Hi everyone,
I'm having my Trab on Friday (somewhat reluctantly) and looking for hints and tips for surviving the post op weeks. How long did it take for you to get back to "normal" ? any things that worked particularly well for you or things to watch out for, suggestions for managing dog care! I've got friends helping me out and I know there's lots of variation post op but it would be great to get a feel for what to expect,
many thanks
Just take it really easy for at least week, I still walked my dogs, just made sure it was somewhere reasonably flat, so not getting my heart rate up. Wear the eye protector at night to keep yourself from scratching or knocking your eye and try not to get water in your eye when showering. Use the eye drops as prescribed during the day - it’s a bit of a nightmare every two hours but they are helping your eye heal at the right speed. I’ve had one op in each eye and love the fact I don’t have to use drops any more. Feel free to message me if you have any queries.
I set alarms on my phone for my drops. I had drops 3 x day for unoperated eye, hourly steroid drops and antibiotic drops 4 x day. I have set times for my regular drops, but did steroid drops on the hour and antibiotics on half hour 4 x day. When my alarm went off I knew which I was due and didn’t miss any of them. Good luck
I am 3 months post Tab Op. I took it fairly easy for the first couple of weeks, but on the whole carried on much as normal. Was careful not to bend too much or to lift anything too heavy, but living on my own there was not much choice. Hardest part was not being able to drive for nearly 4 weeks . Luckily my friends picked me up so went for coffee every morning and did little bits of shopping to save any heavy bags, but that at is what I normally do. As others have said the drops are a pain, but set alarms on my phone with a note to say which drops to use.
The pressure in the right eye that had the Trab has settled down nicely.
Hi, My tips would be to try not to blow your nose, and if you do it very gently, also try not to sneeze, but if can't be avoided make sure you open your mouth. Other than this try to take it really easy no heavy lifting, don't worry if your head feels disoriented due to poor vision from opp; especially when leaving the house, don't bother showering for a couple of days, and when you do keep the eye closed. All the best
My top tip is to buy a white board and dry wipe marker pen. Use this to write out a table of all of your drops and times so you can physically cross off when you have taken them. It's so hard to keep track of them all, this will make it easy to know you haven't missed any. Alarms set on your phone to prompt you will be invaluable.
Don't freak out if you have hyphemas afterwards. I had 5 when they massaged the bleb each week, which is unusual but they were very frightening as the eye goes temporarily blind. If I had been warned this could happen it would not have been so terrifying when it did! By the time I got to number 3, I was totally used to it and knew my vision would slowly clear within a few days☺️
Good luck!
How did your trab go?
Hi, everyone - thanks for all the very helpful tips and also for the reassurance. I had the op on Friday and seems to have gone pretty well - pressure dropped to 2 straight after so I had atropine for a few days and now it's up to 14. Needs to be lower but will test again next week without the atropine. I'm hoping it will mean no more drops in the long run.
Anyone had to massage eye themselves post trabeculectomy ?
Trabeculectomy
Cataract surgery post Trabeculectomy 
