Eye doctor recommendations - ?

[Koalabear23]

Hi, My mum has been suffering from blurred vision and floating white spots and it’s getting worse (age 64). She has just been to the eye doctor at the local hospital and they just said - nothing they can do for her unless the retina snaps.
I want to get a second opinion with her as they didn’t explain why they can’t do anything and she can’t see properly! Happy to go private or NHS.
Any recommendations really welcomed so I can help her! Thank you.

I was in a similar situation in that I had fluid build over a period of years behind my retina and had to wait until it got bad enough to operate.

The reason is that the operation is not a guaranteed permanent fix, once you've had a detached retina fixed it's much more likely to detach again.

To give some insight into the op, it was done awake under light sedation, keyhole surgery so 3 small incisions into the eye. In my case they used laser and a couple of stitches to attach the retina, sometimes it can just be laser. They removed the vitreous fluid (vitrectomy) and replaced it with a gas bubble to hold the retina in place. They also replaced my lens with an artificial one as the gas bubble is almost guaranteed to cause a cataract if they don't.

I then had to spend 3 days laying facedown, if I needed to go to the toilet or walk to another room I had to walk bent at the waist 90 degrees so nose stayed parallel to the floor. At maximum if I desperately needed I could stand straight for 10 mins in every hour. This was for eating/drinking.

I'm 3 years on and have been to the opticians today and been told my artificial lens is developing a film so now it's watch and wait until it gets too bad at which point they'll need to replace the lens or maybe do laser surgery to peel the film away.

As you age the jelly bit at the back of the eye comes away and can cause floaters and a bit of blurred vision it's called a PVD - it's normal and happens to most individuals as they age. V. occasionally it can lead to a hole in the retina ( as I assume the poster above had), but that's usually in the first 4 weeks of the PVD occuring. But it can happen at any time, so an increase in floaters or a curtain across the vision should make you seek a second opinion.

There's a good information sheet here:
[https://www.rcophth.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017_Understanding-Posterior-vitreous-detachment.pdf]]

Floaters can be bloody annoying. I have hundreds of them, she will get used to them. It's difficult at the moment as life is a bit dull, but she will learn to ignore them.