Wondering if anyone has had an FOV, Floaters Only Vitrectomy

AGREED!

Another thing you can expect is that whenever you see another provider they will always ask the same questions, repeat the same tests, take their own pictures, X-rays, etc. even though you bring copies of everything to your new appointment.
Sometimes I wish I had recorded what was said the first time and just play it back.

TY Maze for your thoughts. I have recorded many appointments and have found that the information best serves ME. I have never found on person, doctor, nurse, secretary, administrator, or anyone who responded with joy and glee...in fact more often than not their reactions are quite the opposite often taking the moment to remind me ( tell me their beliefs that “ it's illegal to record....etc “ ) maybe it is, maybe it isn't. For me it helps me with my ART my WRITING, and my SATISFACTION. I also call it “ my ‘ research ‘. That said I found a GEM of a doctor in this teacher/doctor allowing me to tell her “ my thoughts, my experiences, and my theories “
I'll tell more in a reply to Susan since this is her thread. Feel free to share your own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. I appreciate all feedback whether or not I agree. Happy New Year!

GOod Morning Susan and all, If for any reason there is ANYTHING about my story in YOUR THREAD, please do not hesitate to say: “ maybe it's time to start your own thread “ I'm VERY used to conventional thinkers ( no slight intended or inferred ) In your first post you mentioned wanting to hear other members experiences like yours and not only I but an amazing group of other members related. I find this thread exceptionally helpful and relevant to my “ experiences “.

I realized after rereading my posts and others posts that I never mentioned the “ floaters “ aspect but that term caught my eye ( no pun intended ) because there was that aspect of my changing vision that I finally ask Doc B about several visits into seeing her.

Maybe this is interesting because, as I mentioned she's a professor as well as a practitioner which i’m pretty sure her liberalness with my curiosity, theories and feedback has opened her up to not only listening to me but truly hearing me. So when I asked her about “ floaters “ She simply said “ yes, they’re inside the eye.” Actually I never new that and perhaps that could have led to a follow up by her to ask me why I asked. Now I'm excited to talk with her again to tell her what I read here. But after she explained we quickly went back to MY EXPERIMENT which she agreed to participate in after I presented her with a theisis like argument for why I didn't want the cataract surgery NOW.

She gave me her cell phone number and several times now we spoke on her way home from work for 35 to 45 minutes. I truly feel as if she is a collaborative partner in my vision problem. After she told me that “ Doctors don't talk to each other but rely on their notes and confessed to me that in 7 months she spoken with me more than she has with him in two years; and they work in the same building and department. I also kidded her that if my experiment works and she publishes in the New England Jourmal of Medicine that I want “ honorable mention “ she laughed really heartily and then asked me if I ever thought about being a doctor? My reply was that “ blood makes me sqirm, but I did want to be a research scientist but my parent never got me the big chemistry set I asked for every Christmas because they later told me they were afraid I might blow up the house “ she really laughed at that. She told me she thought I would be a great one and maybe it's not to late: “ you already got my attention and here we are actually doing YOUR WORK “ I was seriously honored. Most doctors HATE MY THEORUZING!.

I digress. I have yet talked about “ the floaters “ but I am talking about the aspects and details of what I see including COLORS, SHAPES, LIGHT, MOVEMENT, and I from the being thought that they reminded me in a way “ like ‘ floaters ‘ “ but they are different enough that I was afraid that using a word that has a fairing specific image/definition so I didn't want to lead this journey down a possible wrong path. In fact is like you to help me understand how that word came up for you? As an artist I never thought of doing a series of paintings called “FLOATERS” but I will do it now and will do a search after typing here to see if their are any representations of them. [ JUMP: PC analogy on another page ] Maybe you know if there exists a way of photographing them. From what I know that might be impossible?!?

It’s VERY INTERESTING to me that several of you seem to agree that what you see are “ floaters “ but you agree that they appear differently to each of you.
I really really like this information and want to hear and ask more.

As I mentioned Susan if you want me to take my
“fLOaTeRs” elsewhere I'll gladly do that but you started this thread so your thoughts and feedback is to be respected by me. Please let me know. I'm going to take a coffee and floater search break.

