Floaters

[Garden Ring]

Have had them since as far as I remember myself. Always had this "it's not a bug, it's a feature" attitude towards them, as I am only able to see them at a very even background, which is not usually the case.
About a year and a half ago, while spending some good time in Turkey, suddenly I went full paranoid about them. Probably, due to the fact that I saw a lot of clear blue turkish sky, which made them easily noticeable. Also saw a lot of random bright 'flashes'. I thought something really bad was happening to my poor retina. Basically, this was a lot like tinnitus, but for eyes.
I lived in constant fear for about three months, then gradually forgot about it. Flashes never came back, floaters are still there, but as unnoticeable as before.

Hope the same will happen to my gosh darn ringing.

 

[baddream]

I have them bad, I see them even looking at a computer screen. about 50 of them as well. sigh, the shit just keeps piling up

 

[Relic Hunter]

I got floaters when withdrawing from benzos after several years of usage..They were most like a cobweb effect and did not move around..They finally went away.

 

[Amelia]

I'm also highly myopic. Nice to have both hearing and eye problems... Not.

Sounds exactly like me. My floaters have become quite bad recently

 

[Valentin]

i got floaters a lot of them and other stuff with my eyes, but i have a very sharp vision nevertheless, 10 years ago i decided to get them checkeck about the floaters and they're not in my eyes, they must come from nerve/brain issue like the tinnitus...

 

[Amelia]

i got floaters a lot of them and other stuff with my eyes, but i have a very sharp vision nevertheless, 10 years ago i decided to get them checkeck about the floaters and they're not in my eyes, they must come from nerve/brain issue like the tinnitus...

I actually saw something online where they compared what the optometrist saw to what the patient saw and it was SO different ... I don't think they can see all your floaters

 

[Valentin]

I actually saw something online where they compared what the optometrist saw to what the patient saw and it was SO different ... I don't think they can see all your floaters

any link?

 

[Markku]

any link?

This is one explanation:
Floaters have been reported in patients as young as 3.[citation needed] Floaters in teenage patients and young adults are usually harder to treat. For people in this age group, the floater that is seen usually looks like a kind of translucent worm/web/cell. These particular floaters aren't really floaters in a technical sense as they aren't found in the vitreous humour, instead they are found right on top of the retina in the premacular bursa. Very little is known about this region, and it only becomes distinct after the vitreous detaches from the retina at later stages of life. Due to their microscopic size they cannot be seen by professional doctors. They only appear as big as they do because of their proximity to the retina. This type of floater is still described occasionally in the third decade and very rarely occur in the 40 or older population.[9][10]

@Amelia is right, on Floater Talk forum there are heaps of people who see way more floaters than what the ophthalmologist sees when they look. Me including. When I was looked at, the doctor saw not that many floaters; he used the expression "a couple of", but in reality I see a ton of them.

 

[Valentin]

This is one explanation:
Floaters have been reported in patients as young as 3.[citation needed] Floaters in teenage patients and young adults are usually harder to treat. For people in this age group, the floater that is seen usually looks like a kind of translucent worm/web/cell. These particular floaters aren't really floaters in a technical sense as they aren't found in the vitreous humour, instead they are found right on top of the retina in the premacular bursa. Very little is known about this region, and it only becomes distinct after the vitreous detaches from the retina at later stages of life. Due to their microscopic size they cannot be seen by professional doctors. They only appear as big as they do because of their proximity to the retina. This type of floater is still described occasionally in the third decade and very rarely occur in the 40 or older population.[9][10]

@Amelia is right, on Floater Talk forum there are heaps of people who see way more floaters than what the ophthalmologist sees when they look. Me including. When I was looked at, the doctor saw not that many floaters; he used the expression "a couple of", but in reality I see a ton of them.

thanks for the answer, they must be very close to the retina then, might explain why when i look at the sky, they seem to be from different colours, i guess some of the light reflect into them

floaters were surprising at onset but became something very normal after a while, i wouldn"t even try a treatment as i wouldn't risk damaging my eyes for them

 

[SteveToHeal]

One morning, about 2 months before I developed tinnitus, I woke up with eye floaters. Educated myself on the matter via the Internet and made an appointment with an eye doctor in Berlin. Now, when it comes to eye floaters, eye doctors are as useless as ENTs are for tinnitus. I therefore got up in the middle of the consultation and left the doctor's office because I didn't want to listen to any more of her nonsense (which I told her). She recommended a vitrectomy! Booked myself an appointment with an eye doctor (in Holland) who specializes in eye floaters (and their removal using YAG lasers):

Oogartsen

Went to Holland and the specialist there diagnosed me with so-called micro-floaters. These are so small that they can't be seen with the naked eye - which means that the only reason why I notice them, is because they are right next to the retina. It is therefore considered a risky procedure to remove them with laser therapy. But, if I really wanted to have them removed, he would do it. The cost for a removal is EUR 1000,- (and it includes follow-up laser therapy, x 3, if I remember correctly).

