Surgery
- Thread starter oldroller
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I have a systemic inflammatory condition that was brought on by a tick bite some years ago and visual floaters along with visual waviness have been a part of it.
I am regularly monitored by an eye doc who has been giving me injections of a drug called Lucentis directly into the eye which has slowed down the problem. This procedure is neither better or worse than a sharp stick in the eye. :yikes:
got to keep our senses of humor, right?
with inflammation, the vitreous fluid in the rear compartment of the eye can thicken and shred and this is thought to be a cause of floaters.
I don't know what other surgical options are avail for floaters.
if it's you who is experiencing this, best of luck to you in finding a solution.
best,
brian kc
I am regularly monitored by an eye doc who has been giving me injections of a drug called Lucentis directly into the eye which has slowed down the problem. This procedure is neither better or worse than a sharp stick in the eye. :yikes:
got to keep our senses of humor, right?
with inflammation, the vitreous fluid in the rear compartment of the eye can thicken and shred and this is thought to be a cause of floaters.
I don't know what other surgical options are avail for floaters.
if it's you who is experiencing this, best of luck to you in finding a solution.
best,
brian kc
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My daughter's MIL is right now spending 10 days laying on her belly in a hospital bed after surgery to repair a detached retina. Both YAG laser surgery and vitrectomy to remove the floaters carry a significant risk of retinal detachment in the future. H-mmm...
My advise is to avoid eye surgery unless it is absolutely essential. I had many problems occur after having major eye surgery 7 years ago. Some didn't appear until a few years after the operation. In my case the surgery was essential, but to voluntarily let somebody go into my eye in the hopes of improving my vision? Never. As the saying goes, "The enemy of good is perfect".
That's interesting. The floaters in my left eye really appeared a while after I got bit by a deer tick and contracted Lyme. I've read that Lyme can attack the eye. Did you get Lyme, or just have a reaction to the bite?
words of wisdom !
this surgery solution is usually a vitrectomy , which should never been done for confort . because of some "little" risks , like cataract , like tractions on the retina, and don't forget the very very very minor risk of infections which are always a major problem when they occure inside the eyes ....
Best is to look for the cause, at first . Just to be sure that the floaters aren't caused by a parsplanitis or by a posterior uveitis ... when it's the case,the cause must be treated (not so easy , believe me or not...)
If the cause is simply the age , the amount of years ( ;-) ) , i would suggest you to be extremelly carefull : if the surgery was a magical solution for floaters , it would be a verrry usual & frequent kind of eyes surgery . But AFAIK it's not the case , at least here, in europe : all the ophtalmologists i know are against the systematic use of vitrectomy against floaters/for confort , because of the "little" risks ... technically, it's a "simple" surgery , but ....
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You have one of the best senses of humor I know of Brian, my old friend.
A guy I know at the pool hall got a floater in his left eye, just the other day.
While playing One Pocket he hit the Que ball twice, while making a shot, and didn't call the foul on himself.
His opponent floated a right-cross and the game was over.
yes, got Lyme disease.
short of death, perhaps one of the worst cases.
went untreated for 8 months, the docs thought the initial rash was a spider bite.
by month 8, when I was finally diagnosed, I was unable to speak, couldn't come out in daytime because of brightness, was haleucinating, and felt about as sick as a person can.
since then I have been treated as an in-patient at Johns-Hopkins, Texas A&M, NIH, Lahey Clinic Boston, Yale, VA Hosp,and Boston Med Ctr.
now having difficulty holding my cue butt with inflammation in my right hand and next week I'll be going back into Yale for a heart procedure to do with cardio-pulm vasculitis that has affected my lungs and aortic valve.
all from an effing tick bite. :angry:
there is a lot written about a correlation between Lyme and vision problems incl floaters. here's one link:
http://www.tiredoflyme.com/bizarre-visual-symptoms-of-lyme-disease.html#.VNO7YS72dOY
if your floaters started subsequent to a known deer tick bite you should look into it.
best,
brian kc
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I was lucky enough to get an ophthalmologist who errs on the side of caution. After my injury I was ready to do just about anything to restore my vision, but he knows the real risks and kept me informed throughout the process. He even sent me six hours away to Philly for my surgery instead of doing it himself because he said the guy had more experience with traumatic cataracts. Good call since there was a major problem getting my lens out and the Philly doc knew just what to do.