BBL
SOY

Hi, I’ve been on this thread for a number of months researching and considering my Floaters Only Vitrectomy. I had the procedure done on 12/3/20 and am, initially, pleased with the results and hoping for further improvement in 2021.

Eye floaters are specs, circles, “threads”, blobs..any number of various shapes and sizes (as you mentioned, others have described in this discussion group). As I understand, they are made up of collagen, protein or pieces of the vitreous membrane or other membranes that get stuck in your vitreous humor and obstruct the free-flow of light to your retina. This “debris” stuck within your vitreous humor causes varying degrees of obstruction to your vision and, thereby, has varying effects on quality of vision.

As I, previously, described, I put up with tons of floaters in each eye for most of my life until this year. After my December 2019 cataract surgery and placement of IOL, I got a new floater (or group of floaters) that I’d describe as follows: a wide area of 50-100 small, grouped circles that passed through my main vision field consistently. My retinal surgeon called it a “veil-type” floater(s). Driving got very challenging as the “veil” would go to the left, then right through my main focal point of vision. Surgeon described it as “like a windshield wiper.” It caused me visual confusion and got scary. After reading a lot of this group’s experiences and researching, I decided that my problem lessened my quality of life enough AND the surgery was low enough risk that I’d have it done. Ok, enough on that.

You can look up Floaters and Flashes Animations at various Youtube sites online to see very good representations of what they look like to those afflicted with them. I don’t know how they replicate these animations, but they are very realistic. Sum: Most people have eye floaters, especially when you get to be over 60 years old. Anyone with the problem just has to decide if the floaters are a significant factor in vision degradation and quality of their life in considering sticking with status quo versus getting surgery.

Good luck, Bob

@stuckonu it was good to hear some details about the issues with your vision, apart from the issues you’ve had with the many providers you’ve seen. A couple thoughts and comments in response to yours:

As I said once before in this thread, the term, floaters, seems to me to be a misnomer, because the floaters I experienced from my deteriorating vitreous were unlike any other floaters I had experienced. They certainly were more debilitating. Your brief description of “colors and lights” is unlike my experience although the comment “shapes and movement” was part of mine. I was reassured when I read all the descriptions from other people that we shared the commonality of moving phenomena that obscured vision. The description of that phenomena did vary just a bit from person to person but gauzy wisps and pond water under a microscope seemed to resonate. Colors and lights reminds of the phenomena experienced by some with migraine headaches. Whatever your experience, your vision is a constant struggle with varying degrees of impairment. That constant struggle and effort is a shared experience here. And hearing the experiences of other people makes one not feel so alone or that they are imagining things.

I’m not sure how someone on the phone would say with certainty whether or not you should have cataract surgery without examining you. I get that sometimes more than one issue is present and can confound a diagnosis and solution, but that struck me as unusual.

You mention without elaboration an EXPERIMENT. Not understanding what that entails, I can’t comment.

After seeing Ophthalmologists and a Vitreous-Retinal specialist and after a long history of unusual issues without resolution, I would probably be headed to a trusted research and teaching facility such as Mayo or other such institution.

Thanks Bob for your input. I'll check out the YouTube videos that you mentioned.
After I wrote that I'm an artist and considered attempting to create ( from my own experiences ) what I've seen for year as well as what I see now.

After writing that I did a search and found a number of what looked like photograph again a blue sky and one in particular generally looked like what I've seen from my childhood. I just got an iPhone after using android since my first smartphone so I haven't figure out how to save it and perhaps post it here..

That said I think that I have a combination of problems. The posts from a couple of days ago were typed with no glasses.my vision was near perfect. Yesterday was a mess. I went to the patch which I discovered helps when the blurry/double vision happens.

I know I wasn't clear about some of what's been going on and Susan asked some specific question which ill attempt to explain next. I really appreciate your story and feedback. I'm excited about seeing the. Videos.

Hi Susan,

I want to attempt to clarify a few things that must be confusing. You said that you didn't know how someone could on the phone could say “ with certainty “ whether or not I should have cataract surgery. I'll try to explain.

