![]() They can also become much worse if the vitreous jelly pulls away from the retina, the light-sensitive film lining the inside of the eye. People can live with floaters quite easily, but in some cases they become a major irritation and need to be surgically corrected. Some people experience one large floater, which can be distracting. The jelly is 99 per cent water and one per cent solid, but as we age, the solid bits clump together into visible strands and shapes. Many people over the age of 50 will be aware of occasional floaters - these are bits of collagen (the material which holds our skin and bones together) suspended in the vitreous jelly of the eyeball. THE SURGEONĪndrew Luff, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Southampton Eye Unit and at Optegra Solent Eye Hospital, says: Around a month after the first operation, Mr Luff did my left eye, and that went well, too.Īfter all those years of living in shadows, I can now see clearly and in full technicolor. I rested for a couple of weeks and used antibiotic eye drops. My daughter Jo nearly fainted because I had a black eye and my eyeball was red, but the wonderful thing was that I could see clearly. In a vitrectomy operation, the debris-filled vitreous jelly is removed from the eyeball and replaced by saline I went home the same day and removed the patch 24 hours later. Half an hour later, it was all done and I was taken back to my room, my right eye covered with a patch. That meant I couldn’t feel a thing, and I thought my eye was closed when actually it was clamped open and Mr Luff was inserting the needles. The anaesthetist gave me a sedative and injected anaesthetic around the eye. He looked at my eyes and told me he could perform a vitrectomy operation and, at the same time, would give me new artificial lenses the vitrectomy surgery makes the lens of the eye go cloudy within a few months, and apparently I had early-stage cataracts anyway.Ī few weeks later I went to hospital for the operation on my right eye. But by April 2010 I felt very low and my vision was worsening, so I made an appointment to see Mr Luff privately. I was pretty horrified, and put off my decision for six months. Apparently, he sucked out the jelly from the eyeballs through a needle and then replaced it with salt water. In 2009, my optician told me about a treatment for PVD called vitrectomy which a surgeon called Andrew Luff was doing with good results. It was hard to watch TV, use the computer or even read a recipe. I immediately went to see my optician who said it was the same problem.įor the next four years, I had to put up with a large cloudy patch in my left eye. I felt absolutely furious and desperate because my left eye was my stronger one. ![]() A few months later the flashing lights suddenly appeared in my left eye, too. The lights did stop flashing, but I was left with dozens of floaters of all shapes and sizes in my line of vision, which only got worse. The doctor there said there was nothing to do except wait for it to settle down. The next day, my son Matthew drove me to the Eye Unit at Southampton Hospital where the diagnosis was confirmed. All the flashing lights I saw were the nerves firing off with the trauma. He told me that I had Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD), when the vitreous jelly - which fills the inside of your eye - had come away from the lining at the back of the eyeball. I continued driving and met my friend, but then went straight to my optician. One day I was driving to a lunch appointment when flashing lights started appearing out of nowhere on my right-hand side. Marilyn Reynolds, 72, a retired businesswoman from Newbury, Berkshire, underwent a new operation to remove hers. ![]() These are more common with age - around 75 per cent of the over‑60s suffer from them. ‘Floaters’ are the small spots and lines that often appear in our line of vision. Vision on: Marilyn spent years 'living in shadows' and can now see clearly and in technicolour
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