Dealing with "floaters"

[garandman]

@jk80 ... Im sorry To hear that friend.

That doesn't sound like a floater because those move all the way through the eyeball and can be gotten around by rotating your eye.

I had eye surgery about a year ago for a lazy eye weak muscle. Yes it is very very scary stuff. May be it's shallow or selfish of me but I said at the time I would rather be dead than be blind.

 

[BenPerfected]

Any Optometrist on AS that can comment on floaters? My sight is currently excellent but the floaters are a PITA.
Ben

 

[spclark]

Any Optometrist on AS that can comment on floaters? My sight is currently excellent but the floaters are a PITA.

Optometrist can't help you thought they may have an opinion or two.

You need an Ophthalmologist, an eye 'doctor' not just someone who can determine what correction you need to see well or if you're a candidate for glaucoma.

Floaters can have various causes but the most common is 'stuff' that aggregates as we get older in the vitreous humor in your eyes. VH's the clear(ish) stuff between the lens (in front, part of the cornea) and the iris (aperture) behind it, all the way back to the retina (imaging 'sensor', part of the optic nerve running up into your brain) where the things you 'see' are first turned from photons into nerve signals your brain can then interpret.

As we age that 'stuff' can grow more common, larger, or disappear entirely. Obviously the former is vastly more common than the latter.

There's little you can have done to get rid of 'em short of having that vitreous humor replaced with saline solution, a common treatment for folks who've had eye surgery / retinal detachment repair / eye blood vessel hemorrhage. (Those procedures can leave material behind that begets floaters.)

There's a laser treatment that blasts the aggregated particles, the most common cause, but that's not always effective.

 

[dc.fireman]

I have had the same familiar floater for as long as I can remember... it looks like a reclining, well built woman with long braided hair. I can usually get her to appear by tilting my head down an squinting my right eye and closing my left.

That's what my wife looks like after my 5th beer!

 

[Shooter13]

I've had them. They come and go. Just don't swat at them like they were gnats.

I've done that!! Makes me mad after I realize what I've done!

 

[kolar55]

Most everyone has floaters to some degree or another. I've had them off and on for years. 8 weeks ago tomorrow I had a double detached retina surgery in the left eye. On Monday before the issue I woke up with a severe case of what looked like a totally cracked up window with round spots connected to squiggly lines. ever thought much of it other than it was a pita. I was way more concerned aout getting the soybeans planted etc. Friday morning the little blind shadow in the lower left corner seemed a bit bigger so I though it would be a good idea to call my optometrist. He finally got back to me around 11 am. Was in his office at 12:15 and at the Retina specialist by 2.30 pm and on the operating table at Theda Clark in Neenah, WI at 6:15pm on Friday night. We left the hospital at around 7:45 and the next 2 days were face down except to get up for necessities. A vitrectomy seems to be a standard procedure when doing the retina repair. The floaters are gone and my vision is crystal clear. I tested out at 20-20 in both eyes today at the follow up. He told me at the time of the first meeting(the day of the surgery) that if I would have come to him the day I saw the extreme floaters he could have fixed it in his office with the laser. Believe me that surgery is not a lot of fun. The stitches in the eye to close the needle holes take about 2 weeks to dissolve and come out-all the while irritating the shit out of your eye. So IF YOU ALL OF A SUDDEN GET SEVERE FLOATERS CALL YOUR EYE DOCTOR!!!!!!!

 

[chop house]

you target shooters with your floaters got it easy.... try dove hunting....

 

[hoz53]

Any Optometrist on AS that can comment on floaters? My sight is currently excellent but the floaters are a PITA.
Ben

SP and kolar are right. im 63 and had cataract surgery 5 or six years ago. it caused me to have lots of floaters which i still have. They told me they are from detached stuff in the back of the eye. they said there was a procedure for them but like these guys have said you need to go to an opthamologist.

 

[hoz53]

you target shooters with your floaters got it easy.... try dove hunting....

i couldnt hit the doves before i got the floaters.

 

[kolar55]

I forgot to mention the most irritating part of the whole deal-the gas bubble. At first it is so big that it totally blocks your vision in that eye. As it SLOWLY dissolves it gets smaller but stays centered. After a few weeks you can start to see over the top of it. But if you try to do anything where you put your head down slightly that damn bubble centers right out and you can't see squat. That hung around until about 7 weeks. It finally was totally gone about noon today. The other annoying thing is the green medical emergency bracelet you must wear until the bubble is gone-no flying or change in atmospheric pressure or blindness can occur. I have to go back on the steroid drops for 15 more days-still some inflamation. It amazes me the things they can do. And the Dr. did it after hours on a Friday night. I thanked him a bunch and he sure seemed to appreciate that.

 

[jonbearman]

I have had floaters with squiggly lines and little lines of bubbles in my eyes along with ocular migraines since I was 23 years old. I was told it was from head injurys. I dont know if that is true but the doctor did save 10 percent with geico. I have learned to live with it. I got another weird problem when I look at a blue sky or any color at a distance I see something like little sparkly grains of sand. I think that comes from staring at my bills knowing all my money is gone to bills and I cant spend it on important things like gun stuff.LOL