I can relate.

I have not gone to the lengths you have to remedy the floaters. However, the optician just brushed it aside when I mentioned it. Nothing you can do about it, he said, and that the op is too risky for such a small thing.

It gets to me that we have to be so accepting of medical professionals and stroke their egos, when it comes to dealing with our health and emotions around something as damaging as T and/or floaters. So i really smiled when you said you got up halfway through the consult and left. It seems that Specialists come with a price tag tho. Rather pay someone good money to fix the problem then pay someone standard rates to tell you nothing can be done.

Doctors (ENT or otherswise) that still prescribe the "Learn to Live with it" should be banned from practicing and their licenses revoked. They do more damage than good.

 

[Erlend]

They don't bother me anymore. A little maybe. But it could easily start bothring me a lot if they start becoming even worse though.

But @Markku you said in a PM that in 10 years the procedure to have them removed could be a lot safer? Do you think this also goes for "teenage" floaters?

My friends say they notice this when they get up too fast, so I guess low blood pressure in the brain causes it for them. But I though that if you have them, you have them all the time?

 

[Amelia]

@Erlend - I get the "sparkly" floaters when I stand up too quickly on occasion but I'd say floaters are a different thing all together.

I have mine all the time (inside included) and they are mostly many dark spots and wiggly lines that annoy the hell out of me

 

[Micky]

I had an eye infection 6 months ago now.. Left me with a huge floater in my right eye.. Ive seen an eye specialist and he said give it time and it will become absorbed back into the eye.. Well its still there so going to wait another 6 months then have it zapped by the Yag laser.. In London. They are carrying out this small procedure every day now with excellent results .. But comes at a price .. Shame they cant use the laser on my damn tinnitus.. Micky

 

[Tenna]

All I see is small "line" floaters and a complete field of static/blood cells no matter the light degree, someday tinnitus will probably bother me as little as my alternative vision = )

 

[Raul]

I had an eye infection 6 months ago now.. Left me with a huge floater in my right eye.. Ive seen an eye specialist and he said give it time and it will become absorbed back into the eye.. Well its still there so going to wait another 6 months then have it zapped by the Yag laser.. In London. They are carrying out this small procedure every day now with excellent results .. But comes at a price .. Shame they cant use the laser on my damn tinnitus.. Micky

i really want to try that Yag laser i can't stand both anymore floaters and tinnitus what a teamwork! ;D

 

[Raul]

 

[click]

I've had floaters for as long as I can remember. One thing I did notice over the years though was that only my short sighted friends had them - the ones who were long sighted didn't seem to get them. Could have been a coincidence.

Anyway... the reason for my posting this is that just before Christmas 2013 the floaters in my right eye went crazy. There seemed to be an additional level of them and they were doing circular dances alongside flashing curved lights.

I went to hospital not really knowing whether I 'should' &, to summarise, I had emergency surgery on my right eye. Basically they 'stuck' the retina back to the vitreous with a laser (don't quote me on that - I hate looking it up so am typing from memory!) and they said that I'd caught it early before it had torn or detached. They emphasised that what I had done was a lot simpler than an op for a retinal detachment.

So, for those of you with floaters... keep an eye on them (pardon the pun) - if they change drastically or start doing strange things... or you notice curved 'light' which wasn't there before, then get to your emergency eye department as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence and treating it quickly can save you a nasty operation & maybe even your eyesight.

 

[Markku]

Good warning click. Highly myopic people such as myself are at an increased risk for retinal detachment.

Really happy the op went well and that yours wasn't yet a detachment. Eyesight is so precious.

Markku

 

[Johno]

I have floaters more than 10 years, but I am totaly habituated.

 

[applewine]

I have floaters, the black kind, but they don't really bother me. If you get a lot they can bother you and sometimes can be a sign of a problem that you need to see a doctor for quickly. Most of the time they are fine. Floaters are OK and if they ever become a really bad problem you can take the risk of a laser surgery which dissolves them, but I wouldn't risk it with the degree I have them. That is supposed to be safer than the surgery where they replace the fluid. I think I got my black floaters when I was in my early 20's. I could always see little clear ones in a lot of sun maybe or something like that. I rarely see them, but think they exist too.

