Dealing with "floaters"
- Thread starter garandman
- Start date
Go see an Ophthalmic Surgeon. He can tell what is going on and how to fix it. Ask me how I know.
I am a olde guy (less than 2 decades from being over 100), have 20-20 uncorrected and un-clouded corneas, only wear corrective lens' for close up, normal eye pressure. Why, would I want to mess with my eagle like vision and owl like night time vision for an voluntarily observed feature (can easily handle 24, 36X40 optics) that I have been aware of since age 6. No eye doc could give Lagertha more personality.
target shooting with floaters is just annoying.... try dove or duck hunting with them!
Im *not* talking about "fliers"... those claimed erratic shots that open a nice 0.25" group up to half inch + .
Also not talking about ppl who forget to flush.
I'm talking about those little spots / squiggly lines that "float" around in a shooters eye... especially when sighting thru a rifle scope.
You young guys...got it SOOO easy, don't hafta deal with this crap.I now know why old people are cranky...everything hurts, everything is annoying.
Anyway, I read one good way of dealing with them is to sorta rotate your eyeball around, that will cause them to move from in bwtween they eye iris and the scope reticle.
Especailly movement of the eye up and down.
So for each shot, along with my breathing control, I look up at the celiing / sky as I have my cheek on the cheek rest, to make the floaters move. Usually they'll then settle down thru the eyeball, passing right thru the eyeball iris - scope reticle path, to below it, and everythng will be clear again.
Anyone dealt with this / found a better solution / seen a doctor / got gooder advice for me?
Some light reading....
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/archive/index.php/t-881430.html
Yip, shooting through the floaters with open sights with pistols trying to shoot a 40 - 60 shot IHMSA match is hell.
Someone suggested to me it was due in large to dehydration and as the eyes were the first organs in the body to show dehydration stress these floaters were the result.
I now hydrate for the hour or so before a match with about a litre of water. It certainly helps and may well be a placebo effect but I swear they are better than without the re-hydration.
My favourite floater and the biggest one I see semi -regularly is a microscope image of a praying matis leg!
I was only attempting to indicate presence of floaters, in a minor degree, while be annoying will not prevent most activities including shooting. I am more fortunate than ihmsakiwi in that my nice floater is not a preying mantis leg. This would indicate floaters are unchanging and persistent.
As for the other:
https://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/protect/laws.html
Reward$ are possible.
garandman
Bolt Gun Bodacious
I had terribly floaters for several years. They came on really bad after I had my cataracts removed and lenses put in. Bad enough that at times I had trouble seeing cars coming at me in the other lane. Finally went to see an eye specialist who did surgery on my eyes one at a time and removed the vitrial fluid in the eye and replaced it with a saline like solution. This had been nearly 15 years ago and absolutely crystal clear vison since. I had mine done at Black Hills Regional Eye Institute in Rapid City, SD. Dr. was Prema Abrahams. Their website is www.blackhillseyes.com. Hope this helps somebody. Russ
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garandman
Bolt Gun Bodacious
My reading said this is exactly the medical solution to the problem.
Fix your diet! Drink more water! Get your blood sugar and insulin under tighter regulation even if you are not technically diabetic. Lose excess body fat. Exercise to fix metabolic issues like but not limited to insulin resistance and lipid metabolism issues. Get systemic inflammation under control. This is not professional medical advice or professional opinion it is general advice to counter act Standard American Diet aka SAD. This is not a fix for floaters but we know that when these things are allowed to spiral out of control they always make every other condition you have worse.
Now at this point assuming you have done the above and you are 50 or older or have other issues related to floaters that can not be changed your only choice is to ignore it. You might need to consider cognitive behavior training, hypnosis, mindfulness etc not to fix the floaters but to change how you respond to it under competition conditions.
If all you have is floaters with no other issues no intervention from a medical procedure standpoint will be productive or worth the risk. On the other hand if the floaters are a symptom of something else along with other symptoms then you need urgent medical attention. If the amount of floaters you have suddenly increases get to your MD Doctor or Optometrist.
The above is from personal research I did for myself and is not medical advice or meant to take the place of medical advice!
Now at this point assuming you have done the above and you are 50 or older or have other issues related to floaters that can not be changed your only choice is to ignore it. You might need to consider cognitive behavior training, hypnosis, mindfulness etc not to fix the floaters but to change how you respond to it under competition conditions.
If all you have is floaters with no other issues no intervention from a medical procedure standpoint will be productive or worth the risk. On the other hand if the floaters are a symptom of something else along with other symptoms then you need urgent medical attention. If the amount of floaters you have suddenly increases get to your MD Doctor or Optometrist.
The above is from personal research I did for myself and is not medical advice or meant to take the place of medical advice!
I have one, it is stuck and won't drop down.
The trans lucent threads flow around as I move my eye.
I can handle a blurry sight with a scope, but irons sights are a problem.
And of course it is my dominant eye.
