Don't ignore those floaters....

[rl]

As one coming up to retirement age, I've been used to floaters drifting across the FOV for some years. it's one reason I've vowed never to buy a Tak; stories of magnifications of *100 per inch are common but an exit pupil of 0.25mm simply serves to emphasize the defects of an ageing MK1 eyeball. I'm much better off with the same magnification on a 14" Newt with a much larger exit pupil. 

However, of late I've noticed an increase in floaters. About 10 days ago they started to become obvious in daytime vision which was a first. Big transparent trails looking like spyrogyra algae drifting across the view of my right eye. Not all the time, but often enough to be counted as something new and not just tired eyes. I made a mental note to mention it to the optician at the next appointment in a few weeks time, and basically just put up with it for the present.

Last Wednesday I found myself in the vicinity of the optician on other business, so casually dropped in to make an appointment, expecting to get one the following week if I was lucky. On explaining the symptoms I was whisked straight through to the examination room and given the whole examination there and then, including a screenshot of the retina at the back of the offending eye. I had a tiny tear in the retina, fortunately towards the edge, and bits of retina were dropping off causing the floater floatilla. I was given a letter of introduction with photos and told to go straight to hospital (City hospital in Birmingham) without further ado...this was an emergency which I had not even recognised as such.

So, two hours later I'm in the queue at the hospital. After about an hour's wait I'm seen and they confirmed the problem. I was given laser treatment there and then but it was only partially successful in isolating the damaged patch of retina. The reason was that vitreous fluid had gone inside the tear and around the back of the macula making the laser much less effective even at full power. However the guys on duty that night had a really good go and patched it up as best they could. I went home. Had I acted sooner this would not have been an issue and it would probably have been all fixed there and then. 

The following day the registrar telephoned me to discuss. He invited me up that same evening for a consultation to which I was only too glad to accept since losing the sight of one eye was a possibility. He did his own examination and put me at the top of the list for the following day's operations. The upshot is that I was operated on yesterday to have the tear fixed and the retina reattached. Normally this involves removing all the vitreous humor and replacing it with a gas bubble after having fixed the retina with cryosurgery/ laser treatment which results in weeks of face-down convalescence. However, on entering my eye they found not all of this was necessary and I should be ok now after a few days taking it easy. 

So the moral of the tale is:

• Don't ignore the floaters...especially if there is a sudden change! Or any other sudden change.
• The NHS were absolutely magnificent. The whole problem went from detection to cure in under 3 days. 
• Regular eye examinations are worthwhile. And have the retinal photos done which usually cost extra. The ones from by last last scheduled examination were invaluable in confirming a change.
• Don't put off making an appointment. I made things worse by not acting soon enough. Not a disaster, but it could have been. Once a tear starts, it can quickly spread, just like a windscreen crack. It is especially a problem for very short-sighted people like myself.
• A lot of problems can be fixed completely, but the recuperation time can be very long for the more complex procedures. 
• Personally I have a squeamish "thing" about eyes; the idea of someone opening mine up is a concept hard to face up to! I was dreading the operation which was done under a local anaesthetic. But on the day the operation was no more painful than a trip to the dentist. Your eye cannot move since all the muscles are locked solid by the anaesthetic and the eye is no longer light-sensitive during the procedure. You can just about feel the cryotherapy but that's about all. You don't have to worry about blinking or looking straight.

If this helps one other person to avoid the same (or much worse) it's been worth the 15 minutes to type it in..

RL

[Stu]

That’s really useful information, thanks for writing it all up. I’m really glad you got sorted so quickly and that both optician and NHS were at the top of their game 👍👍

[Roy Challen]

Yes, thanks for posting. I'm not sure whether the appropriate emoji is a sad face, thanks, like, or what?

I've not noticed any change, and I observe as often as I can.

Worth knowing, thanks again.

[Paz]

Thanks for posting, this is very helpful to know. Glad to hear that you got good treatment. I paid extra for the retina scan at my last appointment. They said it wasn't clinically necessary but I was interested. They could see my floaters (but not bad/sinister ones) and they found a freckle on one of my retinas but advised it was a benign thing. But I'll keep having those scans whenever I have a check up as it didn't cost much and one day it might make a big difference to how soon an issue is picked up. 

