Eye Floaters

[Instrument 41]

Just got back from MD. The cloudiness is from blood. I was in the hospital 2 weeks ago for high blood pressure,(stress test and heart cath) which I have never had before, 232/119. Put me on new meds combined with aspirin. The diabetes, with the high blood pressure, and the aspirin all have a part in a vessel bleeding in the eye. Had this surgery done once before. Not looking forward to it again. At 47 I'm to friggin young for all this to happen now....

[pwd72s]

Damn...wishing you the best, man.

[Grady Clay]

Glad you got that looked at pronto.

To second Paul, “...wishing you the best….”

‘Floaters' were explained to me as fluid between the more dense vitreous humor and the retina or inside the vitreous humor itself.
It seems pretty well explained here:
Floater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The easy cure: lie down and look up.
My ophthalmologist says “Do away with gravity.” is the cure.
He also says that the surgery is way too risky unless you are there for other reasons.

My ‘bionic’ eyes are now 20:10 and 20:15. Why couldn’t I have had that 50 years ago?

Best,
Grady

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by Reg

I've had floaters for years. You only typically see them when looking up at the sky. For me it is sort of like a small piece of transparent dirt on your glasses and when you try to focus on it, it drifts across your vision field as you try to capture it and you never get it. Does that make sense to anyone? I have a few of them and you see them best when looking at light colored objects. It is annoying but managable. I asked an eye doctor about it once and he said it was nothing serious and not much they could do about it. I do not have the spider type floaters as you describe.

Anyone else?

yup. i have quite a few. had them since my 20's

[Instrument 41]

My "floaters" weren't actually floaters. It was/is blood in the eye.

[ddbach]

Very glad you went and had this checked out.

Anyone with diabetes who develops new floaters should be checked out ASAP. I will see people over the weekend if that is their history. It is much easier to get some laser treatment in place before bleeding obscures the view too much. I prefer to catch these during regularly scheduled check-ups before they bleed.

Non-diabetics with new onset floaters should have the new floaters checked out as well. These are same day appointments regardless of how full the schedule may be. I still remember the trumpet player who decided to go to a gig and wait until the following morning to call me. His macula detached over night and he wound up with a bigger surgery (vitrectomy vs just a buckle) and a longer recovery with a greater chance of an incomplete recovery. Yes, most will have no problems but since only someone else can look at the insides of your eyes it is worth having it checked so you can enjoy driving your Porsches and other visually oriented hobbies.

additional information: What Are Floaters and Flashes?
and What Is Diabetic Retinopathy?

[HarryD]

Back in the early 80's I suddenly developed floaters. I saw an opthomalogist who diagnosed a tear in my retina (non visual area) and had me come in foro some laser surgery.

About 3 months ago, I started seeing floaters again. When I saw the doc, she verified my former repair was intact (it was) and chalked it up to being older but suggested I come in every year or so to get it checked out.

Like the posters above said, sometimes it just getting old, sometimes it is something serious.

Lets keep ourselves in the best of health!

[Instrument 41]

Update.Went for a second opinion and they did laser surgery that day. Tried to stop some of the bleeding. Will go back in 3 weeks to see if the bleeding has slowed down to cauterize the areas they couldn't get due
to excessive bleeding. If that doesn't work surgery to go into the eye and "fix" the problem. Said that sometimes that will not work and blindness in that eye is inevitable. Still very blurry in that eye. Learning to use one eye is very frustrating. So much for getting back into racing...

[Reg]

best wishes - and hey, has anyone said you cannot go racing? Until you definately cannot just keep on trucking towards your goal!

[BE911SC]

Originally Posted by Reg

I've had floaters for years. You only typically see them when looking up at the sky. For me it is sort of like a small piece of transparent dirt on your glasses and when you try to focus on it, it drifts across your vision field as you try to capture it and you never get it. Does that make sense to anyone? I have a few of them and you see them best when looking at light colored objects. It is annoying but managable. I asked an eye doctor about it once and he said it was nothing serious and not much they could do about it. I do not have the spider type floaters as you describe.

Anyone else?

Yep. Eye doc says they're normal. Think of it as a very small piece of dust floating in the fluid on the surface of your eyeballs.

[charlesbahn]

There are good floaters and bad floaters. Good floaters are those that we all see occasionally, usually against a bright or blue background, they are remnants of old blood vessels in the jelly of the eye (vitreous).

Bad floaters are usually dramatically different from good floaters- occur suddenly, sometimes at rest, and may be associated with a flickering light out of the corner of the eye. These are caused by a shrinkage of the jelly of the eye (vitreous) which might or might not tear the retina and lead to a retinal detachment. New floaters may also be caused by bleeding into the jelly of the eye (vitreous) in diabetes or other retinal problems, as described above.

