Help with healing central serous retinopathy?

December 1, 2011 8:28 AM

I've recently been diagnosed with what I am told is a manageable case of Central Serous Retinopathy (CSR), which means there is a tear in my retina that is allowing fluid to leak in and form a bubble in the back of my eye. I have some questions about helping it heal.

CSR causes a sun spot to appear in the left-hand side of my field of vision. I can see through it but it makes it hard to focus. According to the doctor it is not a retinal detachment and so does not require emergency surgery.

Does anyone have experience with this, and are there any pointers I can get on how to manage it and help it heal without eventual surgery?

Specifically, I'm a computer programmer on contract and have no sick days; will looking at the screen do me harm?

Also, I feel a certain heaviness in that eye that could be easily confused with sinus congestion. Is this normal?

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

I've had a few episodes of CSR over the years. It comes on gradually, stays for a few weeks then the leak heals and normal vision returns to the eye. I've actually had it come and go in both eyes now. Take a peek at an Amsler chart to see the extent of the distortion in that eye. Just be careful when driving in the dark, since it reduces night vision. Nothing really to do to manage it, other than wait for it to get better (at least in my case).
posted by jaimev at 10:34 AM on December 1, 2011

I forgot to add that I don't experience the heaviness you mentioned. I'm also a s/w developer, and it doesn't do any harm to look at a screen. Although there's some inconvenience when I may have to increase the font size or briefly close the bad eye and look at things on the screen with just my good eye if things look get too blurry.
posted by jaimev at 11:00 AM on December 1, 2011

FWIW (probably not much) I have posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), which is not the same, but maybe somewhat similar. If I'm understanding it right, my retina is OK, but my vitreous is loose from my macula, which makes one or the other pull down on my retina. I think the symptoms are pretty similar - a spot in my vision, bigger and darker than a regular floater. And I definitely felt heaviness in my eye when the PVD first appeared - like my eye was weighing down that whole side of my face.

In my case, the only problem with looking at the screen is that my eyes get tired a lot more easily.

Your eye doctor did tell you to look out for the symptoms of retinal detachment, and what to do if you experience them, right? Because mine (both of them) were very clear on that with me, and stressed how important it was.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 3:37 PM on December 1, 2011

Make sure you visit a doctor who only deals with disorders of the retina - I had a detachment and retinoschisis, and finding an expert in retinas was tremendously helpful.

You might discuss laser treatment. That limits the possible scope of tears by sticking down the borders of your bubble to the other layers of retina. Sometimes the bubbles tear, which releases the fluid (you'll see new floaters) and then the retina lays flat again and kind of heals.

Avoid roller coasters, sky diving, and Formula One racing. I was told my weak bubbly retinas would hate sudden acceleration/deceleration.

Watch for new floaters, dark spots, or flashes of light (hey what was that, did I flash the lights? Is someone blinking a flashlight in my window? wtf?). These are drop everything emergencies, because retinal tears must be addressed ASAP. Get a retina doc now, to get a better explanation of what's going on, and so you can call them in case you get the dangerous signs.
posted by BigJen at 4:53 PM on December 1, 2011

I hope this doctor is an ophthalmologist in a clinic with lots of retina specialists. A tear in the retina with a fluid leak where you are seeing a spot sounds like the definition of a detached retina to me. Get thee to your closest research hospital eye clinic right away. If they are closed for the weekend, go to the emergency room of the clinic's hospital and ask for the triage doctor to get you the eye resident on call. Ordinary general practitioners and family medicine doctors are woefully ignorant of how to deal with these conditions. These things don't heal on their own and only get worse quickly. A couple of days at most is all you've got to stop severe permanent damage. I had this in both eyes last year. In wish I had gotten to the eye clinic a day sooner. I wish I had gone to the eye clinic first instead of going to my regular family medicine doctor. The eye clinic got me into an operating room within hours. But if I'd gotten there just a few hours earlier, I'd be seeing a lot better today.

If you see a spot, even one you can see through, then you have skipped right past floaters and flashing lights. You have an emergency.
posted by 3.2.3 at 9:04 AM on December 3, 2011