Since getting floaters, have they altered?

Floater can increase the risk more upto an optimal level.I am sure that there is no need of laser treatment unless and untill major problems have been occuring.I can suggest that this is good to have a permanenet treatment but taking risk on eyes it is too difficult.As per my opinion changing background color ill help a lot in easy visibility of the picture throughout the system.

http://www.myvisionwithoutglassesreview.org/

Hello,

 I do not have the black shadow floaters, I have gel looking worm floaters that are pretty much clear and see through. It started back in March and at one point the object took over my field of vision and I could not see for about 15 minutes. It went from one short one to two and one is very long and both have spots in them. It just started up again the past few weeks, Ido not have ins so I am wondering what this is. Anyhelp is great. Thanks.

First of all, i would like to say that im so very thankful to have found this forum. reading these replies have helped me to not feel so alone in dealing with my bothersome floaters on a daily basis.

I am 20 years old. I have had floaters for as long as i can remember. They have ALWAYS bothered me, i've told my mother about it from a long time ago...but she just kind of brushed me off and told me that nothing was wrong. last year, I did a research paper on floaters for my speach class and found some good information that i had never known before. I thought that i was the only person who was suffering from this disorder until i looked into it for myself. My floaters are bad. They vary in appearance to look like scary black strands all bunched up together, waves, bubbles, little strikes of lightening that i can only see when i look to the side abruptly, and just weird shapes. Sometimes there are more than 7 in my vision at once...(yes, i counted)

Doctors and internet articles all say the same thing... "Your brain will learn to ignore them."....ok... and how long is that supposed to take? My floaters are still visible, and if anything, they seem to be getting worse and more difficult to cope with day by day. They make bright summer days, (day time in general) VERY difficult to enjoy, and going to the beach... FORGET it...i'll pass. I see them very clearly when i close my eyes and over all, im tired of crying over this. They say that sometimes stress IS a factor so try to cut down on your stress levels...but what if these floaters are one of the main components OF my stress? I could go on and on on my floaters and how upset they make me but im going to end it here haha.

Guys, even though i am grateful to be blessed with vision in the first place, i REALLY hope they find a cure for us one day (soon) so we can all get our lives back and enjoy our days!

I am a 30 yr old female and have gone through major stress in the last month, planning a move to NYC etc. I started noticing one or two but in the last two weeks, which have been chock full with lack of sleep, eating too little, and massive quantities of stress, I notice them more and more. Maybe even increasing. I have read that stress has noting to do with it. They seem to be more prominent if I am suffering from anxiety and once I notice them it only triggers my anxiety even more. I am thinking of cutting out coffee as well. My insurance doesn't kick in for another 3 months and so I need to wait before seeing an eye doctor but I'm worried since out of nowhere it seems the floaters appeared. I do remember as a child being on a place and looking out the window and I would see a floater. Just one. Shaped like a stick figure. Only now in retrospect do I realize it is a floater.
I have them in both eyes and am nearsighted.

Hi Everyone,

This is also my first time posting. I am a 27 year old male and I have suffered from vitreous floaters since January, 2008. I am a scientist and have done by homework on the condition. Mine are not caused by diabetes, high blood pressure, or inflammation. They have slowly been evolving over the last two years. The floaters are present in both of my eyes and have a spider-web, strand-like appearance. They look like coagulated protein strands, and form what look like twisted helical strands. My floaters have slowly been lengthening across the length and width of the vitreous in both eyes. They seemed to have formed such as when there is a chip in a car windshield, and then the chip becomes a crack and will continue down the length of the windshield in a seemingly haphazard direction.

Floaters are degeneration of the vitreous body, the gel-like part of your eye. They will usually occur in somone > 70 years as larger masses in the eye. The gel part of your eye is composed of about 1% hyaluronic acid and 99% water. As the hyaluronic acid breaks down and loses attached water molecules, it forms clumps, strands, that then become visible to the naked eye. Mine started when I could see them against a bright computer screen, a bright sky, reading, and now I can see them almost no matter what type of lighting, with the exception of when it is dark such as mood lighting for ambiance at a nice dinner. I enjoy these times most!

You should always go and see an eye doctor or straight to the emergency room if you see any new, sudden bright flashes of light, sudden loss of peripheral vision, loss of a section of your sight, or a large floater that may form a horseshoe shape. These symptoms can be evidence of a retinal tear, which can only be corrected within 48 hours by immediate laser surgery. Otherwise, you should have your eyes dilated at least 1-2 times per year, preferably by an opthamologist or experienced optometrist. Some optometrists I find do not have suffcient training to recognize the extent and scope of floater-related physiology.

I have not yet had these emergency symptoms and hope that they never occur. I have been to countless optometrists, opthamologists, and even macula and vitreous eye specialists. They unfortunately cannot typically see the extent of the floaters since in a younger person such as myself, they will generally occur toward the back part of the vitreous. This is why they appear magnified to a younger person.

