Floaters causing DH serious distress.

[Spiderplantation]

My dh has floaters (detaching vitreous thingy in eye that looks like dots and lines).

They're obstructing his vision: large enough to be a distraction and in the way except in very dim lighting.

He's described them as lines, shapes, brown or now translucent, but big and obstructive enough to be causing him huge problems working and going out in daylight. Crossing roads hard, reading difficult.

It started in August. He went to GP, optician and eye hospital, all checked for anything serious and said he's fine, to wait and they go away/the brain adjusts.

It hasn't got better and he is struggling with work (full time lecturer, marking essays on screen hours a day, struggling to focus, read or type with floaters floating across his vision).

GP rarely contactable, opticians nothing to say except that there's no cure, they will not go away and surgery googled online has too many risks. He feels that because they're not life threatening he's expected just to cope somehow, although he can't see to work properly.

The RNIB helpline has been supportive, but seems to approach it as visual impairment assumed to be permanent. This is distressing for dh as he wants hope that it can get better.

My dh is now so depressed he is really struggling. He's developed insomnia as a result of the stress and hasn't slept for nights in a row.

Any ideas of what on earth to do?

I think it’s a good thing that you’ve said he noticed them in August as that really isn’t so long ago for floaters. He should find he stops noticing them at some point although it may take a while - and with the level of distress you’re describing I’d be considering asking my gp for help with anxiety to aid that process.

I have floaters and have had two periods in my life where they seem to have got a lot worse and I’ve become obsessed with them. The first time I eventually forgot about them entirely and didn’t see them after that unless I thought about them. The second time, which started almost two years ago, they were almost unbearably present for almost a year. And then I realised one day I hadn’t noticed them in ages. Since then, I sometimes notice them quite a bit, but more and more I don’t.

I was on holiday recently taking lots of landscape photos, looking at scenery, the sky and so on. I don’t remember noticing floaters - this would have been unthinkable a year earlier. And I can’t even remember which applications on my laptop are set to dark and which light. A year ago looking at anything at all light or flicking my eyes between documents was horrendous.

My point is that both times that process of unseeing them has taken somewhat longer than the time your husband has been troubled by his floaters to date.

If this is a fairly new thing for him I promise it will get easier because it has to - I know that sounds ridiculous but honestly the floaters may not get better but you learn to adjust and to look through them because otherwise you have no life.

I can relate because I went through the same thing a few years back. I already have health issues and terrible short sight (-9.50 both eyes with astigmatism) and I suddenly had this thing where I had flashing lights etc. Saw an optician and referred to eye clinic and they said I had a post vitreous detachment which is common as you get older (I’m 42) and younger in myopic people. Anyway it left me with huge swirls of black worms and tiny dots. Literally like someone has taken a sharpie and streaked a moving line across my vision. Really invasive and like your dh i looked into vitrectomy surgery but its too risky as I'm so myopic.

But gradually you do have to just adjust to it. You have to.

I have one floater, it's annoying, mainly because I think a spider is in the room suddenly and have a panic.

However I'm also a lecturer and I think the hours if online marking really will be taking its toll here, regardless of floaters. It is honestly the most gruelling work for your eyes. If I was your dh I would request an accessibility assessment from his department/occ health and ask for a letter from the optician. The university should be able to print off all assignments to make an adjustment for him or he can listen text-to-speech (and provide verbal feedback too).

Has he got a referral to ophthalmology?

I've had them and trey are horrendous. Lots of good advice here regarding work adjustments and also CBT or similar

Oh poor soul :( I developed these after a blow to the head as a teenager and it really upset me. I remember crying because I was trying to read a book and it was so difficult with all this crap in my vision.

But I did get used to it after a while. I barely see them now unless I'm really looking for them. I don’t really have any other advice for him, but I know how he feels and it is very upsetting.

I've had this too and can confirm that anxiety about them makes them so much worse! Now I only really notice them against a white wall or when looking at the sky. Now that I don't panic when I see them my brain just ignores them.

It's like your nose - you don't notice that it's in your way until you start deliberately focusing on it. Try it! All you can see is your annoying nose in the way after a while!

He needs to insist on a referral. The opticians can refer him to the eye clinic. I've had six eye operations in the last twelve months including the one your OH googled. Tell him I've had the following due to malignant glaucoma

Laser in both eyes
Cataract and glaucoma surgery both eyes
Trabulectomy right eye
Second laser operation in right eye.
I still need further surgery in left eye.

My sight is brilliant now but the eye drops can be a chore .

Get him into the eye clinic.

Forgot to say I also had a vitrectomy operation in the right eye as well

Was your laser surgery done as a private patient? Whereabouts please? And what was the name of the procedure?
Every time I mention laser surgery for floaters at the NHS eye hospital they just shrug and tell me they’re not aware of it being an option. I’ve only come across it being offered at one private hospital and so I’m a bit anxious that it’s not a legitimate procedure.

