go for number two & we were advised at one point to wait for a bit to allow things to settle, before we got the go-ahead to try for number two.

Whilst pregnant second time round (& since) I needed quite a lot of lasering to one eye which got quite bad (bizarrely, but thankfully the other eye was fine!). I had a heavy bleed in my bad eye in jan whilst pregnant & am still seeing blood from it now, some days are better than others it seems! The doc thinks it's old blood between the jelly & retina oozing & dissipating into the jelly (lurvly!). Pregnancy is known to significantly accelerate proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and it's not unknown for docs to decide to deliver early if things get bad enough, but I think that's an extreme case.

Although at the current time I still hold a driving license (getting to hate those visual field tests though - so dull!!), we did make the decision that during the delivery of baby 2 (predictably another c section) I would be sterilized - on advice that the balance of risks was too likely that another pregnancy might result in much worse retinopathy & possible blindness. As it is now, I have scar tissue in the left eye which is a worry as it is this which can contract & cause a detached retina (so trying not to get paranoid about my eyeball feeling funny when I'm sure it's pyschosomatic lol!). Although I do feel sad & wistful about this decision, I am so lucky to have two beautiful kids & I want to be as fully functioning as I can for them as they grow up! 🙂

Not sure if that ramble helps, but hope it does! All the best!

(ps - yes, baby number two was absolutely worth every painful zap of that laser & I will never ever regret having her - she's wonderful!!! 🙂)

 

[Claire]

Hi Twitchy,

Thanks for your reply.

I am still getting laser on both eyes (I was discharged but then I got another bleed!). I read your message and I think my husband and I will wait to see what happens with my eyes before making a decision. As you mentioned, I wish to be fully functional for my daughter but I would really like for her to have a brother or sister.

I feel like the lasering is never ending and I would like to wake up one day and have clear vision in both eyes. Fingers crossed the end is in sight and my poor eyes can get some rest!

Claire

 

[Twitchy]

Hi Claire,

It's not an easy decision, is it?... know what you mean about wanting to wake up with clear vision- I'm getting fed up of thinking I'm seeing spiders everywhere! (darting black spots on the edge of vision - & I hate spiders so not good! 🙄). Fingers crossed our eyes settle down & you get the support you need from your eye doc to make a good decision, whichever way that is, for your family.

Wishing you all the best,

Twitchy