Increase in Floaters due to Lasik?

[tealeaf]

Since childhood, I have floaters. Not many though. I notice that the floaters seem to increase post lasik? Is this common?

[DryLondoner]

I never had any floaters pre LASIK - now I have lots. Sometimes I can't see them, even when I try looking for them. Sometimes they come flooding in.

I mentioned this to my LASIK people in the beginning, I was v. worried. Apparently, I've always had them and it has nothing to do with the LASIK. Yeah, right!!

This is when I first realised that they were not the lovely supportive team they claim to be. They are actually a world renowned eye surgery clinic. They have many high profile clients, but LASIK is LASIK, no matter where you get it done. My biggest regret - I actually cancelled my surgery after my consultation and lots of research. I thought it was too risky. They called me up and said they wanted me to talk to the surgeon, because they were the best and they didn't want me not to have a life enhancing procedure without been fully informed. I don't know why I went. At this meeting he basically convinced me that the stats online and stories were either old, or from clinics which didn't have their kit and didn't do the test they did. I paid a lot for my LASIK - I thought this meant I was going with the best and wouldn't be in this position.

And here I am.

I also have a constant scattering of light when indoors and in low light my vision is not as good as it was in contacts/glasses. In complete darkness, I feel like there is TV static surrounding me - which is weird, although I have gotten use to this now. Not to mention the dry, bloodshot eyes and oversensitive eyes I now have.

When I mention this to my surgeon, I can see he is annoyed. But I persist. This man will hear every time he sees me that he has ruined my sight, and that he has so far taken away 11 months of my life. I call them on a regular basis, often in tears - I think it's important that they know how much this is affecting me. And the risks they take with peoples lives everyday.

Ok, I might have some anger management issues I need to deal with.

[peter56]

Hi Tealeaf and Dryl,
I don't think the floaters are related to the LASIK Treatment!

Since you both had LASIK, I guess you are very myopic - shortsighted.
In myopic eyes the eye ball - globe is growing too long, also in childhood.
In healthy eyes this growing is finished at the age of about 18-19.
Myopic eyes can grow well over the Age of 30.

The vitreous ball is a 3D structure of collagen fibers. If the globe does grow too long, at some spots
the vitreous detaches from the retina. At these tiny spots the collagen fibers are contracting and building knots, that are no more
transparent. The people do see the shaddows of the floaters on the retina-macula and not the floaters directly.

So Google for vitreous floaters, vitreous detachment

Another cause of floaters is a severe intra-ocular Inflammation, but that is not related to your floaters.

If there are too many floaters, they can the evaporated by a YAG-Laser. Quite expensice therapy.

[Rebecca Petris]

Since childhood, I have floaters. Not many though. I notice that the floaters seem to increase post lasik? Is this common?

I've known ever so many people over the years who experienced increased floaters after LASIK. I believe this used to happen a lot more in the "old days" (like when I got mine, in 2001) than now - at least, I don't hear from people about it nearly so much. My own were massively increased after surgery, really quite annoying sometimes. I have known a few whose floaters became so visually disruptive that they tried a 'floaters-only vitrectomy" to improve it. Not worth the risks though unfortunately.

[runnergirl]

I experienced floaters after Lasik as well. I never ever had them before. However, i have to say, I really havent had them since all this dry eye stuff has happened.

[runnergirl]

DryLondoner,

YOu make me proud....you keep on calling them for you and inside for all of us out there wishing we were still in contact with our surgeons. You go!!!

[DryLondoner]

Runnergirl - I took great pleasure in texting him on a Sunday morning.

[theggman]

Floaters are very common after lasik. When you decrease the cornea surface area in Lasik, the floaters you have become magnified by the optical focusing in your new eye. You don't have increased floaters per se but you are more aware of them because the focal distance has been altered in your eye. With time, you'll get used to it. Just give it some time.

