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Short_Advance_7843@reddit

If they are little, I had a great result buying an electrocauterizer on Amazon.

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Accomplished_Sky_857@reddit

Barnacles? I can't decide if that makes me want to laugh or turn green.

Ok, I see I’m not alone, but did any of you know this was a.. thing? Like “hey, by the way, as you get older, this might happen…”

Lucky me has a birthmark on one retina and they’re watching it for cancer because the back of your eyeball isn’t far from your brain. While I was in getting all this stuff checked, one woman had friends drive her because they numb your eyeball and give you a shot once a month or something in your eyeball. (Any one of us remember that one Halloween movie? Anyone?)

So yah, dark mode, sunglasses. Your brain ignores it after about 3 months. I’m 2 years in and only catch it on bright, light backgrounds.

I wasn’t told what you guys were though. More of a thing about there being a viscosity difference in the new vs the old eye goo and it will eventually detach from my eyeball walls and sink to the bottom. It could be a week, it could be years.

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dcifred@reddit

Yup, I can vouch it is an emergency surgery. Went in to my optometrist because I had a mega floater, and she made me an appointment with an Opthamologist. By the time I got home they called and said to come in NOW, RIGHT NOW. Retina was detached in my right eye, and the Opthamologist shot lasers into my eye until he could stabilize it. I was scheduled for surgery the next day with him, a Saturday even. I woke up with my vision completely dark, and the Opthamologist showing me a card and shining an extremely bright light on it and I could read letters. I had to go home, and remain on my stomach looking down at the floor for six weeks. (The bubble had to stay on top to add pressure to the retina). I made the time useful catching up on all the Marvel movies on my ohone in order so I would be ready for Infinity War. Then the cataract about six months later, replaced lens in eye. Then a "fogging" of the lens which is fixed by blasting away the haze right in the middle to let light in. I believe my insurance company paid for his yacht that year!

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MoM@reddit

I can't begin to imagine having to lay on my stomach like that!

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splorp_evilbastard@reddit

"your brain ignores it"

I wish. My brain says "hey! Look at that annoying thing floating back and forth across your vision! Isn't it obnoxious? There it is, again! Wow, that sucks!"

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OrigRayofSunshine@reddit

It’s taken a long time for me.

I’m also in the stage of several different glasses, so not wearing contacts as much. My face would break out where glasses touch.

I have readers (prescription) for computer work, sunglasses, single vision and bifocals.

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splorp_evilbastard@reddit

I've worn glasses since I was 4 years old. I've had floaters since at least 7 years old.

I wore contacts briefly in 9th grade, but didn't like the extra work (at the time, I literally had to MAKE my own saline solution).

In my mid to late 20s, I got LASIK. It lasted about 5 years before I had to wear glasses, again.

I don't yet need readers, but it's getting close. Right now, I can just take my glasses off (or just look under them) to read books/menus/etc.

I have 2 pair of driving bifocals (so I can see both the road and the speedometer), one regular, one sunglasses.

I have another pair of bifocals I use when shaving.

I have 2 pairs for working on my computer. One is just for monitors and distances, the other fits monitors and middle distance (needed them for work when I had to be able to see a screen at a further distance than the monitor, but not far distance.

Then I have my regular daily ones.

Designer-City-5429@reddit

I don’t see it on my bingo card.

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SnarkCatsTech@reddit

Your floater is in the way. Shake your head a bit.

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Designer-City-5429@reddit

I can’t see your comment. Damn floaters.

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vergina_luntz@reddit

Nope. Thought I was hallucinating because of the big, black inky thing that was in my peripheral vision. Finally froze so it moved into my vision field and I was like WTF is this black octopus thing floating in my living room?!

For sure thought it was a stroke or a psychotic break, only to find out, my vit was so saggy it took a blood vessel out with it 😂

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Excusemytootie@reddit

How do I prevent this?

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thisisntmyotherone@reddit

I’m guessing by ceasing to age.

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FawnLeib0witz@reddit

You don’t unfortunately. Although you might not ever have any that are bothersome.

