This is the first time I've posted on a forum so forgive me if I'm not doing this right, but after relying on the information you all have provided here for years I thought I would share my story. And I apologize for this being so long but I wanted to provide as much information as possible!
I am a 29 year old female who had been suffering from floaters for over 8 years. What started as one floater in my right eye escalated to eventually hundreds of tiny dots and several large masses due to a couple of bouts of intermediate uveitis. The inflammatory cells that entered my eye due to the condition did not disappear, as they apparently sometimes do. I was told that there was no option available to get rid of the floaters and (as will be of no surprise to anyone on here) to just "get used to them." When I brought up having a vitrectomy with my retinal specialist (at the time) he dismissed it saying that it was too dangerous and that the side effects were really bad. Well, as you can all attest to, I was not able to get used to the floaters.
I will say that there were certainly periods of time spanning weeks where I didn't think about them all and they didn't impact my life as much as they did when I was obsessive about them. Still, having a sea of floaters does impact a persons quality of life and I found that it was frustrating and difficult to engage in the activities I used to enjoy.
After spending years researching floaters I found a retinal specialist through an online search that lists floaterectomy as one of the surgeries he offers. I waited about a year before contacting him while I debated going down that path. I also didn't want to get my hopes up only to be turned away due to my history of uveitis. But, after a particularly emotionally draining weekend due to my floaters I decided to at least meet with him.
When I met with him he told me that the risks of the surgery were cataract (which he says everyone gets as they age), infection (which is very serious but can be treated. He said that the risk of losing vision from infection is smaller than the risk of getting an infection), retinal detachment and hemorrage. In his experience there is about a 2-3% risk associated with the surgery. I asked him why there are so few doctors willing to perform this surgery and he said that a lot of doctors simply aren't confident in doing it. He told me that he performs vitrectomies approximately 25-30 times a month as part of other retinal surgies and about 2-3 times per year specifically for floaters. I asked him whether he would recommend the surgery for me and he said he would, which was incredibly exciting for me but also made me nervous. I mulled over actually having the surgery for a couple of weeks and realized that for me, the pros far outweighed the cons. I was comfortable with the risk of cataract and had been living with the risk of retinal detachment for years due to my uveitis.
I had the surgery about 5 weeks ago. I was put under (although they typically do local anesthesia) because I am really nearsighted and have a longer eyeball than most, so it was safer. It took about 30 minutes and I woke up with a giant eyepatch on. Immediately when I woke up I saw tons of large black blobs in my eye and asked the nurse what it was. She said she didn't know and so I did panic a bit, although I was pretty out it. If you get the surgery, this is the steroid you are seeing that was injected into your eye! I wish someone had told me that beforehand :)
The first night I was told to keep the eyepatch on and it would be removed at the doctors office the next day. The pain was minimal but my eye felt like it had been scratched and I had a lot of flashing. The next day after they removed the patch I was not able to see clearly and was still experiencing some flashing, although it had calmed down somewhat. The doctor told me that everything was looking great and, because of the flashing, to try not to move my eye too much.
For 2 weeks after the surgery I was not allowed to read, go on the computer, get water in my eye, bend at the waist, pick up anything over 5lbs, or excercise. I also had to wear an eyepatch every night so that I didn't rub my eye. Several eyedrops were prescribed, including Predforte which I am tapering now.
Since the surgery the flashing has subsided pretty much entirely. My vision has become a lot clearer. I do have a couple of residual floaters that I sometimes notice as well as a mass of clear cells. While my eye will still be improving and changing over the next couple of months I am completely satisfied with the surgery. Even if these couple of tiny dots don't go away I can't tell you how much this has changed me life! Would I get the surgery again? Absolutely! Would I get the surgery in my left eye if need be? Yes, but while I do have a few floaters in that eye I wouldn't risk it unless it got bad. A few floaters for me is nothing compared to what I had to deal with before!
This was maybe a bit long but I hope there's information in here that will at least help someone! Let me know if you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them.
I am a 29 year old female who had been suffering from floaters for over 8 years. What started as one floater in my right eye escalated to eventually hundreds of tiny dots and several large masses due to a couple of bouts of intermediate uveitis. The inflammatory cells that entered my eye due to the condition did not disappear, as they apparently sometimes do. I was told that there was no option available to get rid of the floaters and (as will be of no surprise to anyone on here) to just "get used to them." When I brought up having a vitrectomy with my retinal specialist (at the time) he dismissed it saying that it was too dangerous and that the side effects were really bad. Well, as you can all attest to, I was not able to get used to the floaters.
I will say that there were certainly periods of time spanning weeks where I didn't think about them all and they didn't impact my life as much as they did when I was obsessive about them. Still, having a sea of floaters does impact a persons quality of life and I found that it was frustrating and difficult to engage in the activities I used to enjoy.
After spending years researching floaters I found a retinal specialist through an online search that lists floaterectomy as one of the surgeries he offers. I waited about a year before contacting him while I debated going down that path. I also didn't want to get my hopes up only to be turned away due to my history of uveitis. But, after a particularly emotionally draining weekend due to my floaters I decided to at least meet with him.
When I met with him he told me that the risks of the surgery were cataract (which he says everyone gets as they age), infection (which is very serious but can be treated. He said that the risk of losing vision from infection is smaller than the risk of getting an infection), retinal detachment and hemorrage. In his experience there is about a 2-3% risk associated with the surgery. I asked him why there are so few doctors willing to perform this surgery and he said that a lot of doctors simply aren't confident in doing it. He told me that he performs vitrectomies approximately 25-30 times a month as part of other retinal surgies and about 2-3 times per year specifically for floaters. I asked him whether he would recommend the surgery for me and he said he would, which was incredibly exciting for me but also made me nervous. I mulled over actually having the surgery for a couple of weeks and realized that for me, the pros far outweighed the cons. I was comfortable with the risk of cataract and had been living with the risk of retinal detachment for years due to my uveitis.
I had the surgery about 5 weeks ago. I was put under (although they typically do local anesthesia) because I am really nearsighted and have a longer eyeball than most, so it was safer. It took about 30 minutes and I woke up with a giant eyepatch on. Immediately when I woke up I saw tons of large black blobs in my eye and asked the nurse what it was. She said she didn't know and so I did panic a bit, although I was pretty out it. If you get the surgery, this is the steroid you are seeing that was injected into your eye! I wish someone had told me that beforehand :)
The first night I was told to keep the eyepatch on and it would be removed at the doctors office the next day. The pain was minimal but my eye felt like it had been scratched and I had a lot of flashing. The next day after they removed the patch I was not able to see clearly and was still experiencing some flashing, although it had calmed down somewhat. The doctor told me that everything was looking great and, because of the flashing, to try not to move my eye too much.
For 2 weeks after the surgery I was not allowed to read, go on the computer, get water in my eye, bend at the waist, pick up anything over 5lbs, or excercise. I also had to wear an eyepatch every night so that I didn't rub my eye. Several eyedrops were prescribed, including Predforte which I am tapering now.
Since the surgery the flashing has subsided pretty much entirely. My vision has become a lot clearer. I do have a couple of residual floaters that I sometimes notice as well as a mass of clear cells. While my eye will still be improving and changing over the next couple of months I am completely satisfied with the surgery. Even if these couple of tiny dots don't go away I can't tell you how much this has changed me life! Would I get the surgery again? Absolutely! Would I get the surgery in my left eye if need be? Yes, but while I do have a few floaters in that eye I wouldn't risk it unless it got bad. A few floaters for me is nothing compared to what I had to deal with before!
This was maybe a bit long but I hope there's information in here that will at least help someone! Let me know if you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them.