[runnergirl]

DryLondoner-

I think I can speak for all post Lasik dry eye patients when I say that we all take pleasure on reading your post! hahaha

[tealeaf]

Dear all,
Thanks for your replies. So, I suppose to learn to ignore the floaters is the best solution. So many things to get used to the post lasik new eyes. Can share how do you ignore the floaters? What do you tell yourself when you see the floaters?

[DryLondoner]

Apparently, your brain just manages to ignore them after a bit. If try to ignore/not think about them they should become less apparent over time.

I only see mine if I walk into a really bright white room with lots of natural light.

I feel much better knowing that they were always there, hopefully the laser hasn't done bad damage to the back of my eye. Thanks theggman and peter56 fro your explanations.

[runnergirl]

HI Tealeaf,

What do you I tell myself? I say, "what the heck is that?" I say it to myself everytime. hahaha. Then I blink a few times and just wait for it to go away.

[Rebecca Petris]

This time of year, I tell myself, "Well, at least it's not a mosquito." Since LASIK, I've swatted at a lot of nonexistent spiders and such that turned out to be floaters.

I am quite confident that mine are new and not just "more visible", because I was a very high myope, was very conscious of my vision and had lots of floaters beforehand that I was well aware of. The before/after difference in floaters was quite distinct. "Back in the day" there were theories about the suction ring used for the LASIK microkeratome being at the bottom of some of the more severe cases of increased floaters. Don't really know and don't care about the details - it's not a huge deal to me (incidentally, DryLondoner, definitely not something to sweat over! Absolutely no reason to believe it's caused harm to back of the eye.). But frankly I get kind of irritated at the insistence that all of us are just "more aware". All the LASIK surgeons used to tell us that about our night vision problems too - but once wavefront aberrometers went into mainstream use, we could prove they were wrong, because it was really surgically induced spherical aberrations.

[tealeaf]

Since post lasik, I am more paranoid about anything relating to the eyes. I do see more floaters, not sure more aware or really an increase. I was paranoid to an extent that there was once my daughter's pencil lead broke, flew across my eye and that sent me straight to my opth. for a checkup! Virtual flew to the opth. within an hour! Come to think of it, was rather funny

Rebecca, you mentioned you had lots of floaters, have the floaters reduced over time? How do you cope with the many floaters? I would want to learn the coping technique and not be too bothered by them. After reading the many posts you wrote, I am really amazed at how strong and calm you are in overcoming one eye obstacle after another.

[Rebecca Petris]

Well, it's been a long time for me, you know... in fact 13 years as of July 20th. (A long time ago on another forum or two we used to commiserate about those "laserversaries"). At some point it just becomes background noise, y'know? it's a bit like my crummy night vision. Time, time, time... I don't know if I had any particular coping technique earlier on. Been too long to remember.

And by background noise, I mean that *mostly* I don't think about them, but every now and then they'll be really annoying and something like "**** floaters!!!!" will run through my head. I suppose I probably notice them more if I'm already a bit irritable - little things always matter more when you're tense. And once something triggers my awareness of them it's kind of hard to shake it for awhile. And when they interfere with my enjoyment of something really beautiful that's probably what I dislike the most. But... in the greater context of life it's OK. If it weren't for all the 'gifts' I got from LASIK, I wouldn't be where I am right now, doing a job that's meaningful to me and that I enjoy (even if the pay is lousy, lol).

Re: strong and calm (blush) just two things to say... (1) the grace and mercy of God! and (2) there's nothing so good at making a problem go away than a bigger problem. It's like the classic advice about solving the sore toe by hitting your thumb with a hammer. Presto, the toe feels better There were some bigger health issues going on in my family during all the hardest eyeball years and they kind of eclipsed everything. That hasn't been fun either, but at least my eyes never seemed as bad as they could have without the distractions!

EDIT: Ah, that's it, I think I just stumbled onto a coping mechanism: Keep your sense of humor. Find things to laugh about. Laugh at yourself as much as possible