Real Patient Experience and Journey with The Floater Doctor - James H. Johnson MD

So I just returned home after flying to Dallas, Texas to see Dr James Johnson for removing eye floaters. It’s late and I am tired after a long flight, but I could not wait to share my experience here because for those who suffer from eye floaters this is a life changing event! The improvement is beyond belief and the difference in comfort level and the vision is literally day and night. Hence, I could not wait another day to help many with my own experience… In fact, I am so upset at myself for waiting this long to consider removing the shadows and floaters off my eyes!

In both my professional career as a doctor myself and personal life, I have never met such a patient, down to earth and genuinely caring doctor as Dr James Johnson who is willing to spend so much time with patients that he only sees 3 patients or so per day! Talk about quality care never seen anywhere! Forget quality care; but the level of comfort you get with Dr Johnson puts you at so much ease that you want to find all the floater sufferers and bring them to him! (More on this later)

I have so much to say, I am going to categorize them into some main topics based on my own questions and concerns for the past 2 years:

Level of Risk:

First of all, as a doctor/ health care provider myself, I did ton of research for 2+ years and started communicating with my own local ophthalmologists and also the top 3 floater providers in the country. I am sure most of you know that many eye care professionals simply are in denial how floaters and shadows and junk in the eyes can be so bothersome for you but because floater does not present any risk, most doctors do not discuss it or if you mention floaters or moving shadows in your eyes, they say its normal and you get used to them…Some doctors even talk you out of going elsewhere to use YAG laser to remove them! First, as a doctor myself, I know all procedures have some level of risk and I even advise all my patients there is no 100% guarantee to any medical treatment. Also keep in mind level of risk has to do with so many factors because there is no way 2 patients have the same exact problem and same exact overall health status. Dr James Johnson sits with every patient literally an hour or more if needed just training you from A to Z via drawings, etc plus answers all your questions. What I learned from Dr James Johnson is that when it comes to floaters there are even more factors and possibly thousands of kinds and shapes of them with various locations in the eye which also contributes to every patient literally having different risk factor and why. He will overly inform you beyond informed consent and together you decide if you should or should not proceed with treatment based on your own customized level of risk after his evaluation ….. He will even draw the shape, size and location of your eye floater on his eye model so you visually understand if most of the floaters are in the safe Zone and he will tell you what parts he remove with laser and what parts should be left alone to avoid risk to retina or anterior part of the eye or any important structure.

To Treat or NOT to treat that is the question!

I had read so much on floaters and treatment options and some level of risks that at my first visit when I walked into Dr. Johnson’s office, I told him that my eyes mean the world to me and if the level of risk is higher than normal, I will be more than happy to pay him for his evaluation/treatment and NOT treat my floaters… Like many others I was nervous about many unknowns. However, I fell in love with his style because he trains every patient as if we are a medical student during a 1+ hour lecture and I am telling you he then looks into the dilated eyes and trains you on your own situation, type of floater, size of floater, location to each sensitive structure and he draws it for you. And oh he even asks you to draw what you see… Then he draws you a graph of the level of risk and potential level of improvement so you will make a very informed decision if you want to move forward. I had gone with the mindset of I am probably not going to do the procedure but once I was educated by Dr. James Johnson and knew more, the question was not about to treat or not to treat rather was about how aggressive we want to be in cleaning things up without causing short term or long-term issues. Dr James Johnson is a master at highest level of educating and informed consent but also he is a master at small talks about life, values, healthy food, etc so after more than an hour with him one on one, you feel he is your best family and friend and so I built a great level of trust that he has my best interest in mind but also a great level of comfort that he is the one who should be doing the procedure not anyone else… (more on that in the section on how to choose a doctor for your eye floaters) - and oh, let me not forget that I had been emailing Dr Johnson for about couple of years with every crazy question and research I would find and he never once got upset and always replied to me. That is really unheard of…well except I do some of that for my patients as well! LOL

