im about to get my third vitrectomy in the last five months on my left eye and im just wondering at what point do we accept thats its not working? im seeing articles and stories of people saying they had to get it done anywhere from 4-10 times before the surgery actually worked and i dont think i can handle that. i dont even really want to do it a third time, but imaging with a new machine showed something small in my right eye that we're fixing with laser and i got scared bc my right eye has been fine this whole time. so i agreed to do surgery on my left again, but if this fails for a third time then what? do we just keep replacing the oil and cutting out scar tissue every few weeks/months? at what point do they agree that they've done everything they could and we just let me lose the vision? or even try something different? i feel like my life is on pause and i dont want the rest of my 20s to pass me by because i got the same surgery over and over again with no results. im over it and i want my life back even if it means i wont have any vision in one eye.
i guess what im trying to say is i know for sure i dont want to do this a fourth time, but would a doctor agree that we should stop? or do all these doctors say "one more time then it'll work" every single time? thats all i keep hearing "just one more" but thats what was said to me before i agreed to the second vitrectomy and here i am, getting it "just one more time." its mentally exhausting being able to sort of see but also not being able to at the same or having people ask questions while my eye is healing. and i dont want to do the facedown crap anymore. i feel like ive accepted that what we are doing is not working, but the doctors ive seen want to keep doing it. how many times do they have to go into my eye before they also start to accept that this isnt working?
my mental health already was a struggle before this and now is completely down the drain. i feel like ive given up on a lot of things because my mindset has turned into "whats the point?" if i keep trying only for it to fail over and over again i know it will only make that mindset worse. i dont know, im struggling and maybe it sounds like i want to give up but really what i want is to be able to move on with my life. but i cant find any material talking about when its common to stop after failed vitrectomies. everything is just about how they kept trying until it worked and i dont want to do this so many times. id rather lose my vision than keep living like this