Doc said the laser method creates lots of smaller specs.
rpeacock is the first positive result I have heard of with this procedure.
Hopefully more will come forward with their story.
Steve Bair
The trans lucent threads flow around as I move my eye.
I can handle a blurry sight with a scope, but irons sights are a problem.
And of course it is my dominant eye.
Doc said the laser method creates lots of smaller specs.
rpeacock is the first positive result I have heard of with this procedure.
Hopefully more will come forward with their story.
Steve Bair
I had a 9.5 on a 10 scale widow maker heart attack a year ago that saw the attending Drs basically leaving me for dead on the operating table. Had been in med heavy construction for 40 years and was/am built like a brick chit house. My heart problems were brought on by KFC and Burger King,in no uncertain terms. Had floaters since early 40's(am 62 now). They would come and go,never bothered with getting them checked.
My diet has been a COMPLETE 180 degrees since the attack. I still have issues (extremely low pulse rate amongst a cpl others) but,the floaters have gotten significantly less.
My diet has been a COMPLETE 180 degrees since the attack. I still have issues (extremely low pulse rate amongst a cpl others) but,the floaters have gotten significantly less.
garandman
Bolt Gun Bodacious
@mauser284
Interesting post. I' ve done most of that... changed diet dramatically, eat more "real food" eliminated donuts etc cut way back on pizza / lunch meats / sodium. Do cardio 3x per week. Lost 25 lbs. I read product nutrition information pretty religiously, now. I think one BIG thing is we eat three HUGE meals a day, and snack in between. I'm moving more to eating all day long. For instance have a bow of cereal for b'fast. Then 2 hours later a banana. Then 2 hours afte that a small lunch, then 2 hours after that an apple. Then 2 hours after that a small dinner. We just eat too much at meals, and then too much in snacks. And don't eat anything 2 hours before sleep.
Had a nutritionist in to talk to us about food. She said... "think of it as fuel." I don't put junk in my car gas tank. So don't put junk in your body. Feed it the things that make it run well.
Started testing proper hydration literally just yesterday, based on general reading / recommendations here. We shall see.
Interesting post. I' ve done most of that... changed diet dramatically, eat more "real food" eliminated donuts etc cut way back on pizza / lunch meats / sodium. Do cardio 3x per week. Lost 25 lbs. I read product nutrition information pretty religiously, now. I think one BIG thing is we eat three HUGE meals a day, and snack in between. I'm moving more to eating all day long. For instance have a bow of cereal for b'fast. Then 2 hours later a banana. Then 2 hours afte that a small lunch, then 2 hours after that an apple. Then 2 hours after that a small dinner. We just eat too much at meals, and then too much in snacks. And don't eat anything 2 hours before sleep.
Had a nutritionist in to talk to us about food. She said... "think of it as fuel." I don't put junk in my car gas tank. So don't put junk in your body. Feed it the things that make it run well.
Started testing proper hydration literally just yesterday, based on general reading / recommendations here. We shall see.
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It's way too easy a thing to ignore since the symptoms are so mild and slow to be recognized. When you think about how hard your heart has to work pumping blood through all the plumbing in your body 24/7/365, ponder for a moment how much thicker blood gets when you've begun to lose optimum hydration.
Our bodies are awesome creations yet there are limits on how the 'automated adjustments' work, one of the big ones being how your kidneys moderate your body's water content.
Let us know what you learn from how you're changing your lifestyle G., we'll all benefit from your feedback.
Coyotefurharvester
Silver $$ Contributor
In my late 30's, a line drive softball hit my left cheek bone, fractured it. For 16-17 years I had floaters in the left eye, and 2 small fissures in the my eye(front side). Eye doc had plan in place if the retina detached suddenly. 3 years ago more floaters and had my eye checked, fissures had opened some and some fluid was leaking, I had a laser procedure that "sealed" them and would stimulate scar tissue around the tears, haven't noticed any floaters after the first month or so after the laser. My cataracts and astigmatism is worsening, so I do deal with some blurring when looking through a rifle scope at stationary targets.
I'm dealing with a huge floater in my right eye now. I shoot trap a lot, Upwards of 25 thousand shells a year. It looks like I've got a greasy smudge on my shooting glasses and is large enough that what movement it has isn't enough to not cause a problem. No amount of shifting the eye will move it enough. Seeing a retina specialist this week for the second time to see what options I am willing to try. Vitriectomy is one option but kind of scary. Better than 98% success rate but doesn't sound to pleasant. I shot good enough to make it into our states Hall of Fame and shooting all types of guns and hunting is all I know. I guess I'll see the doctor and do some soul searching and make a decision. Right now if I do nothing I can't shoot trap at a level acceptable to me and iron sights suck too. Scopes are barely doable. Sure don't want to quit shooting but don't want to loose all vision in the eye. I sure hope no one else has to go through making a choice like this.
Good luck with your floaters.
Good luck with your floaters.
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