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Effective_Pear4760@reddit

I do too! Though only about 10 years for me. The pvd isn't dangerous. There is something that can be a big deal though. As the vitreous is detaching from the retina, it can tug on it a little and if it tugs in just the right (or wrong) spot it can make a little tear in the retina, or even pull the whole retina off. For a while they can get the retina back in place, but if it's been detached too long it's permanent and you lose vision in that eye.

So pretty much everybody gets floaters. But if you get a sudden bunch, or it looks like a shade is drawn down over part of your vision, or you get a sudden shower of sparks in your vision, you want to see an ophthalmologist in the next day or so. Mostly it's just a pvd...pretty much everybody has that if they're around long enough...but a tear or a retinal detachment, while not common, is serious.

I had that at 53, with bonus black snow in that eye. The “snow” was blood. So much blood that the opticians “photograph the retina” computer couldn’t focus on my retina, and his partner who was best at retinal exam seconded “ophthalmologist today”. They made the referral and I saw an ophthalmologist 6 times over the next 8 weeks. 1st time he couldn’t see anything. 2nd week he saw a retinal tear and showed me to the laser treatment room. (Text message from my husband in the waiting room: “do not point laser at the eye. Every laser has that label.”) Healing was fine, but at my last appointment for the right eye, the left eye vitreous had popped, leaving a teensy tear in the that retina.

jad19090@reddit

I have about 12 floaters, squiggly lines and round balls and even straight lines with little round things on them. Also get ocular migraines, those are super fun when you’re driving and all of a sudden you can’t see anything. 🤣🤦‍♂️ big Fun.

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themewedd@reddit

I have a "flag/ghost" that waves when i move my eye It is driving me nuts. I am told nothing they can do it will detach abd slide to the side/down eventually. It has been 9 mo...

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ookanuba@reddit

My detatchment (Oct 2024) produced a fairly large floater that would have prevented me from driving if not for my brain, which within a few months, learned to completely ignore it. It was quite amazing to notice it disappearing a bit more each day.

The laser procedure to spot weld my retina back onto my eyeball produced some missing pixels in my peripheral vision, which my brain also learned to ignore. I only notice them on very bright days or when I am in a completely new environment, and even then I only notice them for a few seconds.

I had one at 57. Nobody told me either about this thing separating. It then ended up detaching my retina and I had to get surgery to repair it or face blindness in that eye.

Eye Doc: I see the start of cataracts, that happens around your age

I had cataract surgery in both eyes when I was 43 and honestly it was fantastic! I was extremely nearsighted (-17 glasses) and now can drive now without correction. I lost my near vision though.

On to OP’s topic, I have PVD’s in both eyes but am at high risk for retinal detachment so no surgery. I’ve learned to ignore it for the most part.

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Choice_Tie_8838@reddit

Yes, I was diagnosed with this PVD thing, but I also have an over abundance of the floaters. Like, a crazy amount. Way more than most people have. So trying to read a book or even just a Reddit thread is super challenging. I’m constantly shifting my eyes to move those things outta my way!

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loki_dd@reddit

Vision, like hearing, cohesive speech and others are over rated .

Time to get used to the finer things in life mumbling incoherently, slightly shaking your head side to side constantly and stroking your own knees

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snardacc@reddit

Last November, I had a similar situation except that my retina became fully detached. 6 months later, I am having cataract surgery. Apparently, the retina reattachment causes a cataract to form. On the plus side, I'll have much improved vision and no more astigmatism in that eye.

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MrsMavenses@reddit

I had them so bad in my right eye it was affecting my driving, I went to an opthamologist, who just had his Optometrist examine my eye with an ultra bright light and his diagnosis?

"You're just old".

Yup. Whenever you have new ones, get ‘em checked right away. Like really right away. I saw some new floaters a few years ago and ended up with a retinal tear. Really common since I’m very nearsighted. A laser patched it up, and another a few years later patched it again. And those lasers accelerated cataracts.

meandhimandthose2@reddit

My husband had one eye lazered, and the other one stitched. He preferred the lazer.

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Blossom73@reddit

It is. My husband had it done.