Why Choose Dr. James Johnson and how to find the best specialist:

Well, I do not know where to start but you already see from statements above that there is no other medical practice that I found when a doctor spends so much time with the patient that he only sees 2 to 3 patients per day! That is literally unheard of but below are a lot more reasons so you can understand why I chose him and also helps you choose any future doctor in any area of medicine:

1- You already know Dr James Johnson is one of the only 3 or so “floater only” specialists in the country maybe in the world! Please understand that Dr James Johnson only treats eye floaters while many other eye doctors only evaluate eye floaters and do many other eye procedures with a busy office of 50+ patients per day. This is one reason why many patients fly to Dallas from around the world to see him regardless of the fact they may have someone in their town who sometimes treats floaters!

2- You may already know Dr James Johnson leads a very clean, simple and headache free practice with a reduced overhead and No staffing headache because he has no staff! As a doctor myself I know how distracting it could be to have to deal with staff training and managing, scheduling etc and dealing with day-to-day issues of the practice. Dr. Johnson does not have any of that stress and headache, so he is fully focused and fully committed to each and every patient and deals with every aspect of patient care. He is focused so he is never in a rush and he does not have much overhead so he does not have to see many patients per day to cover his office expenses. These are some of the things which leads to quality care as well.

3- In addition to impressing me at his office for evaluation and treatment, I had emailed Dr Johnson for about 2 years. He was always courteous, patient and responded to every email pretty much the same day! I also emailed many other floater doctors and I did not get much of a response – There was one I will not name I emailed couple of times and on his 2nd email, he got upset when I asked a question that was more technical so his ego kicked in and said something like this: It seems like you do not trust me so I do not want to see you at my office! That is really bad coming from a doctor who should feel how floater patients feel! Dr. Johnson has great manners and leads a healthy life and lifestyle and treats everyone like his friend and family. He has so much patience.

4- There are also many busy eye doctor offices who treat few floater cases here and there but also treat hundreds of other procedures and see many patients per day but they spend probably very few minutes per patient just zapping the laser and out the door to see the next patient! Many of them are absolutely great doctors and we should all be thankful to all of them, but the reality is that their focus is not just floaters so naturally they cannot possibly spend that much time with the patients.

5- Let me give you one simple analogy to understanding how you should choose your doctors especially when it comes to unique and tedious treatments like eye floater treatment which require a very high skill set and great amount of experience and patience to go after nanometers and microns of tiny particles which form the floaters….. Many have apple iphone because it’s a high-quality phone. This has made it one of the most successful product company in the world. Apple headquarters is one of the most expensive and sophisticated buildings in the world. Why? Because while we are talking about one brand, every component of it is built by different groups of specialist and sub-specialists so each team member is laser focused on tiny part of this amazing machine… Now think about a human body which is a far more complex machine. Do you think one doctor can be good at every type of procedure? I as a doctor know that I can not and should not be jack of all trades though I have learned during the 10+ years of higher education to perform over 100 types of procedures but I focus on a very few.

6- Dr James Johnson is very meticulous, clean, organized and patient so it makes him perfect to do such a tedious task of going after each tiny floater. Each procedure is about 15 minutes of searching and destroying floaters.

7- He has accumulated so much experience I think over 10+ years of just floaters is a lot of experience and a lot of things to see and a lot of trial since this is a more unique procedure so he is the most experienced naturally because he does not have to do other procedures. This fact alone if worth flying to see him!

8- Dr. James Johnson is literally laser focused on floaters only and while he probably could do so many other eye surgeries, he has limited his practice to ONLY floater treatment. This helps him in many ways because he is not distracted, nor rushed and not overwhelmed but also when you do so much of the same procedure day in and day out, you become the world champion. I believe if there was a competition for removing eye floaters most successfully with the least amount of risk, Dr James Johnson would likely win the Olympics! LOL - I am not saying he is the smartest or maybe he is because he excels in few categories and no one has yet done what he has… but It is simply the nature of the beast: when you do something so many times and you are not distracted with other procedures or running a busy practice, you will naturally be the best at that very single procedure that you do!