Even after I developed a "secondary cataract" (opacification of the lens capsule) a few years later, he refused to do the YAG laser treatment until my vision got worse than 20/50 corrected. The reason why is that even though the YAG is a "cold" laser, it delivers a lot of energy to the inside of the eye. One of the uncommon but real risks? Retinal detachment.
Even now, with my right pupil permanently blown out to about 10mm and causing much glare and vision reduction, he refuses to do the "simple" procedure on my iris to draw the pupil smaller because of the small risk involved. I'm sticking with this guy. If it was up to me I'd probably have had it all done... and be completely blind it the eye.
I was lucky enough to get an ophthalmologist who errs on the side of caution. After my injury I was ready to do just about anything to restore my vision, but he knows the real risks and kept me informed throughout the process. He even sent me six hours away to Philly for my surgery instead of doing it himself because he said the guy had more experience with traumatic cataracts. Good call since there was a major problem getting my lens out and the Philly doc knew just what to do.
Even after I developed a "secondary cataract" (opacification of the lens capsule) a few years later, he refused to do the YAG laser treatment until my vision got worse than 20/50 corrected. The reason why is that even though the YAG is a "cold" laser, it delivers a lot of energy to the inside of the eye. One of the uncommon but real risks? Retinal detachment.
Even now, with my right pupil permanently blown out to about 10mm and causing much glare and vision reduction, he refuses to do the "simple" procedure on my iris to draw the pupil smaller because of the small risk involved. I'm sticking with this guy. If it was up to me I'd probably have had it all done... and be completely blind it the eye.
he's a good man !
Just in case, about your right pupil, (in many cases) it's possible to have a special contact lens made with a painted iris= a restored to 2-4mm pupil . Not so expensive .
Dustry
Banned
the eye constantly flushes, that floater should wash out by itself.
the flush works pretty much like an automotive cooling system.
when the floater disappears you may experience another floater.
they always wash when the eye flushes.
I had a massive floater right on my optic nerve that prevented me from seeing anything straight ahead. I could see left and right, but nothing right in front of me. I had a vitrectomy, as this was the only option to completely remove it, but it does entail some serious risks. It was a great success for me, but for small, little annoying floaters, this is not a good option.
Yeah, I tried one of those (after fighting with the insurance company for months), but the colored part wasn't opaque enough to block out the light. I'm told there is a brand called Narcissus that makes opaque ones, but they are very expensive and hard to get someone here to prescribe one. If I thought it would work I'd buy one in an instant. In spite of all the damage inside my eye, they still got me corrected to about 20/25, but it's a very hazy 20/25, with extremely poor contrast which drives me insane, especially trying to drive at night.
They're trapped in the thick fluid inside the eyeball, how do they flush away?
often they are made by folds of the hyaloid membran , so when the vitrea is modified by the streams, there is a kind of "unfolding" ...when not , gravity does the job , helped by the fluids slow streams...
dunno if it helps, damn crappy english typical of frenchies
Geez, Brian, I thought my case was bad!
Weird thing is I had meningitis, Bell's Palsy, high temp, and the rash as presenting symptoms, but the test was negative so they didn't even want to treat me at all. I had to fight like hell just to get a script for doxy. My doc told me he doesn't believe in Lyme, or at least that it is extremely hard to contract. Time to find a new doc, I guess.
