Floater Issues?

Post here to exchange iritis general information and support with others.

Moderators: Mike Bartolatz, kwork

Post Reply
kolterh24
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 12:36 pm

Floater Issues?

Post by kolterh24 »

Hi my name is Kolt!
I am a 23 year old male. Extremely healthy, very active, eat pretty healthy however I have slowly reduced the amount of activity that I do on a daily basis over the last 5 years due to attending college and working full time for the most part. In the past I would say I played basketball or ran /worked out 3+ days per week. Currently I would say that has gone down to maybe 2 days week. I have struggled with sleep over the last few years, I would say often getting less than 6 total hours per night and frequently only at 2-3 hours at a time. Essentially I wake up usually a few times per night.

After dealing with a recent increase in floaters in both eyes as well as light sensitivity and watering in my left eye, I decided to take a trip the my local eye doctor's office. I was eventually diagnosed with a mild case of anterior uveitis after going back in after my initial appointment with pain in my left eye. The doctor prescribed prednisolone drops 4x per day in my left eye and 2x per day in my right eye for just over one week. Since coming off the drops I have had slight pain towards in my left eye and the floaters have not decreased or gone away in either of my eyes. After having appointments with multiple doctors at my local vision center, and getting the Uveitis to the point where they couldn't see any inflammation, I decided to see a specialist in Denver, at the Colorado Retina Associates just for a second opinion. My specialist dilated my eyes, took pictures and examined my eyes and couldn't find any inflammation. This was about 3 days since I had come off the prednisolone drops. Despite not seeing anything, my specialist ordered blood tests for a number of different things including HLA-B27. I have another appointment set up for mid October to check on my and make sure all is still fine and the inflammation has not returned.

My main worry at this point is the floaters in my eyes as they have become numerous and quite frustrating. On a daily basis I struggle to deal with them and constantly try to wear sunglasses outside as well as tinted safety glasses at work to try not to notice them.

As I wait to hear back on my blood test results, I am curious if anyone has had a similar experience. Is there a certain amount of time to wait and see if floaters go away before I panic too much? Is there anything that anyone here does to help with floaters? Could we be missing something such as posterior uveitis even to the slightest degree that could be the result of something else such as ankylosing spondolitis? If not and everything comes back negative is something like a vitrectomy an option...has anyone had experience with this?

The floaters are just incredibly annoying and frustrating and I was just curious to see if anyone has had a similar experience!
kwork
Posts: 47
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2004 12:30 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by kwork »

I've had them for years. Your brain will actually ignore and retrain itself to not see them over time. I know this sounds crazy and remember when I was first told this. Also I've heard as you age your eye change consistency and the floaters can slowly move out of your site of view.

You are a bit older than me when I first got iritis and I eventually got AS. If you aren't' having back pain don't worry about it, but do keep it in the back of your mind as you get older. The faster you get treated the more normal a life you can have.
Iritis.org Administrator
vancouver
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:04 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by vancouver »

Your sleep problem seems serious. Do u have high anxiety? There are consequences to sleep deprivation.
Floaters are caused by inflammation in anterior/intermediate part of eye. Floaters certainly hang around for months . Vitrectomy? That's for very serious
Intermediate iritis. Floaters can accompany posterior uveitis. I think this is because both anterior and posterior
Areas are inflamed. Or it could be that back of vitreous is inflamed. Doc best person to ask.
kolterh24
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 12:36 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by kolterh24 »

vancouver wrote:Your sleep problem seems serious. Do u have high anxiety? There are consequences to sleep deprivation.
Floaters are caused by inflammation in anterior/intermediate part of eye. Floaters certainly hang around for months . Vitrectomy? That's for very serious
Intermediate iritis. Floaters can accompany posterior uveitis. I think this is because both anterior and posterior
Areas are inflamed. Or it could be that back of vitreous is inflamed. Doc best person to ask.
Yes I feel that to some extent my sleep deprivation is becoming such a problem that my eyes aren't getting a chance to heal and its making them worse. I've talked to my doctors and they say the floaters are not really a symptom of sleep deprivation although I feel different on the matter.

For the anxiety and sleep deprivation I talked to my regular doctor and she prescribed hydroxyzine (25mg) which kind of helps...I don't really notice a difference and it just tends to make my eyes more dry and red.