I find the floaters to be extremely annoying. For the first year, they caused me significant emotional and psychological distress, as it seemed family and friends would not take me seriously, and eye doctors could not really see them and told me that I just had to live with them. ...Live with them!!! That is easier said than done. They are present every moment that you're eyes are open and present constant annoyance, distraction, and are now affecting the acuity of my vision. I have finally slowly come to accept the floaters as a fact of life, and I feel that I need to continue living a high quality of life. I once relegated myself to home or work, either away from windows, fluorescent lights, and with the curtains drawn. Now I force myself to get out, be with friends, enjoy the beach (frightening for someone with floaters), run races in the sun, and try to enjoy life as much as possible with floaters.

I constantly wonder what causes floaters and how they could ever be remedied. I am not severely near-sighted, although I do have astigmatisms. I have wondered if since the interior portion of my eye near the cornea is so contoured from the astigamatisms that this has initiated floaters, since they are also present in the back part of the vitreous, such as a seed crystal for initiating crystallization. I have probably thought way too much into this, but it seems that the international medical community has disregarded and under-estimated the extent of an emotional toll and negative effects on quality of life that floaters cause to sufferers.

A vitrectomy is also only a last-resort remedy, as side effects can include slow healing, high complication rate with more floaters forming, cataracts after a few years, or even blindness in some instances.

Unfortunately, in the U.S. medical research funding typically only goes to diseases that cause death as an endpoint, such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc. Floaters fall below the radar screen.

I'm hoping to one day initiate some sort of research project with the medical community to at least initiate an epidemiological survey study to evaluate the various life factors or other symptoms that people suffering from floaters may have. I have been following on-line posts for a while now and I'm frustrated at seeing the extreme emotional distress that floaters cause, especially in younger or middle-aged adults.

I hope my rant has helped anyone new to floaters or those trying to cope. There are others out there with the same condition and we feel your pain. I am certainly able to live and function and try to enjoy life as much as possible. I too pray for a day when my floaters can be cured. I've learned to live with them by coping, keeping myself busy so as not to dwell on them, and find ways to minimize their noticeable effects, such as living with darker carpeting, non-white walls, patterns, polarized sunglasses, staying well-hydrated, and having a few understanding siblings and friends. We're in it together!

Hey everyone

its my first time that i am contributing to anything online. I was always tempted to do so, but was too lazy to go through the registration process. After reading this forum I just had to share my experience.

I am pretty sure that i have had floaters since i was a kid. I remember looking at the clear glass window, and seeing particles move. I assumed that i have some sort of a super microscopic vision. I never thought that what i see is actually happening in my eye. When i was around 20, i kept on noticing this smoke like cloud that moved whenever i moved my eyes looking at a clear background. I assumed maybe it was a dirty cornea or something that can be fixed with a simple laser surgery. At 24 the floaters got bigger and more numerous. After researching it i realized what it actually was. Now i have a lot of them in both eyes. Makes my life hell. I see them all the time. I find myself seeing them even better when starring at the light while squinting, you can actually see the cells ( like on a microscope). That became a habit. Sometimes people catch me squinting like an idiot for no apparent reason. Very embarrassing

Its hard for me not to think about them since i see them all the time. I am glad i found this forum because know i know that i am not alone. I have seen 2 optometrist that gave me the same response: its normal and there is nothing we can do....

To deal with it i wear sunglasses, and dimming the back-light on my laptop, it truly makes the difference when reading stuff online.

I don't know if there is a cure or not. There are so many suggestions online about vitamins and all that, but i am not sure its even working.

What keeps me going is that i am hoping that there will be a solution one day (hopefully with all the stem cell research ...) and i can get my clear vision back.

It has been less than one week since floaters developed in my left eye. I've read a lot of descriptions of temporary floaters on the internet, but most of the comments on this site seem to be from people who are experiencing the type of problem that I have developed. At the time of this writing, the central part of my vision in my left eye is about 60% covered by a web of lines, specks, circles and globs of black shadow. When viewing a bright background like the sky or the hood of a white car, my entire field of vision in my left eye is covered with microscope dots and circles along with the web of shapes mentioned earlier. My right eye is virtually clear. I've been to an opthalmologist who told me exactly what this website said would be typically what one might expect to hear.

I do notice a semi-circle of light-flash in the left side of my left eye when looking from right to left. It is noticeable in poor light or darkness, but not normally in daylight. The Doctor could not find a sign of retinal detachment, but I am scheduled to go back in 6 weeks.

I can already understand the frustration of those who have commented on this site. This doesn't seem like something that will be fun to live with. Reading is frustrating and seems to cause eye strain from trying to see beyond the maze which, of course, moves back and forth across the page with my eye movement. I've been cleaning my glasses a lot and swatting at non-existent insects.

It seems that many sufferers are in their 20's. I'm a 56 year old male and never really had eye problems. I am slightly nearsighted, but with glasses my vision is 20/20 or better ( in fact even with the web I could read the 20/15 line with my left eye at the opthalmologist's office).

As others have said, there are so many other terrible things that happen to people that this seems insignificant in comparison. However, it is difficult to look through the mass of floaters and very irritating. To make the best of it, I've decided to use it remind me to pray for my family, friends and others in need of prayer. Please message me by clicking on my username [edited by webteam] I would enjoy hearing from others who are dealing with this condition.