Lloyd,
The day I had the surgery, there were two doctors who performed the reattachment procedure, and a third consulting doctor, a guy who did a lot more communicating with me. The two surgeons had a bunch on their plate that day, and my communication with them was terse, and brief. Neither were shooters, and I asked point blank if they were, because I was in hot water and I knew it.

Third Doc took a bunch of time with me, pre surgery, and wanted to know all about my life. I fall into a subset of humans that are highly susceptible to retina detachment, male, white, Northern European background, astigmatism my whole life, older than 50. He asked me if I wanted the humor removed and filtered, and replaced, to deal with floaters, which, honestly, had never been a problem prior to that. I needed the humor in the eye, so a nitrogen bubble could be put into the humor, and the bubble would press against the repaired retina, and hold it in position until it healed. I spent 72 hours looking down, and gently altering the position to allow the bubble to “iron” the retina into the position it would heal into. I took it very seriously. He seemed relieved when I said that didn’t seem to be necessary. I came to discover that this Doc had been a duck hunter, had a middle aged Labrador at home, but, had the experience of waking up one day to discover his master, shooting eye was quite suddenly not his master eye anymore. He told me he was unable to resolve that issue, and didn’t shoot or hunt anymore. I tried to get him to understand that I didn’t consider that part of my life optional. He told me he knew of successful transitions in guys who wanted it bad enough. I had several scheduled appointments with the two surgeons after the reattachment, due to them being interested in my particular situation-I had no regular prescriptions to any type of drugs, regular blood pressure, normal BMI, no diabetes, didn’t smoke, and no other conditions that would or could impair the healing process. They didn’t get that type of patient through the door very often, and spent a lot of time actually studying the repair to the eye. More than typical. According to them, the repair was phenomenal. I wish the vision in the eye could be called the same, but, it is vision, and nothing was guaranteed when I went into the theater that day. They made sure I understood that, also.

The symptoms you describe are identical to mine, post surgery. The vision in the affected eye is not what it was, corrected to about 20/30. I do not consider that good enough to shoot with. The right eye is corrected to 20/20. When I have my head in the game, that is more than adequate, the trouble is undoing the previous 50 years of muscle memory. I have literally discovered myself on a hunt with the dog, carrying the gun in my left hand, not even consciously aware I had moved the gun from my right hand.

I’ve shot limits of birds in the past. I really don’t have the need, or desire to do that anymore, and I am slowly losing the tools it takes to do that. I complain about it, but, truth is, if I can get out with the dog and the boy, that is huge. A bird is truly a cherished bonus now, and I didn’t even fire a shot at one this year, but, I didn’t miss any, either, I guess.

At this point, there is always next year. Others, around me, are losing even that, a point driven home by my brother’s awful situation, and a good buddy who hung up his guns due to his advancing Multiple Sclerosis.

There, but for the grace of God....

Best,
Ted