In terms of the possibility of posterior inflammation going on, I am not entirely sure but I would like to talk to my doctor about doing a run of oral steroids and then taper them back to see if that helps with the floaters at all. Would that be a good idea to at least try and see if my symptoms improve?
vancouver
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:04 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by vancouver »

kolterh24 wrote:
vancouver wrote:Your sleep problem seems serious. Do u have high anxiety? There are consequences to sleep deprivation.
Floaters are caused by inflammation in anterior/intermediate part of eye. Floaters certainly hang around for months . Vitrectomy? That's for very serious
Intermediate iritis. Floaters can accompany posterior uveitis. I think this is because both anterior and posterior
Areas are inflamed. Or it could be that back of vitreous is inflamed. Doc best person to ask.
Yes I feel that to some extent my sleep deprivation is becoming such a problem that my eyes aren't getting a chance to heal and its making them worse. I've talked to my doctors and they say the floaters are not really a symptom of sleep deprivation although I feel different on the matter.

For the anxiety and sleep deprivation I talked to my regular doctor and she prescribed hydroxyzine (25mg) which kind of helps...I don't really notice a difference and it just tends to make my eyes more dry and red.

In terms of the possibility of posterior inflammation going on, I am not entirely sure but I would like to talk to my doctor about doing a run of oral steroids and then taper them back to see if that helps with the floaters at all. Would that be a good idea to at least try and see if my symptoms improve?
Anxiety/sleep deprivation is not going to affect healing.
I remarked on your sleep because it is anomolous for 23 yr old. Sleep problems can be caused by too much or too little anxiety. If u have high anxiety, you have to escape.
Drugs will make it worse. Been there.
Your floaters are caused by inflammation of your vitreous. Floaters are normal part of iritis. Posterior uveitis is often accompanied by iritis not the reverse.
Oral steroids have serious side-effects. I thinsomething to ask doctor. Your doc would have checked for posterior inflammation.

There are a couple of posterior uveitis patients at doc fosters forum that can answer better. You need to relax.
Last edited by vancouver on Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
vancouver
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:04 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by vancouver »

kolterh24
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 12:36 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by kolterh24 »

Just for an update! It has been a few months since first being diagnosed with the Anterior Uveitis. My floaters are still there and getting worse. Dark squigly ones and quite a few of them. All tests for autoimmune diseases came back negative as well as an MRI for anything out the ordinary.

My Uveitis specialist couldn't find anything at the last appt but prescribed me a 3 week low dose oral steroid treatment to try if I would like to see if they would help the floaters.

Has anybody had any experience with taking oral steroids and having them solve floaters? If so how significantly have they impacted the floaters as well as your sleep and do you have any tricks to help with that since I already struggle to sleep?
vancouver
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:04 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by vancouver »

Floaters are caused by steroid and inflammation breaking down vitreous. They might be getting more numerous because you are getting more tuned into them. it could I guess be intermediate or posterior inflammation in which case the oral might have an effect . My floaters also seemed to increase months later. I had a large floaters break off years later after long hike.
I'm not sure how many floaters you should see with such mild iritis. Nobody with mild iritis posts. There was a guy over at Dr fosters forum who was really distressed about his floaters and it turned out to be intermediate iritis.
kolterh24
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 12:36 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by kolterh24 »

I appreciate the feedback! I am just not sure which direction to go. My corneas especially on the inner side towards my nose have slowly and continually gotten more red and bloodshot over the last few months but the doctors just say its dryness but lubricating eye drops don't do anything. I really want to try the 3 week course of steroids to see if they help but I am concerned with my sleep.

Is there any chart that compares NSAID's to oral steroids and how effective they are. If 400mg x3 of ibuprofen/something else should be as effective of 40mg of prednisone per day than I would rather try that so it wouldn't mess my sleep as much.

Any information or ideas you have helps!

Thank You!
vancouver
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:04 pm

Re: Floater Issues?

Post by vancouver »

Nsaids won't do anything. I know doc fosters uses them for maintenance but he is pretty much discredited.
Redness could be stress/bad sleep. My eyes are now permanently redder from severe iritis attacks. I noticed the red after getting completely off steroids.

I doubt oral steroids will impact your sleep. Walk a couple hours a day. That will definitely help.

Looking through pinhole, floaters are greatly magnified
My large floaters are easy to study through pinhole.
The smaller ones are harder to identify.
Post Reply