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Effective_Pear4760@reddit

Oh gosh, of all the people I've heard getting lasers, the vast amount don't have it that bad! I think most people come out of the room with their eye watering and maybe blinking a bit but it shouldn't be so bad. I think I've only heard two people cry over 10 years.

One thing that we tell people is that not everybody will have this, but some people get a headache that night. So have Tylenol around for if you need it.

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Blossom73@reddit

Well, he didn't cry, but he said it was fairly painful.

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Effective_Pear4760@reddit

True. We do the injections in the office too, and the range of reactions to hearing about it...pretty much everyone pulls a face when they hear about it, but most people that get it are comfortable. Also we offer extra numbing but that just means you're anticipating it for longer. So most people turn it down.

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Effective_Pear4760@reddit

One of the doctors told me that in some cases. When the brain isn't getting signals from the eyes, occasionally it goes "Oh I know ! ,:"NI CAN dO That" and makes stuff up

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LoudMind967@reddit

☑️ Happened to me last year @ 56 in both eyes. It does get a little better but it doesn't really go away. You do learn to ignore them though

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Our bodies are wonderful and mysterious. But the warranty sucks. I wanna speak to the manager lol

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_ism_@reddit

I found out i have macular degeneration or

Stargardt Disease/Fundus Flavimaculatus

which is genetic and usually manifests in childhood so they were like "you're lucky you're already middle aged and can still see to drive"

Glad you're OK!

My Gen X husband developed floaters suddenly. a few years ago, due to diabetic retinopathy. I made him go the ER. They scheduled him for a laser eye treatment at the hospital system's eye health center the next day. He was told he'd have been at risk of total blindness if he hadn't gotten it treated immediately.

Lots of libraries offer ebooks in Kindle format. Check if your library system does before you discount this.

Definitely. Our local library system has settled on Libby. I just checked and it looks like Libby has added Kindle support since I last checked.

Oh crap I have been dealing with a mega floater in one eye that is infuriating me when I'm in front of my computer. I can tell it's there when I'm not in front of my computer, but being in front of that screen makes it screamingly obvious.

lollroller@reddit

Sucks buddy, been there. Seems awful now, but you eventually will not even register it.

Basically every single person eventually gets a posterior vitreous detachment. My opthi said the same thing, that after not too long I would’t even notice it. I did not believe it at the time, but she was right. I have completely habituated to it.

And I got mine after taking a tennis ball in a direct hit to my left eye. I was at a tennis clinic and in between drills we were picking up the balls. I stood up, turned around, and literally took a ball directly to my left eye. This dipshit was just hitting loose balls back into the corner where we were collecting them. I lost normal vision in that eye for a couple hours, and the detachment happened the next day. When it detached, I actually felt it pulling off. Very odd feeling coming from me eye.

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splorp_evilbastard@reddit

My first one happened when I was 45. The second eye about a year later.

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Aedh1Wishes@reddit

Glaucoma—I’m sorry, and I hope you have a good doc that manages it. Cataracts? Easy peasy fix, and my vision was 800 percent afterwards.

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sweflo@reddit

I had some in my left eye all of a sudden when I was 49. Went in as an emergency since I was seeing flashes when they appeared, and my husband had the same thing happen just a few years earlier. His turned out to be a serious case of posterior vitreous detachment that almost made him loose eyesight in one one but was fixed with surgery luckily. Mine turned out to be "regular "PVD", just left me with these new annoying floaters. Then last summer it happened again in the other eye Again "normal", but in that eye, I now have what looks like to me a smear of Vaseline glooping around. Really freaking annoying. Doc said I could do a vitrectomy, Google that one, FUN! I decided to hold of on that after he mentioned the risk of it casing blindness. Sigh.

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Aedh1Wishes@reddit

I had the vitrectomy in one eye after I had a large grey spidery one like the OP. I sorta tolerated it for five plus years, but when I was driving it would settle right over my focal point. So I was very grayeful for the doc to OK a vitrectomy. I have the globby Vaseline type and a shadowy one in the other eye. But they only annoy me when I am reading or doing closeup stuff. The aren’t making driving unsafe. And FWIW, the vitrectomy wasn’t a difficult or unpleasant experience. My eye was immobilized and numb, and I could actually “see” the tools working—technically I saw the tool’s shadows. It was beyond cool seeing that effing floater get sucked away!

