This is my story about eye floaters. It's one of those things that some would chalk up to circumstance... I feel it's God who led to me to a doctor who could fix something that was not only a big annoyance, but interfered with work and life.
I'm a photographer and a writer. My eyes are really important to me. Visual acuity is important to me. Not seeing things that aren't there is also important to me.
Rewind back to Christmas Eve 2022. I wasn't feeling well (it turns out I had the flu and was in the hotel room all day instead of hanging out with my husband's family) but I just thought I was tired at the time.
I started seeing flashes of light in my peripheral vision of my left eye. I sometimes have visual migraines, so I thought it had to do with that, even though this wasn't what typically happens to me with a migraine.
I took some ibuprofen and tried to rest - and not worry. After a while, when my anxiety started ramping up about what was going on, I did some online research (after all, it was Christmas Eve… no doctors) to make sure it wasn't something I needed to deal with immediately.
Thankfully, it wasn't.
Then I noticed the floaters. I didn't think too much about them at first. I've had floaters before. Never this many or this big, but it's not a new thing.
I really thought they would go away... that they would be reabsorbed (do they do that?) or my brain would learn to ignore them. More research found that usually in six months they would either go away or be bearable to deal with.
My online searches also revealed a few over-the-counter therapies I could try with no risk. When there was no change after a couple of months, I chose a supplement - L-Theanine - to try.
It didn't help. I was already taking some other OTC supplements for my eye health since my cataract surgery so I stopped there.
After six months, I went to my eye doctor and asked if there was anything that could be done. He said that eventually my brain should adjust. He may have mentioned laser therapy but if he did, he also discouraged me from going that route. I simply remember leaving the office dejected, with no hope.
Because living with it was the only option I seemed to have, I did so. It got in the way of making my living as a photographer, but what could I do? I had to keep going. Besides, with only one eye affected, I kept in mind that it could have been worse.
Fast-forward to January 2024… It got worse.
The same thing happened in my right eye. At least this time it wasn't accompanied with the fear of the earlier instance. I knew the signs that indicated if I needed to go to the doctor/ER and I wasn't "seeing" any of them.
More floaters followed. It became harder and harder to ignore them at this point. It affected editing photos and writing more than anything because when I work, I stare at two extra-large monitors. The floaters are worse when you dart your eyes from side to side, which I do constantly when I'm on the computer.
However, though work was affected the most overall, what is really unnerving is the peripheral vision issues. So many times, I would think someone had come up beside me, only to find it was a floater. When driving, I had to be extra careful to make sure the lane was clear (thankfully, I have lane assist with my car!) because a floater could look like a vehicle coming up.
This issue is the biggest problem when I'm doing a photography shoot. I use my peripheral vision a lot while my face is plastered against the viewfinder. Not knowing whether something is real or not in your outer vision gets to you after a while - and makes concentrating on taking photos harder than usual.
Speaking of "getting to you," there's one more reason that I am having a hard time with these little black specks - my mental health. I don't have a diagnosis of OCD, but I definitely have some obsessions and compulsions. These and my other mental health issues make it really difficult to ignore the floaters and they can increase my anxiety (which is regularly high already).
Then, on a fluke, my mom had an optical issue where she needed a retinal specialist. I had no idea this kind of doctor existed! I took her to the specialist and realized that they might be able to help me.
Asking the tech, she told me that not only did they deal with floaters, the doctor we were seeing had a special interest in them. She added that he had developed a website - www.floaterstories.com - that explains what's going on, its history, the impact of floaters on everyday life, and, obviously, stories from those who have experienced them.
I now knew I had at least a chance of getting rid of them. So I made an appointment.
During the appointment, after several tests to measure my acuity and the number of floaters I have, I waited nervously for the verdict.
He told me what I had feared - that he had seen much worse. However, he went on to say that a condition like this doesn't have a clinical guideline to show definitively whether or not a person should have surgery. It depends on the person and how much the floaters negatively impact his/her life.
So, I was the one who got to choose. (HUGE sigh of relief!)
Needless to say (but I'm saying it anyway), I'm choosing surgery. There is a risk with any surgery, but I feel that the possibility of being free of these annoying distractions will be worth it.
Fast forward to the surgery on my left eye.
Because I have generalized anxiety disorder, I was nervous going into the surgery, but I was sure of Dr Morris' experience and I knew he would do everything possible to make it successful.
Of course, there's always a risk so I couldn't be certain it would be okay. However, there's risk walking up and down stairs, traveling to a doctor's appointment, or even eating a thick, perfectly cooked steak. Everything in life has risk.
I had no doubt that in this case, the reward definitely outweighed the risk.
It only took about 24 hours after the surgery to know I was right.
First, the pre-operative instructions were thorough and even though I usually question everything, I didn't have any questions. The directions to the surgical center were complete. I had all of the information I needed to have the procedure without an issue.
Then, Callahan Eye Hospital was amazing - from check-in to recovery. I joked with the nurses who took care of me that I wanted all of my future surgeries there, even if they had nothing to do with my eyes.
