My Experience with Posterior Vitreous Detachment

weiss ring photo credit-imagebank.asrs.org

When your vision is blurry it's not only confusing, it's also frustrating. Now imagine having another issue on top of that - PVD- Posterior Vitreous Detachment. One morning (June 2014) I sat down to watch television and noticed that something was different about my vision. I couldn't see the tv clearly, so I did what I usually do; I took off my glasses and wiped them off but I still couldn't see the screen clearly. 

To clarify, when I say things weren't clear I don't mean my vision was blurry or foggy. It was like I was looking at a picture but part of the picture was kind of shaded out. I blinked my eyes but nothing changed but I did realize that the issue was only in my left eye. Later that day I tried to read a book, and noticed that the letters on the page looked kind of distorted as I could only see parts of the letters, again due to my left eye.


At first I shrugged it off and thought it would clear up eventually because sometimes I do experience visual distortion. I thought maybe while I slept the night before that I'd put too much pressure on my eye as I do sometimes which causes a weirdness with my vision that usually clears up in a day or two, but as the days went by my vision didn't clear up.

Bright light hurt my eye and I could see a dark gray spot when I looked at things like white walls, white pages, and especially the sky. Since this issue was in my left eye which is my weakest, I started become very worried. 

I went from trying to be positive and hoping for the best, to having moments of fear that I was slowly going blind. I finally went to see an optometrist. He dilated my pupils and examined both my eyes and then told me that what I was seeing was a huge floater  due to Posterior Vitreous Detachment. 

The vitreous, which is a gel-like substance that helps the eye keep its round shape, was detaching from the retina which brought about a huge and dense floater in my eye. I'm use to having floaters in my left eye and they usually don't bother me but this type of floater, called as a Weiss ring, was right in the center of my vision which was why I was seeing gray.

I asked the optometrist if there was any way to remove it. He answered-Yes and No. He said the procedure that would remove it was too risky for me. He said that I could lose my vision because the lens of my eye would have to be removed, and a liquid would be pushed into my eye to wash out the floater, then an insertion of air pressure, and something about having to keep my head in a weird position for a number of weeks. I thought that maybe he was trying to scare me...he had that type of personality so I gave him a look as to ask if he was serious and he said "Yea...Live with it, right?"

He suggested that I wait it out because the floater might just go away on it's own but weeks later it was still there, not as dense but it still affected my vision. I eventually became use to it and since there was nothing I could do about it, I had to do just what the doctor said - live with it.

I've often complained about not having "normal" vision and having to wear  glasses with a heavy prescription, so this has taught me a lesson which id be grateful that I can see.