Bad floaters should always be checked. Tears in the retina can be easily repaired in the office if caught early- but if the retina detaches, it's off to the operating room you go- an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.

The classic mistake patients make is to think that if the floaters are gone the next day, they won't go the eye Dr......But the tear occurs with the floaters, the floaters go away the next morning, the patient doesn't get checked, and then the retina detaches a month later.

Just my 0.2.

[Arizona 911]

I would also suggest getting it checked out. The past 3 years have been a nightmare for me. I had cataract surgery on my left eye in 2008. A few months later, I started getting floaters that looked like a bug running up a wall. When I first noticed it I would flinch because I thought it was a scorpion coming after me. Then overnight I had a shadow develop that looked like a half moon across the center of my vision. There was a small sliver of light on the outside edge and when I blinked it was like a lightning flash. I went immediately to the eye specialist and found out I had a detached retina. I had to have surgery that day and was out of work for 2 months. I had to have cataract surgery on my right eye 2 years ago. I was at work about 4 months ago and suddenly the center of vision went blurry. I was like "oh crap, not again. Back to the eye doctor to have laser done to fix it. My left eye still isn't well and I had a checkup last week and have to have surgery again to fix what is called a buckle in my eye. I am currently at 20/60 in my left eye. I am going to be out of work for at least a month. I am having the surgery on December 29th. I am trying to keep positive thoughts but I have been getting kind of depressed thinking about it. I am 47 years old and the doctors say this shouldn't be happening to me. My advise to anyone here is if you have any noticeable change in your vision, please get it checked out immediately. Good luck to you.

[gsxrken]

Good luck with your surgery tomorrow, Arizona. I just had both eyes done, so far so good. But retinal detachment is one of the risks and is particularly higher for those high-myopes. Don't stick with one doctor, either. I saw three before I went under, and not before they all said I needed it. I'm 45.

[Jrboulder]

Quote de Reg

wow! Eye just noticed i've been coming here for 10 yrs. Now I am really starting to feel old!

Hoot...like the collection of PANO issues I used to have. Began in '67, ended in '07.



"60's and early 70's, a young crowd in the "from the regions" pics...by the 80's, the aging process had begun. Such is life. Nobody beats father time.

The problem with the PCA is they have stuck with that crowd and nit really encouraging new younger members. Hell, I owned a Porsche before they would even let me join the PCA (you have to be 18). I don't think I'm going to stay in the PCA.

Step 1 to owning a mustang...

[Buckterrier]

I've had the bastaads since I can remember. I think they are in the right eye only. I was diagnosed with diabetes & HBP earlier this year, (told the doc I wasn't sick til I saw her). I need to have the eyes checked as it's been years since my last check up.
Good luck to you.

[Joe Bob]

Floaters suck...had them for years. The complex has a jacuzzi with an ant problem. On occasion I reach out to squash one....it's a floater.

AFIK nothing can be done about them...floaters, not the ants....

[J P Stein]

I first started getting them in my early 20s. They would pop up and then get worse.....till my vision was nearly blocked on one eye (it varied as to which). At that point I had 2 choices, either lay down or fall down (I did the fall down trick once).... from dizziness & nausea. Did I mention a hell of a headache came on? I went to a Dr. he he told me it was a migraine. Back then there was no cure except to find out what was causing them and avoid that.....kind of a self medication thing. In my case it was lack of sleep. As I got older the migraines became less intense & more infrequent. I now just close my eyes for a half hour or so and the "spots" go away & I get just a dull headache.

I did have a stroke a couple years back....fairly mild....if there is such a thing.
I'm now on BP meds and aspirin therapy. The good news is the "spots" are even less frequent. I found "it's all in your head".. A trip to a neurologist might be a good idea.

[ronster]

Originally Posted by Instrument 41

Anyone have to deal with eye floaters? Friday they started with something that looked like and ink blob and then slowly changed into spider webbish designs. Would clear up, then another would reappear. Yesterday had another one in the same eye. Tried blinking quickly to see if it would clear up. Then rubbed the eye gently, now my entire vision is blurry in that eye and has not cleared up. Anyone have this before??

I have these and discussed it with my optometrist and his explanation is they are bits of the inner tissue lining of the eyeball that break off, typically in later years (old age) and float around in the fluid. They eventually shrink up and aren't as annoying but if you have a large one that doesn't shrink up in a few months get an exam. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about them.