Floaters after PVD
Floaters following Posterior Vitreous Detachment.
Update from previous post as promised. Will recap for general interest.
Some time ago I suffered PVD in my left eye. The symptoms were a vertical bright yellow crescent, flashing to the extreme left of field and some floaters. Statistically at my age (63 then) this was very lightly to happen, and as the symptoms were fading I really didn't worry too much. However, I probably made the floaters worse by some rather extreme maneuvers, because a large black blob kept swinging over the centre, and worse still, a mesh effect was over centre a lot of the time. (A mesh can be a symptom of a much more serious defect and should ALWAYS be checked out ) If I swung the junk out of the way, my eyesight was as always, damn nigh on perfect. The frustration factor was as bad as the defect, and I decided to go for surgery.
One surgeon was determined not to operate. He had a PVD after an accident when he was a young man, and made his considerable achievement with this defect. What he did not take into account, (in my opinion) was the time that my brain wiring had been running on two cylinders. I went through a very difficult period of spasm in both eyes, causing major de focusing and a great deal of pain. After a session at the emergency clinic, I was told that I had dry eyes and given two tubes of sticky stuff to keep them moist. The result, even the times that they weren't in spasm, I had gone from 20/20 to smudgy-blurry at best. What the **** were they thinking? After some weeks of pain I was getting a clue or two of the cause. Eg. Sudden release of spasm after some surprise stimulus. I asked my GP for Diazepam, despite the serious side effects that I suffer with this very addictive drug. After weeks of pain, both eyes relaxed and focused perfectly in 30 mins, also, the dry eyes recovered. I feel that the dryness could have been a direct result of the spasm, but I'm guessing. What I am sure about, is that the symptoms were relieved because the eyes became relaxed, not because of a sedative effect in the brain. (I'm disregarding the loop starting in the brain.)
I finally found a retinal surgeon who was willing to do the op, and after some waiting had the entire vitreous (gel) removed under general anaesthetic. The next two weeks have been rather unpleasant, though there was almost no pain at any time. The iris was kept dilated for two weeks with drops, and still, after a further week and a half, is not quite down to the sise of the other one. The antibiotic goes on for 4 weeks.
The counseling that I was given, included, along with the regular dangers of surgery, an increased risk of cataract, traumer to the iris etc. etc..
Iris down to sise after further week :-)
Perhaps I'll feel more positive in a few weeks, but I would say that the floaters would have to be pretty bad to go through this procedure. Having said this, to have the gel flop away from the retina does render it being somewhat diminished from the supreme device it was. The inner workings of this substance, like the eye itself, is nothing short of miraculous, new molecular structures being found recently that seriously up the anti on its complexity. It will remain to be seen, if looking through brine is any substitute. LR Nb. My travels make my communications intermittent, but as before, I will eventually respond to interested parties.