There's a lot of bad info about the disease as a result of the power play for a vaccine when Lyme was first recognized. A real good (and scary) book about the whole thing is "Cure Unknown", by Pam Weintraub.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312378130?tag=fw-source-gs-20
when Pam Weintraub was writing this book she came to my house to interview me. I had some damning info on how some docs at Yale were conflicted and corrupt over this illness, potential patents for vaccines, crooked insurance i.m.e. reports, etc. And I had the best kind of evidence - I recorded a video of a meeting featuring many of these corrupt doctors having candid discussions and it ended with the head of Yale's Lyme Disease Clinic actually chasing me and my son down Cedar St, New Haven in front of the School of Medicine. He was asking then demanding what I recorded be given to him. I didn't give it. Talk about surreal events in one's life. Yale's Lyme Clinic closed soon after, after running for13 years.
I also had Bell's palsy early on and Lyme encephalitis. The vast majority of people who have chronic Lyme have central nervous system involvement. Once this bacteria crosses the blood-brain barrier into the CNS it can cause havoc and becomes very difficult to treat.
Regarding your test being negative, there is no gold standard test that can tell definitively whether or not someone is actively infected with LD. Well, actually there is one. If a tissue sample is taken from the outer margins of the initial rash, there is the possibility to culture the spirochetes and if any are there, this would be certain evidence but for the bacteria to be in the exact sample taken is very hit or miss. That culture test is only avail at the time of the rash and, frankly, it's very seldom done because of the low yield and that the rash, itself, is a tell-tale sign for Lyme. no further testing should be needed.
because these tests are largely unreliable, LD is a clinical diagnosis. Someone who presents as you described above following a tick bite, that should have been an easy one for your docs.
the blood tests for Lyme are indirect tests, simply meaning they are not looking for the bacteria, but rather, they are looking to see if your immune system recognizes this bacterial invader, and, if so, how strong the response is. An ELISA test is for screening and can be (should *always* be) followed by a western blot test which is more specific for trying to id outer surface proteins of the spirochete. Some bands are highly specific and some, not so much, a couple can even have some cross-reactivity with conditions like gingivitis, pinta and yaws (other spirochete illnesses).
There are many reasons why a person with LD can have neg test results. Here's three well known examples:
1. testing was administered too early not allowing enough time for a measurable immune response to be in place. This could take up to a month following infection.
2. if the person has had a history of taking meds that can suppress immune response.
3. The immune cells that the tests are looking for are doing their job, binding to the antigen (the spirochete) and, therefore are not freely circulating in the bloodstream and unable to show up on the testing.
Your doctor said he doesn't believe n Lyme. I've run across a few like him. What he says makes no logical sense; I would end my relationship with him.
I'm a little passionate on this subject (can you tell?
) I've seen quite a few people's lives ruined by LD, incl many kids. A friend of mine, Kevin Smith, from Fairfield, CT shot himself in the heart to get away from his Lyme disease pain. He was as tough as nails, a CT lobsterman, one of those guys who when you smacked him on the back it was like you were hitting granite. The reason he shot himself in the chest was so his brain might be used for Lyme research, as he requested in the note he left.
I know I've gone way far afield from being pool related, so I'll wind it down.
It's a big problem here where I live (even named after Old Lyme, CT, the town where it was first discovered). It's also endemic in many other parts of the USA and Europe.
if anyone has any questions on this subject, feel free to pm me. Out of necessity I've learned quite a bit about this particular illness. They've even had me give talks on it for staff at local hospitals.
now back to regularly scheduled programming.
best,
brian kc
P.S. The human Lyme vaccine, named LymeRix by Glaxo Smith-Kline was a disaster and was withdrawn from the market after quite a few people became very ill, some crippled, from taking it.
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This is true here in the USA too. I have a floater in one eye, that showed up one day about 3 years ago. My opthamologist checked it out to make sure it wasn't the result of a torn retina (it wasn't), and promptly told me just to live with it, as surgery was not recommended, unless as an emergency repair due to something else. I live with it...at least I have 20-20 vision at 61, and only wear $2 readers. 
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
My father has had over a dozen eye procedures due to suffering a torn retina 15 years ago. One of the many side effects of those procedures was problems with floaters and distorted light. Im hoping that eye surgery of this sort has progressed since the time of his initial procedure...he has often said he would have been better off losing his eye then being left handicapped and disoriented. Do not have evasive eye surgery unless it is necessary