← Return to Wondering if anyone has had an FOV, Floaters Only Vitrectomy

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@susan2018

@michaels777 I was excited to read your post on another thread about all the problems you’ve had since cataract surgery. I felt like I was reading a summary of my nearly exact experiences. Cataract surgery, toric lenses for monovision, macular edema, replacement of one of the lenses because it would not stay in position, YAG the same as you, PRK to touch up my correction. THEN two years of multiple visits back to ophthalmologist complaining of similar problems as yours, particularly the floaty, gauzy, grayish white patches and glare obscuring my vision. All this time when they checked my vision it didn’t reflect how hard it was to see because I’d blink a lot and move my head to clear my vision in order to read the eye chart quite well. . So they kept thinking my vision wasn’t really that bad. I got a second opinion about my problems with no insight. I was led to believe my problem was dry eye, and was first put on Xiidra, and Restasis, and both at the same time with no improvement. Perhaps I wasn’t describing my problem well enough or maybe it wasnt being recognized for what it was but months went by trying eye drops with no improvement. The problem was most apparent in one eye at first, but the other eye, my near vision reading eye, seemed ok so for a time I decided to give up on complaining. But when it started happening in that eye I went back to the ophthalmologist, not to the one who had done my surgeries because he was so booked up, but to his new partner. I told her of my symptoms, the moving patches, how much effort it was taking to drive and read and that I was being treated for dry eye but I didn’t think that was the problem—or maybe I was just going crazy! She looked in my eyes, told me I wasn’t going crazy, and said that my vitreous was degenerating. And that she was sorry and that as ophthalmologists they don’t like to have to say it, but that there is nothing she could do. BUT she could refer me to a vitreoretinal surgeon for an opinion if I wanted. She did say that whatever I did, she would not recommend a laser as some practitioners are promoting for the problem with my vitreous. I thought about it for a time, not entirely convinced it would help after my experiences up until this time, but then did ask for a referral. The surgeon looked in my eye, said what was going on, that the deteriorating vitreous was casting shadows on my retina which was obscuring my vision, and volunteered that a vitrectomy was appropriate for what he was seeing (and what I WASN’T seeing!) Like I said, the moment the patch came off the day after surgery, even with the gas bubble they put in the eye in surgery, what I could see above that was clear! It has been amazing. It has been two weeks and my recovery has been uneventful. I see the surgeon this week and will ask about doing my other eye, which bothers me even more now that my other eye is clear. I understand this degeneration happens with age, and especially for persons who are very near sighted. I don’t know if that applies to you. And I don’t know why it is a problem for some people and not for others. It seems to me a misnomer to call the surgery Floaters Only Vitrectomy because what I experienced wasn’t like any floaters I had previously had. You learn to ignore floaters but you can’t ignore these moving patches that obscure you vision. Don’t give up! I almost did because for so long no one seemed to understand what I was experiencing. I would be very interested in hearing any updates you might post about how things go for you.

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@susan2018 Follow up: So I saw my retinal surgeon today and she agreed to do a FOV, I am nervous yet excited! I won't have surgery until June for my right eye first, but I will follow up here with my results then. As far as my massive long and thin starburst and haze when looking at lights that happened only after my YAG treatment, my surgeon can only guess that these are due to my previous Lasik procedures done 20 years ago. We have SO much more to learn about the delicate nuances of our eyes, and I have(among others), taken our sight for granted all this time.