Any opticians around? Floaters not from PVD?

[BrunchMonster]

I seem to be developing more blurry/cobwebby sort of floaters in one eye. I already had a PVD with a retinal tear that was surgically repaired - this was years ago. So the current floaters aren't likely to be from that - but when I google, that is all that comes up. Anyone know if there are other reasons that floaters likely develop? Just age?

This is fascinating. I have had so many eye problems yet still seem to know shockingly little.

Glad you’re ok OP. I tend to take a very cautious approach due to my history and everything panicky me!

My L eye PVD is complete now - 4 years after R eye PVD. they said it'd most likely be within a year...
Also, it started in January and I was told it generally happens over 3or 4 weeks. Months morelike!!

I've got lots of floaters in that eye, esp in the morning. Drives me potty but from R eye experience, it'll settle

Just a thought, could you have dry eye syndrome? I get blurry vision if I don't use the celluvisk drops often enough

I’ve seen it said that the vitreous liquifies but also that it shrinks in PVD - does the liquid leach out slightly? Is that what is meant by liquify and is that why the vitreous shrinks?

I had a detachment requiring a scleral buckle in my thirties. I had no floaters at all, just a very occasional small green spark in one part of my vision. Went to the optician and was sent straight for eye surgery (scleral buckle and lots of laser), which was a total shock - I was told by the consultant I was lucky to still have my sight! I’ve since had tears in my other eye but those have been caught early and lasered. I’m very short sighted with astigmatism, that was my risk factor.

Given that you are a high myope, you need to be checked for myopic cnv (choroidal neovascularisation), which can be a complication of high myopia and may be missed by an optician. It typically presents as visual distortion (wavy or kinked lines e.g.), blur or smudge in visual field, or bright or dark ‘blob’ in visual field, but any visual change should be checked. It is essential that this is diagnosed swiftly, as treatment (which is v effective) is strongly recommended within two weeks of onset, to avoid retinal scarring. If your visual changes are still present, I would get checked at eye casualty, requesting both an OCT scan and, if there is a suggestion of fluid behind the macula, a fluorescein angiogram to check for leakage. Whether your PVD is complete or not is irrelevant when it comes to this less common high-myopic problem.

that's interesting, I've never heard of myopic CNV. I'll do a bit of googling. I did have an OCT though and fluorescin test at the opticians recently. And the floaters are not a sudden change, but a more gradual development over time. So I don't think they are likely to be an emergency, but it's interesting hearing about all the other potential causes. They're also quite different than the floaters that happened with the retinal tear.

Interesting that your PVDs were four years apart , @Tilllly - I've always read that they are usually within a couple of years, so was thinking my eyes were a bit odd that it's 10 years plus. Glad it's not just me.

I do have dry eyes, though I don't know if it's enough to be an actual syndrome. I use drops regularly, but it could well be related, and I'll keep using the drops and the mask etc.

Lots of issues with myopia that they don't really warn you about, although I guess they probably don't want to scare you. I know a lot of people with high myopia, but then I think it probably is more common in professions with lots of reading and so on. I thought at first that prescriptions greater than, e.g, -6 would be relatively uncommon, maybe 10 or 20% of people ,but actually I know loads.

I’ve had arced lines as symptoms of my retinal tears. No floaters for those or my detachment.

I’m -12 (it’s hereditary in my case), so higher than normal risk!

I still have my scleral buckle on many years later.

I’ve been told that my eyes are very dry by the eye clinic and that I should use drops twice a day. They felt fine to me when they said that but I used drops twice a day for a while after they advised me to but found that my eyes became almost addicted to them. I’d wake in the night with my eyes so dry that my eyelids were stuck (and I’d used drops just before bed). So I stopped using the drops and they’re back to normal now, still dry but they feel more comfortable.