[Knighty2112]

Thank goodness all is OK now for you. I’ve had a few floaters since my teenage years. However thankfully they’ve never got any worse than when I first noticed them, but if I do notice a sudden upturn of them I’ll get to the hospital straight away. 👍🏻

[UKDiver]

I agree with reporting change as soon as it occurs, definitely with eyes. I was getting some ring flashes (quite odd in the dark) with a fairly large floater, so managed to see an optician while under tight covid controls. Apparently they are evidence of the vitreous humour coming away, to some detailed inspection was done. All very interesting. Fortunately this kind of issue settles down, but I still need to watch out for more flashes. The floater is here to stay most likely.

[DaveS]

Eyes give me the heebies, but thanks for posting that scary or what 😱.

Not had anything quite that bad, but I did get bright flashes all round the perifery of my left eye vision. Got on to the optician PDQ. Put strong eye drops in and had good look around. Diagnosed Posterior Vitreous Detachment. Referral to the county hospital, where they put in even stronger drops and had more thorough look. Decided that it would be OK.

The only side effect is that my dark adaptation takes longer, the drops might have affected how quickly my irises dilate.

[iantaylor2uk]

I had one of these a couple of years ago (I was 58 at the time). The advice from the 111 hotline was to go to A&E to get checked out (as they want to make sure the retina doesn't become detached). When they checked me out they did find a small hole on the retina of my other eye, and I had to get it Lasered a few months later - sounds bad but it only took a couple of minutes and wasn't painful. You're more likely to get floaters if you are short sighted.

[RobertI]

Thanks for the cautionary tale @rl, it’s good to know it turned out well for you and a good reminder to us all to be aware. 

I had a vitreous detachment 18 months ago which manifested as flashes in the corner of the eye - apparently this is fairly normal once you are into your 50’s - I now have a permanent ‘cobweb’ floating across my vision as a result, which is very irritating and distracting, although strangely does not seem to affect my ability to resolve doubles or see fine detail on planets. 

I throughly recommend binoviewers for people with floaters, it makes them much less noticeable imo, and are especially good if you have floaters in your dominant eye. 

[happy-kat]

That's really good the speed it all happened, well done team NHS for resolving so quickly. I had the retina photos last year but will make a point to do that on next appointment.

[callisto]

Yeah, don't ignore signs like those.

My wife was having trouble with her right eye for a while... turns out she had cold sores in it, anyway she found out through this she has glocoma 😒

2 operations later it's much better but she has to get her driving/reading glasses changed every 3 months... the NHS have been fantastic 👍

[Mr Spock]

I'm pleased you've come out of it OK. It could have been really bad.

I have floaters across the centre of my left (observing) eye which are stationary, and a blurred patch just below centre on the right - also a build up of pressure in that one. My letter from the hospital says:
Right eye: clinically significant macula oedema
Both eyes: very severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy
Right eye: diabetic maculopathy

I'm just about to start some drops (latanoprost) to reduce the fluid, but I can see ok and they don't propose any other treatment at the moment.

[Pixies]

Blimey! Glad that the OP is OK. Like Roy, I wasn't sure about the emoji to use! Went for 'thanks'!

Michael - you just keep them on their toes about this!

And everyone else - keep on those eye tests! Luckily they are all still free up here north of the border. My optician says I have very healthy eyes for my age - ignoring my very short-sightedness and slight astigmatism.

[PeterCPC]

I would just add that, if you get any very bright flashes of light you should go to the hospital asap as it means the retina is becoming detached.

[Gfamily]

Any rapid increase in floaters should be considered a red flag. 

I had a strange phenomenon of a mixture of bright flashes and short lived localised blackout areas in one eye - it came on very rapidly, just as I was getting out of the car one afternoon. 

I went straight to the local specialist eye hospital (where Mrs G had her detatched retina treated 5 years earlier) and got immediate triaged for assessment.

It turns out that (fortunately) it was caused by the thickening vitreous humour pulling away from the retina, but without causing any permanent damage.   

Edited May 25, 2022 by Gfamily

[Orlando Gonzalez]

Glad you are doing well and thanks for posting. Recently I noticed a large floater in my left eye during daytime. It went away after a few weeks but now I think I'll have my eyes checked.

[Kluson]

Wow, so glad all is well and you are on the mend.