Hi, everyone,
I recently had a hemorrhage in my eye (I've been on Glivec for 1year and half). Although it is healed, but I since developed eye floaters, that is quite annoying, a tiny black spot always in my eye site. Did anyone has any experience of that, does the floater stay in your eye, or it will go away eventually. I had my eye checked by eye specialist, no retinal damage was found, and no treatment is given. I am a bit worried, it will get worse with time.
Thanks,
William
Hi William. Thank you for your post like you might also have suffered with eye bleeds, they have been quite infrequent and look worse than they are. By eye bleeds I mean this is where I am having blood in the whites of my eyes, quite painless but unsightly. They have never given the floaters, and I'm a little surprised by this, because the blood is external to the eyeball where whereas floaters I believe are internal. From my childhood I have had some floaters, but find I do not notice them unless I think about it and "look" for them then they appear, I guess my brain blocks them, think you will find before long this may happen. Otherwise they are more noticeable on a bright day, and defiantly in fog ! You did he right thing getting your eye check, obviously need the conformation there is no underlying issue
I understand they can come from age, and can be " scaring" from say looking at the sun, but that's just my hearsay. Hope they settle down soon, no doubt if someone has a better CML knowledge on this they will post, but though I would mention my eye bleeds, quite common on Imatinib particularly, got them say 3-4 monthly, but no where near as bad as some do. Been on Destiny trial past 12 months, and on 200mg not had one, so bonus there.
Hope this helps a little. Nigel
In such circumstances I always say Get thee to an eye specialist. I always think it's best not to 2nd guess what it might be and presume it's "just" stuff that happens. Especially with eyes.
I've also had a few little bleeds and also a time when I had "floaters". I had them checked out immediately and because when I was neutropenic following my bone marrow transplant I contracted cytomegalovirus retinitis which was sight threatening but fortunately only left me with a little blind spot and more vulnerable to retinal detachment.
Then because I had total body irradiation (old days) as preparation to my BMT I had the absolute certainty of developing cataracts. That happened and I had those done 3 years ago in 2 separate procedures.
Needless to say I didn't go through all my treatment to want to end up blind so I've been pretty sharp at going to the doctor for IMMEDIATE referral to an Eye Specialist every time something happened.
In my case the floaters were just "age related changes" and entirely inocuous and they just went all by themselves. Or maybe it was after I had my cataracts done ??? Who knows!?
BUT as you've had it checked out and ensured you've not got something like a retinal tear, it sounds like you're in all likelihood going to be o.k. and who knows whether it's related or entirely co-incidental to being on imatanib.
I know in my case they went... hope yours do too
Hi William,
Yes in the first two years of treatment eye bleeds are a known and possible side effect for some CML patients and can be quite disturbing and upsetting.In some instances this is accompanied by conjunctivitis .You are correct in having it checked out by an eye specialist especially as eye pressures that if too high for long periods can apparently lead to a tendency towards the development of glaucoma plus damage to the optic nerve.I have a good optician and always have a full and complete check every year even though pay for it myself.
In my case after two years the eye bleeds subsided quite a lot.When really bad used antibiotic drops called Fucithalmic or fusidic acid; perhaps you would want to discuss with your GP as this only available on prescription.Apparently the floaters might be annoying but they are not a threat so most doctors will not take action on this-just little tiny bits of tissue breaking off.
On the use of eye washes there is conflicting advice but I found that Vizulize eye wash made mainly from plant extracts was soothing for the eyes in these situations;it might be found in health food shops or otherwise it can be found online .In addition if you have any element of conjunctivitis or if your eyelids are swollen or tender than the use of Blephasol solution is very good to maintain good hygiene -just wipe the eyelids with the solution on a dab of cotton wool twice daily.It is available in opticians but my GP supplies me on prescription.
For 9 years have had swollen eyes,sensitive eyelids and persistant irritation but bleeds only in the early years.My eye specialist suggested that although the platelet count might read as normal there may be periodic fluctuations in terms of viscosity or similar which leads to the eye bleeds but my haematologist was less keen on this explanation.There have been historic threads on this forum on this topic and similar explanations have been proposed.
In my experience most clinicians would regard eye issues as just one of the side effects and unless very severe would not propose to switch a patient on to another TKI as a new set of side effects might arise of greater consequence .
I trust this helps if only to indicate that a number of us do experience ongoing eye issues and including eye bleeds but in retrospect this a small price to pay considering the effectiveness of tkis in controlling our CML condition.
With best wishes
John
Hi William
I'm not sure that this is relevant to your post, but I had a serious eye problem after starting dasatinib, so perhaps it is similar to what you are experiencing. I was watching TV exactly 16 days after starting on dasatinib and suddenly I felt a "pop" in my eye, followed by going totally blind for a few seconds - then shortly afterwards I could hardly see out of my left eye. There was an enormous red kidney-shaped blob right in my line of vision.
This didn't go away, and I went to the emergency room the next morning. An opthalmologist did all sorts of tests on my eye and discovered that I had no fewer than four retinal haemorrhages, of which the most serious one was right in front of my macula (the area of the retina where sight occurs). He thought that this was caused either by low platelets following dasatinib treatment, or as a side effect of the dasatinib itself. It was a really distressing experience and affected my driving, as I couldn't see properly in the rear view mirror - this kidney-shaped blood mass was in the way all the time.
The wonderful news is that, two months afterwards, I have close to normal vision as the blood has been reabsorbed into my retina - it is an EXTREMELY long process, but it is almost totally better. With my last vision test I had regained 80% of the lost vision, being able to see 4 out of the 5 letters on the eye chart. The previous time, when asked to read the letters on the chart, I had not even been able to see the chart, and I had only 10% vision. According to my opthalmologist, eye bleeds take a really long time to heal, so I wouldn't be too concerned if I were you. I'm sure that it will get better with time.
All the best and greetings from South Africa
Martin