 

[Grace]

I suffer from frequent ocular migraines, which is a migraine but instead of the headache and shooting pain in the head, I get pain in the eye and see zig zags of light that blocks my vision and
Can be dangerous when driving. Ive had this since i was 15 off and on, eye
Doctor said its normal and indeed it is a "eye migraine". It usually starts from
The front of my eye, ziggzagging through everything and works its way to the back of my eye then dissapears.
Totally annoying. But i was curious and i looked up at the sky today and saw lil
Black dots, guessing everyone sees this? Only see them in the sky.

 

[Littlebailey]

Are floaters just the tiny bacteria or what have you on your eyeball itself that you notice sometimes if you're just gazing up at the sky? And lets say the floater is sort of gliding by on the right side of your eye ball, and if you look to the right and your eyeball moves, the floater moves with it?

Is that a floater?

 

[Relic Hunter]

Are floaters just the tiny bacteria or what have you on your eyeball itself that you notice sometimes if you're just gazing up at the sky? And lets say the floater is sort of gliding by on the right side of your eye ball, and if you look to the right and your eyeball moves, the floater moves with it?

Is that a floater?

To put in simple terms, floaters are impurities in the fluid of the eye. They occur more as we age. We see them because they cast a shadow on the retina or light is distorted as it passes thru them. We most often notice them when looking at the sky or a something like a computer screen.

Most everyone has them as they age and there is little that can be done. I got them real bad when withdrawing from benzos. They were like a cobweb effect and very distracting but went away after several weeks, I know not why.

I understand for the most part our brain ignores them. I wish my brain would do the same for the tinnitus.

 

[Sjoerd]

not entirely on topic, but this is a great video about visual perception. Similar to the seeing your own nose, nobody consciously sees their own nose, but we can see at as soon as we pay attention. Our retina is a funny thing, we all should be able to see the blood vessels in our retina, since they are directly over the light sensitive cells, yet nobody does and we are not even capable of seeing them even if we pay attention. The same is true for the eyes blind spot. Thhis video will show you how to make them visible....funny experiment.

 

[Ronnieo]

I developed dark floaters in rt eye a few months ago went to two eye soca They said it was normal for someone 62 . It feels like a hair is stuck to my eyeball nd t night I get some yellow arcs when I move my eyes while driving Lately i don't notice it as much it was feeling annoying along at first . They said it won't go away hope they do or they don't get worse . Eye docs said the jelly shrinks and pulls at retina

 

[Mr. Cartman]

I developed dark floaters in rt eye a few months ago went to two eye soca They said it was normal for someone 62 . It feels like a hair is stuck to my eyeball nd t night I get some yellow arcs when I move my eyes while driving Lately i don't notice it as much it was feeling annoying along at first . They said it won't go away hope they do or they don't get worse . Eye docs said the jelly shrinks and pulls at retina

I had a lot of eye floaters before the onset of my T and I found them to be slightly annoying. It was the black kind of spots, but all of them are gone, I havent seen one floater for months.. Just wanted to let you know

 

[Ricky81]

Floaters are normal. Everyone has them, many people dont even notice them.

 

[Ronnieo]

I have some dark ones in right eye . Out of nowhere and yellow flashes of light out of side if eye . Had two doctors check them and they said it was normal I am 62 . They said jelly shrinks with age ! And pulls away from retina , annoying ! But have been getting used to them . Nice to look at dark backgrounds .

 

[Kopesy]

I've had eye floaters since I was 13 & since getting T over a year back I find it to be treated almost identically! The whole "It's not life threatening so deal with it & cope" During the past 10 years my brain had filtered out the floaters somewhat, with only the bigger ones annoying me during bright days but since getting T they've joined forces & driving me mad! I suppose with them both being so similar in terms of the sort of conditions they are + the fact my anxiety from getting T was so reminiscent of the early days of my floaters, it isn't any wonder they've decided to collaborate Gone now are the days where I could close my eyes & be normal... eugh -_-

 

[Andrew]

I've had eye floaters since early 2009, when I first got them I thought it was the end of the world. I was depressed, unhappy, withdrawn etc......... It took me about two years to get used to them. Now I don't even notice them and even forget I have them, your brain really does just stop noticing them after a while.

They don't have anything on Tinnitus though, at least with floaters you can escape them at night time, when you're in a dark room or when you sleep....