9- He has the most informative website and you can schedule and reschedule right online as well.

10- In fact, we should ask the medical community to be more laser focused on specific procedures per doctor and provide a more customized and friendly care to each patient like Dr James Johnson. I asked him if he can teach not only his clinical skills but also his style of practice to other doctors because many patients need this around the world. Hopefully he will pass on his vast knowledge to others.

What about discomfort, pain, restrictions?

Zero, Zero and Zero, literally

Dr James Johnson explains through education and drawing as to how and why the laser is extremely safe and painless because even the shots are not near any living tissue. Read more at

https://www.thefloaterdoctor.com/evaluation-consult-appt

Success level and outcome of treatment:

The most amazing part is that it seems no matter what, most will achieve some level of improvement no matter what…. It seems most patients will need 2 to 3 visits because there are some clean ups to do after initial laser treatment. Although I saw a huge improvement after the initial treatment, I did see further improvements after the 2nd visit and would say floaters have disappeared 100% except, I see some tiny specs when looking at a very sunny sky or a really white background and even in this case its over 95% improvement so far. Both myself and Dr James Johnson wanted to be conservative and not go after every tiny specs as I would say being greedy sometimes may cause more issues so do not push him to zap more as he knows how much is enough for you without a significant risk. Do not get me wrong, I think he loves to clean it up more as one reviewer put it: “the floaters bother Dr Johnson more than it bothers the patient”… So do not be so picky at least wait a few weeks as I will because while I see some tiny tiny stuff, the improvements are so good, I say I am nearly a 100% better which is pretty amazing when it comes to outcome of any medical treatment. Great Success!

Quality of Personal and Professional life:

Let me just say this is worth millions and I will write more on this as I see things the next few weeks – One thing I noticed after writing all this here is that I do not get the annoying irritation and pain I used to get in the back of my eye when I did close up work and I hope it stays this way.

Last but not least I realize I have to put a disclaimer since I wrote so much:

I am by no means endorsing Dr James Johnson despite the fact I have so much respect for him and appreciate what he did for me so far to give me a new vision to life. I am not paid to write this but I was just so excited to share my experience and results and I know if I didn't do it right away, I will get very busy with my work and life and never get to do it later so here we are… As a doctor I know how hard it is for patients to find great specialists and I hope to help many patients learn how to search for great doctors and how not to give up when one doctor says something is impossible!

You should do your own extensive research and feel free to email Dr Johnson any questions or email other floater doctors and decide for yourself. This was just my experience and how I felt about the style of his practice and how I feel and what I see now post treatment and I hope to continue to keep my quality vision thanks to Dr James Johnson. If you feel comfortable with your floaters and can live with them then do so by all means but if you just want a no risk evaluation without treatment, I am sure any doctor can do that for you. My suggestion is also to meet about 3 top doctors and get various opinions. I did not meet many top doctors as its impossible, but I am happy with my decision for me, and you need to be happy and NOT let my story lead you to a rushed decision you may regret later. Do all your homework and ask questions. There maybe cases when its best to NOT treat floaters but with my limited knowledge I hope there are very few cases like that. I wish you the best.

Addendum from Dr. Johnson. Thank you Doctor for this very thorough and extensive testimonial as to your experience with me recently. Also, thank you for trusting me with your precious vision. I think you are correct in your suspicions as to why this did not show up on my Google Business Listing... it is too long! Years ag, with previous version of my web site, I used to have over 100 reviews and personal testimonials from patients, but I took them down with a subsequent website version as some could make the argument that I was only posting the good ones and maybe culling the bad reviews. My response was to go to Yelp and Google for reviews as I have no control over what is posted there. I'll make an exception and post this here as it honors all the time and effort you put into it.

-James Johnson MD