Floaters after cataract surgery ?

I've not had cataract surgery, however... I first noticed floaters in my 20s (I'm now 61), after getting a poke in the eye during a basketball game. I imagine any trauma to the eye might provoke them.

I had cataract surgery 5 years ago, I have the Re STOR lenses. I had floaters right after surgery and about 2 months after the surgery it seemed to intensify so I called the eye surgeon and was questioned to determine if I might be having retinal detachment, I wasn't and was told that the floater would disappear and they have. Nice to wear non-Rx goggles and still be able to see. Don't think swimming has anything to do with it-my brother does not swim and had retinal detachment after his surgery. I remember that the floaters were annoying- kept thinking they were bugs

Hi, I've had floaters following an eye trauma; a few years later, I suffered a retinal detachment that was successfully fixed by the injection of a gas bubble into my eyeball to get the retina back in place, followed by laser zapping a few days later. It is amazing what medicine can sometimes accomplish--not too many decades ago, "monocular blindness" was a much more likely fate. I wrote about the whole thing here: www.menshealth.com/.../seeing-future A couple notes: Virtually everybody on earth develops floaters with age. They can be extremely annoying, especially for people (like me) who tend towards obsessiveness. That said, researchers believe that the human brain does eventually learn to ignore the majority of them. Be patient--it may take quite a while, but eventually they will stop bugging you so much. Other things that can help are: Realize that after you've been poked or otherwise traumatized in your eye, it can unleash a bunch of detritus, including red blood cells if the injury is severe. Like a snowshaker globe, this stuff does tend to float around pretty frantically for a while, but over time, it settles down and is less noticeable. Floaters are most noticeable in bright light. After my eye-poking pit bull episode (see my article), there was such a storm of little black dots against the cloudless summer sky that I thought it was a distant flock of crows (or closer swarm of gnats.) This DID get better over the course of many months, but I found that it really helped to wear dark sun glasses to reduce the contrast. Also, if a particularly obnoxious goopy string is hovering right in the center of your visual field and you are trying to, say, read, swivel your eyeball around in its socket and you can often get the floater to move away at least enough so that it makes it easier to read. So, to summarize: Take solace in the fact that floater misery has plenty of company: everyone gets these eventually Be patient and allow your brain time to learn to filter them out and stop paying as much attention Wear sun glasses and roll your eyeballs as needed! Don't worry that swimming will make the problem worse--unrelated physiologically. If anything, the stress reduction of swimming might expedite the brain adaptation and floater-ignoring business! Good luck!

Thanks to all the replies.. and Jim's article is particularly helpful. I did have a retinal detachment (fairly significant according to the surgeon)..he made 3 stitches in my eye during an involved vitrectomy. I now have the gas bubble and hoping my eye gets back to normal. Complete rest for 2 weeks in the head down position and no flying for the next 4 months. One of my risk factors was cataract surgery.. I had good vision for all of 2 months until the detachment. I wondered if strenuous swimming and/or yoga might have had anything to do with the detachment, but the Doctor says no. In any case, I hope to get back in a few months and take it real easy to start with - no backstroke or flip turns. The Internet is full of sad stories of young people undergoing multiple surgeries but still losing their sight. My experience is - you don't quite realize how lucky you are to be healthy until there is a risk of losing it... :) ..Take solace in the fact that floater misery has plenty of company: everyone gets these eventually Be patient and allow your brain time to learn to filter them out and stop paying as much attention Wear sun glasses and roll your eyeballs as needed! Don't worry that swimming will make the problem worse--unrelated physiologically. If anything, the stress reduction of swimming might expedite the brain adaptation and floater-ignoring business!

Strangely enough I am looking forward to my upcoming cataract surgery , in a few years, to rid myself of glasses and contacts since i was 10 years old. Doc. says i'm not there yet ,as far as Medicare paying , but I am on the road. Yes , I have some serious floaters, no trama just age related.

My doc said nothing can be done about them. He also said extremely nearsighted people like me were more susceptible to them.😞

I had cataract surgery at 49 which went fine. A couple months after surgery, I am seeing floaters - no pain or loss of vision but somewhat annoying.. it is like a strand that floats in and out. The doctor said this is vitreous separation and not "uncommon" but happens to older people (I am an outlier for cataract in any case). I swim 3-4 times a week and am fairly fit with no diabetes etc. so I'm wondering if swimming or chlorine has anything to do with this (the doctor did not think so..) ? For folks that have had cataract surgery, have you ever seen floaters ? I think getting a cataract eye surgery is the best way to get rid of your eye problems. I too had a cataract eye surgery last year at a Lasik eye centre in Auburn. Fortunately, I haven’t faced any issues like yours but have heard many of them having the same problem after the surgery. I think they are only temporary eye issues and they don’t need to be treated. After my surgery, I had the feeling that choosing cataract eye surgery was the best decision that I ever took. The surgery was simple and painless. The most important thing to be considered is choosing the right clinic and the right doctor for your surgery.