Retinal Detachment Surgery Month 1: What to Expect

By the end of month 1 most people are past the sorest phase and past positioning. AAO says vision improvement typically begins around 4 to 6 weeks after surgery, though it can take months to fully stabilize.

If SF6 gas was used, the bubble is usually gone by now. StatPearls puts SF6 at about 1 to 2 weeks and C3F8 at about 6 to 8 weeks, so patients who received C3F8 will still have a shrinking bubble and still cannot fly. AAO's EyeNet review reports similar durations.

Buckle patients often notice their glasses are wrong at this point. StatPearls describes surgery-induced myopia and astigmatism as documented effects of scleral buckling, with myopic shift linked to circumferential elements and astigmatism mainly to radial elements. Double vision can also show up, which StatPearls attributes to mechanical muscle restriction or ischemia, sometimes managed with prisms.

AAO advises limited activity for several weeks after surgery, so month 1 is usually when people start asking about exercise, lifting, and going back to a physical job. Those answers come from your surgeon, not the calendar.