PVD

[Worriedwellornot]

Hi I have recently been diagnosed with PVD in my eye following hours of flashing lights and large floaters. I was examined in eye dept of hospital and told that nothing can be done about it. It's really made me feel depressed and am struggling to read or use my PC. Can anyone help with advice or share their experience. I'm told it may improve in 6 months or may not. Thank you

[Anxious Kitty]

I had a PVD in my left eye in 2012. It was terrible for me too... I was plagued with tons of floaters due to it, including one very very large Weiss ring floater in the center. Computer screens and text books became difficult to read or look at as well.

Mine did improve a bit after about 6 months... some of the floaters did fade a bit in appearance. I think the biggest thing, however, was just allowing my brain some time to get used to them and sorta mentally filter them out.

Sure, they will still be obvious in the right lighting conditions or if you focus on them, but it WILL get better. I wish I could say something more promising; they're still a pain to deal with some days with but you will learn to cope and live with them.

Right now it's just going to be difficult til some time passes... try to take time when you can to relax and treat yourself. If sitting in a dark room binging Netflix helps you, go for it. That was all I wanted to do for a while.

Sending healing vibes and hope your symptoms improve in due time. One thing that helped a lot when I went through this was to change the colour settings on my PC and browser to be black/dark backgrounds with white/light text. It helps decrease the appearance of the floaters. You might also want some good sunglasses for outside if the sun irritates your symptoms like it did mine.

The only real way to get rid of floaters is through a vitrectomy which most doctors will be unwilling to do just for floaters, as they're harmless and the surgery can be risky.
Incidentally, I ended up having a detached retina in the left eye in 2014 which required a vitrectomy as treatment. So I was eventually relieved of my floaters, but at the cost of some of my visual acuity (which was never good anyway). It's not great that it happened but honestly... silver linings - I was all too happy to be rid of them.

[fordaisy]

I had this first starting in my left eye and then a year later the right. I was freaking out thinking I was going blind. Went to 3 different opthamologists and had scans done to the back of my eyes. The more I thought about it the worse it got. I eventually got use to it and the floaters are not visible anymore. That was 2 years ago.
It will eventually get better, just have to wait it out. Sunglasses help reduce floaters a lot when you are outside.

[Worriedwellornot]

Thank you both. I'm going to have a retinal scan on Thursday to put my mind at rest. It's making me feel very depressed with it all. I hope it does start to improve....