I've had them for as long as I can remember and you just sort of get used to them.
I mostly just notice them when looking at bright lights and screens and when I started reading this thread I suddenly noticed them all across my vision (thanks for that 😆).
They're there all the time but eventually, the brain filters them out, but he needs to not be thinking about them all the time. The more he thinks about it and notices it, the worse it's going to be.

My eye surgeon NHS also does private work with the Spire I'd say the NHS are fobbing off patients if they say they've never heard of it.

Check it out

The problem is that surgery isn't even close to a guaranteed solution.

I have floaters because I had eye surgery. I had to have a procedure called a vitrectomy alongside a retina reattachment and lens replacement so it was necessary, but the act of removing the vitreous fluid dislodged the little bits which now exist to make me jump thinking that a spider has crawled into my peripheral vision 😂

I noticed them a lot for the first month or so, then they just faded into the background. I see them every now and then but certainly not all the time.

I have transitions lenses in my glasses so they automatically darken as I get into sunlight and that helps a lot.

Spire don’t mention laser surgery for floaters on their website. Only a vitrectomy where they replace all the fluid.
The hospital I read about a few years ago targeted the floaters with lasers and zapped them in some way. It sounded a lot less severe than a vitrectomy.

Laser Vitreolysis

That made me laugh (sorry!) about the nose idea because I'd completely forgotten, but when I was a teenager I was obsessed for a while with thinking my nose was too long because I could see its tip and I couldn't stop seeing it all the time, because I was so upset about having a big nose!

I have them and once you are used to them they are only a problem when changing focus as your brian learns to screen them out. It is a problem for me as I was a musician and need to constantly flick between my score and a conductor so I've had to give up. Despite this being an issue (and one of my floaters being one of the biggest the consultant at Moorfields had ever seen - called in by the house officer as she wasn't sure something that size could be a floater) they won't treat them and have said that over time they will break down by themselves.

Your DH needs to find ways to not read on screen and to stop focussing on them.

I have developed large floaters in the past couple of years and recently had them investigated to rule out any more serious issue. I would definitely agree that it is possible to "dial up/down" your awareness of them. Fortunately I have never suffered from health anxiety, so I am able to tune them out, but I would try hypnotherapy or CBT if I couldn't.

I have some floaters and the buggers make me jump sometimes as I think they are spiders running across the carpet. I have purposely avoided light coloured walls at home due to them. I have found them more annoying again at the pc because i have recently got reading glasses and my eyes/brain are getting used to the change. But I dont think they are as bad as your dh is experiencing.

What I do have severly is tinnitus, and it does get easier to ignore over time if you can try to be positive and not wallow in it, but being stressed brings it back very quickly. If your dh is prone to aniexty and unlikely to be able to tune them out I would consider the surgery privately, if it is relatively affordable for the benefits it would bring him. Wish there was something similar for tinnitus!

Yes, that’s it. Thank you.
I’ve never heard of anyone having this treatment, but it’s my dream to be able to afford it one day.
I know that everyone’s saying you get used to them eventually but that really hasn't been the case for me. It’s a swirling mass of blobs and squiggles constantly moving around, blocking the tv screen, blocking the page of my book. I’ve had them for over 40 years so my brain’s had plenty of time to adjust and they just get slightly more difficult to see past with every passing year.

I developed them about 18 months ago and for a good 6 months they were really distressing. I just had to genuinely focus to even “find” them. You really do stop seeing them!

I did find keeping my eyes moist helped - drops and an eye mask.

The vitrectomy operation takes longer but the laser was more successful. Ask the Spire about the consultant and what procedures they do

northwaleseyespecialist.co.uk/private-eye-consultant/

My opthalmologist does NHS and private work. You need to research in your area.

Apparently there have been huge leaps in eye treatments in the last decade. I was talking to a temporary consultant two year contract Sri Lankan who did cataracts all day long at home. The poor there spent long days working outside with no eye protection so lots of injuries too.

Floaters are considered benign so way down the list of necessary treatment on the NHS I had them temporarily after one operation. Not pleasant

I got floaters and dry eyes aged39 after getting exfoliating salt/scrub in my eyes by accident. Very painful and at first I thought I was fine after washing my eyes out. Next day at work (accountant and lots of white spreadsheet work) I kept trying to brush away a fly only to release it didn’t exist and I had developed floaters. Many eye appointments and much distress later my career kind of fell apart as I couldn’t concentrate on spreadsheet numbers with black dots/shapes moving about. It was heartbreaking. I worked as a bookkeeper after that as very little spreadsheet work but went from successful with high earnings to a much lower earning potential. I felt outraged that the opticians couldn’t fix them. Nowadays I’m 50 and semi retired/ part time carer to elderly parent. I rarely see them/notice them when reading or out and about. I still use spreadsheets for my own finances and they don’t seem to bother me. My dry eyes give me more bother now and having to constantly put eye drops in is a complete pain. Your DH will adjust eventually and everyday things will become okay again. However it may

Impact /change his career as it did mine. Probably not comforting except he may feel less alone if he knows it has happened to others. It’s awful though