I had said in the post that you are referring to that the neuro- ophthalmologist told me, based on what I told him that for about 4 years I've had my eyes examined and very few of the many eye doctors that I saw even mentioned that I had these “ very small cortical cataract. “ cortical meaning shaped like a spoke wheel which eventually I was told ( they theorized ) the the reason my vision impairment was “ probably do to my seeing between the spokes “ personally I didn't like that answer and didn't think I was the main reason I was at one point said to be legally blind then two days later told that I did not need Rx glasses. Drug store glasses were good enough. When the NO on the phone first said “ tell me everything “ he wanted to know every medication I take and if I take them as prescribed; which I don't.

I was told by him that if I indeed had tiny cataracts and there are times I can see without the aid of ANY eye glasses then it's as likely as not that cataract surgery wasn't needed AT THIS TIME, AND ( I also read this when I looked up “ cornia edema “ cataract surgery before resolving the cornea edema and why I have it, cataract surgery ( the cart before the horse so to speak, could result in irrepairable damage ) So to me one of the most profound and succinct words I've heard so far was: “ we know that you have cataract because they've been discovered but something(s) else is causing your vision loss. Find out first what that is ESPECIALLY since your cataract are small.”
I told my current doctor exactly what he said. Moreover, I told her that her specialist was too quick to want to do surgery on my cataracts, but how can it be cataract is there are days that I don't need glasses of any kind? She agreed then agreed to do MY EXPERIMENT.

I've NOTICED over the years that as I get older the dilution that most doctors insist on doing, takes longer and longer for me to recover from. Since June this year I've been dilated 6 times. The last time I was so impaired that I thought I would never see clearly again. I theorized that my age now takes longer to recover just as I do from physical activity. ( raking the lawn for instance )

I reminded her of the one month of near perfect vision from the combo drops she Rx’d for me. The first experiment was that I would stop using the drop, visit and have my vision checked. Put the drops in an check my vision again twice. Once after one drop and ten minutes later after a second drop. The results blew her mind. First off my vision was worse in Oct than it was in June. I speculated that the dilations made my vision worse.

I came up with a part 2 experiment and things were going great for awhile. But “ the floaters “ I told her about and asked her about was never addressed as it is here. Monday I'm calling her and ask her about what all of you educated me about.

Back to my phone call with the NO who said “ we know you have small cataract but what else is going on? The cornea edema has not been present since the first drops. The floaters and colors are still getting worse.

I had an Mri and Mra with contrast and have no abnormalities that they can see. It's the colors that she is concerned about.

I guess time will tell. I'm typing this with no glasses on an iPhone one letter, one finger at a time.

BTW my eyes are changing from brown to bluish gray.

Take care. Hope I answered you question and the phone call

To all: I'm getting a call from my professor ophthalmologist today. Besides the “ degenerative vitreous “ is there, was there another medical names, terms, dx’s that we're mentioned in this thread?

I'm not going to self DX but I want to report my activity including report what I read here.

My doctor suggested that I reconnect with this Mayo site to ask about the possibility that it's the Mayo clinic that I heard about with a department and or group of doctors who welcome and invite patients with anything after no other hospital, doctor, or team can't figure out what is effecting a HB ( Human Being ) it might have been Mayo, John Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic or some other University Hospital that was taken on the unsolveable problems.

If anyone knows if it's Mayo or another group please advise.

Much thanks to all.

@Stuckonyou, I believe all of the institutions you named and large university medical centers are the best places to go when you have a condition that remains undiagnosed or unresolved locally. As a major referral center, Mayo Clinic sees many patients who seek a second opinion — and for good reason. In a recent study, Mayo researchers found that as many as 66 percent of these patients have their original diagnosis refined and in 21 percent of cases, changed. See this article: https://www.mayoclinic.org/giving-to-mayo-clinic/philanthropy-in-action/features-stories/the-value-of-a-second-opinion

Mayo Clinic specializes in being able to diagnose where others have failed. Here's more info about Mayo and requesting a second opinion. https://www.mayoclinic.org/answers