Part of it could have been because I was one of the first patients that day, but they got me ready quickly. I was able to have my husband with me while I waited and they even gave me something for anxiety when it got close to time to take me back.
The surgery didn't take long before I was in recovery. Just like recovery from any procedure that involves anesthesia, I was groggy. I got the typical crackers and soda and then my husband came back to help me get dressed.
Because I woke up with a shield taped over my eye, I didn't know if it "worked." I was told that it could feel a little gritty, like I had something in my eye. When this was the case with me, already knowing it was a possibility assured me that it wasn't a problem.
After I got home, I rested a lot, but honestly, I felt fine. Surgery is always a nice excuse to have someone else take care of you, so I didn't push it (which is what the doctors always recommend anyway).
The next morning, I had my follow-up appointment and finally got to take off the shield. It worked! My vision in that eye was completely clear - and I didn't even have the slight blurriness that I had been told is a small possibility until your vision settles.
The recovery period involved wearing a shield at night the first week (which was annoying to deal with but not difficult), two different eye drops on a varying schedule (thank goodness for phone alarms), and having a few restrictions like a weight-bearing limit and no heavy chores (oh, darn!)
But all of this was extremely worth it. I don't regret doing this for even a minute. There were only slight inconveniences I had to deal with - and, once again, I emphatically state that the risk was worth the reward.
I immediately knew I wanted to get the right eye fixed so I talked to Dr Morris about it. He wanted me to give it some time and make sure I wanted to risk the surgery again. I knew what I wanted, but waited like he said to do (not like I had a lot of choice – lol).
When I compared eyes, though the left had been worse than the right, with more abundant and darker floaters, the floaters in my right eye were still hampering work and my life in general.
Maybe it's because after the first surgery I was constantly comparing the eye with floaters to an eye with no issues.
Maybe it's because the floaters seemed to be wispy and larger - not quite as noticeable but more in the way of getting clear vision.
Maybe it's because I use my left eye to see things clearly far away and my right eye for close-up vision (it may sound weird, but your brain adjusts to it). My theory is that my brain has a harder time going back and forth between near and far vision and compensating for it with the floaters in only one eye - but I could be wrong with that.
No matter the reason, it's interesting (and kind of strange) when I again realized it's much more annoying to have floaters in one eye than when I had floaters in both.
Remember that I'm a professional photographer and writer. I need clear vision, especially for editing photos. Before, with floaters in both eyes, the movement of the floaters darting in and out of my vision was annoying.
Now, with my close-up eye having these blur-inducing floaters, it's more than an annoyance. I literally can't see clearly a lot of the time when working. I've found that if I hold my head still and don't move my eyes around, I can see clearly (like when being asked to read an eye chart).
But in real life, I'm constantly looking around. The floaters' appearances make work and simply living everyday life much more difficult than it needs to be.
I've been through it before. I knew the risks – but I also knew the rewards. I was very blessed that the rewards outweighed the risks in my first floaters removal surgery.
I was more than willing to risk it again for the second.
Clear vision is important to everyone but for me, it not only affects my life, but it also really affects my job. I wanted to do whatever it took to get back to where I could see the way I could before all this happened.
So, during a follow-up visit about my left eye, I once again asked Dr Morris about the right eye. We discussed it some and he asked me to make an appointment to look more into what was going on in that eye.
I went into the appointment with the same anxiety I had the first time at this point in the process. Would he think it was bad enough to risk surgery once again? Would I have to learn to live with it?
A small complication came up around this time. The day before my second follow-up for my left eye, I had a floater reappear. It was very different than what I had before. It was always a tiny and circular, sometimes looking like a bullseye target, sometimes two circles, sometimes a black dot. All the ones before were long and skinny or wispy like lace.
However, it wasn’t always there.
When I talked to Dr Morris about it (from what I remember), he told me that it was because, due to the delicate nature of the surgery, they had to err on the side of caution and sometimes weren’t able to completely clear up the issue.
Even with my left eye not being completely floater free, I knew I was still very willing to get the surgery done on my right eye.
As I suspected, my amazing experience at Callahan Eye Hospital wasn’t quite as amazing as the first time, as I wasn’t the first patient there this time. It was still great but I did have to wait a little longer than the first time.
The healing was also different. The first time I felt the gritty feeling they mentioned in my left eye. With my right, it didn’t feel gritty; it felt sore. But after a few days it was back to normal.
I had to do the drops like before, which wasn’t fun to try to remember, but wasn’t difficult. I also had the same weight and activity restrictions as before to deal with.
But I didn’t care one bit about these inconveniences because my second surgery was even more successful than the first. Not one even teeny tiny floater has shown up – and as of this writing, it’s over a month since the surgery and not one issue has come up.
The little dot/circle/bullseye in my left eye comes and goes. It goes much more than it comes and it’s not bad to deal with. I have hope that eventually it will settle out of my central vision and/or my brain will eventually block it out.
But even if it doesn’t get better, I wouldn’t change a thing. Sometimes I look around and I’m just so thankful that I was able to find Dr Morris and have these surgeries. They have made my life so much better… there aren’t enough words to express my gratitude.
