PVD and Exercise

[bfls]

I had the fun experience of having a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) in my right eye on the weekend. This is when the vitreous (jelly) in your eye pulls away from the retina. This resulted in massive floaters, flashing lights in my eyes and a very nasty fright as I thought my retina was detaching. It wasn't thankfully, but I am at risk of having my retina tear as a result. It can take up to 6 weeks to occur after the PVD.

Getting to the point of my post, has this happened to anyone else? Did you change your exercise habits for the 6 weeks? I asked my eye doctor and she didn't know of any specific advice and suggested I just take it easy - perhaps just sticking to a brisk walk around the block. I've googled but I've found conflicting advice. The Royal College of Ophthamologists in the UK says there is no evidence exercise increases the risk of a tear but suggests not taking the risk and advises no exercise. The Royal College here in Australia says there is no evidence exercise increases the risk but play it safe and don't do anything too strenuous or jarring.

I generally do HIIT or circuit workouts with Cathe or Mike Donavanik 6 days a week so brisk walks aren't really my style. On the other hand, I really like the idea of having my retinas attached to the back of my eyeballs. What to do? I'm currently doing low impact and low intensity workouts. If this has happened to you, what did you do?

Barbara

[Buzzer]

This may sound silly, but I had it happen and didn't know it! I was getting ocular migraines, which make me have a circle of flashing lights that gets bigger then some blindness around the edges of my eye, fuzzy vision... so I may have just thought it was an ocular migraine.
I found out later at the Eye Doctors that I had a PVD. He said it was unusual for someone my age to have it.

So at the time, i was doing high impact cardio and lifting weights. Since I didn't know it had detached, i was doing my workouts as normal. I had no problems. From my study of one, I say all is well, and perhaps it isn't as easy to detach the retina after a PVD as they think? Or maybe it was just in my case. Who knows, but that's my experience.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

[54sneakers]

I've been dealing with PVD's for about 10 years, off and on. My opthomologist (as well as my BIL who is a retinal surgeon) agreed - based on my symptoms, they said if I was a runner, they would tell me to switch to brisk walking and not to do kickboxing where you are hitting a bag and don't do downward facing dog or any other routine where my head is down for an extended period of time.

I still do Turbo Jam, barre work, pilates and yoga but I just watch what I'm doing and where my head is at, making sure I'm not jumping around too much.

I remember the first time I had one...frightening, but I'm told they are quite common as you get older.

Good luck.

[donnamp]

Barbara -

I had the same thing two years ago and it scared me to death b/c I thought my retina was detaching. My eye dr. had the same recommendation as 54Sneakers. I don't think there is absolutely conclusive evidence that doing those things - high impact, yoga inversions, etc. will cause your retina to detach - but why take a chance? That was my thinking, anyway - so I just did lower impact and skipped the inversions to be on the safe side until I had my follow up w/ my eye dr.

Hang in there - it does get better!!

Donna

[meg39]

This happened to me last February, and the way it manifested itself is that in my right eye my vision is blurred. I kept thinking my eyeglasses were dirty and kept cleaning the lenses and finally i noticed it was my right eye, not my lenses. I've been to the eye doctor 3x since then, and he dilates my eyes, and says I have a big floater right in front of my retina. He thought it would resolve itself in 6-8 weeks, but here I am 8 months later, and my vision in my right eye is still blurry.

I asked if I needed to change my exercise routine, and he said no.

Its very annoying, its like looking out thru dirty eyeglasses. I can't believe it has lasted this long.

My brother had more of same experience as you...zigzagging lights, etc.

[donnamp]

meg39 -I still have a lot of floaters in the eye where mine detached. I describe it as looking through a dirty windshield only the spots are moving. I have just made peace with it. I know there are procedures to get rid of the floaters, I think by doing a vitrectomy (sp?) - basically they take out the vitreous and replace it w/ saline. You could probably see a retina specialist to learn if that would be an option for you. My vision isn't blurry -I just have lots of floaters....

Donna

[meg39]

Thank you Donna. I'm still hoping it will eventually resolve on its own. I'm kind of like you - I have just decided to live with it and now I don't even notice it much unless i'm outside in hazy weather.

[donnamp]

meg39 - I notice mine much more when it is cloudy or overcast - weird? I do know someone who had the procedure where they replace the vitreous with saline. He did well w/ it but ended up w/ cataracts which I think is a possible side effect of the surgery. Since I'm terrified of anything happening to my sight I'm hesitant to do anything unless absolutely medically necessary. I won't even consider Lasik!!!

My DH had a PVD also, and unfortunately, in his case his retina DID detach. It turns out he had thin spots in his retina and that is what causes it to tear. His mom had the same thing. Fortunately, the Dr. he went to was able to do laser surgery and fix his retina - he then did some pre-emptive surgery on the other eye to "tack down" the weak spots - and it worked b/c this year he had a PVD in the other eye and his retina did not tear or detach.

It is amazing the things they can do these days in a minimally invasive way!

Donna

[bfls]

My six week danger period has passed so I thought I'd post an update of how things turned out for me, in case anyone does a search on this topic later.

The good news I had no further trouble with my eye. The retina is fine and the floaters have mostly gone away - or else I've gotten used to them and don't notice them so much any more.

For the first two weeks I behaved and just did low impact, low intensity workouts with no inversions. After the first two weeks I started to get bored and began to up the intensity. Then after the following two weeks I started to up the impact. By the end of the 6 weeks I was back to all my usual workouts. I "celebrated" the end of taking it easy with one of Mike Donavanik's latest workouts.

I did stick to the no inversions, so I haven't done any yoga for 6 weeks. Normally I would try to do a session once a week. I will definitely have to get back to doing that as I'm horrified at how stiff and sore I've become.

Otherwise, it was all good news.

Barbara