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the_lazykins@reddit

Me too. I read the potential complications. I’ll take the floater.

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pathologuys@reddit

!!!! Yikes!!

My doctor just told me “they’ll go away when you’re in your 70s and have cataract surgery”. !?? Which was weird because my parents are 75 and have no cataracts

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nosrepmodnara@reddit

I've got dozens. They are my constant companions. Sometimes I can forget they are there and sometimes it is like looking through cheesecloth.

Eye guy warned me in middle school to stop wrestling and contact sports or my retina would fully detach. Ends up I had MS, but maybe that too.

You will get used to them, they can even provide entertainment during really bad meetings.

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Available_Farmer5293@reddit

I take this when I get that and it goes away.

I deal with that. It’s vitreal detachment. It sucks but the cool part is the brain gets used to it and mostly filters it out. It can be an annoying still but not the constant annoyance it is early on.

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sadi08@reddit

I've gotten so used to mine that I name them. 🤣

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Giveushealthcare@reddit

I had floaters in my 20s that eventually went away. They were most likely due to stress (said my eye doctor). And mine were like white-ish orbs and didn’t affect me so much I thought I saw a car while driving.

But maybe yours will pass too?

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DoubleNaught_Spy@reddit

Yep. When it happened to me the first time, I thought I had a detached retina, but the doc said it was a posterior vitreous detachment, and was common at my age.

He also said it would happen to my other eye in about six months. It did.

The good news is that you get used to it and most of the time won't even notice it after a while. I really only notice mine in certain lighting conditions.

And they now have a procedure to remove eye floaters, but I'm going to wait until they perfect it before I even consider that.

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elanadi@reddit

Yeah… I had that, and then my retina detached and pulled the macula off and I was blind in that eye. I’ve had a few surgeries since and it’s somewhat repaired, but macular damage is permanent. Those giant floaters aren’t just inconvenient, they can be a warning sign.

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ElectrifiedCupcake@reddit

Had mine do so about a year ago, and mine tore my retina. When you see a “pepper shower”, you’ve got about 24hrs before you need emergency care or you could lose your eye. I needed hydraulic surgery. They put a bubble inside your eye and gas freeze your tear shut. Then, you heal for about a month.

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aunt_cranky@reddit

You get used to 'em.

I freaked out a bit when I got my first "floater". Went to an ophthalmologist who was about 105 years old. I sat in the waiting room and watched a video they put on the monitor just for me.

Had to sit through my eyes being dialated and all that mess. Brought me back to when I was 3 or 4 years old and I was being told to "look into this machine.. you will see the Banana Spits" (yes, this really happened.. ) I had a really bad lazy eye. Back in 1970 or so there were 2 options.. surgery or an eye patch. My parents decided on the eye patch.. and then Coke bottle thick glasses.

So all of the age related eye problems.. it all seems to have come full circle. So far I've managed to dodge cataracts, but I do have a couple of floaters. I've been wearing multi-focals since I turned 40.

It's a thing.

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TravelerMSY@reddit

If it’s any consolation, your brain sort of gets used to them after a while.

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AerynBevo@reddit

I’d go to a retinal specialist. Mine has saved my vision.

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asyouwish@reddit

Get a new doc. They can fix it (with surgery and a week recovery). You may or may not be a candidate for that, but you can ask

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TakkataMSF@reddit

Mom has this. She's got eye-drops that she needs to use 4x a day. They are a prescription so she complains about the price (means they can cost $5-$50,000 per drop).

10 years ago (or more) I got an "eye migraine". The vision in one of my eyes would slowly go silver until it was entirely silver and I couldn't see out of that eye. At first, it's "freak-the-fuck-out". Vision kept coming back, so I was like, eh. Then it happened and lasted a long time, back to freak-the-fuck-out. Schedule dr. visit, he says "eye migraine" should eventually stop. Which it did.

My guess is you only read the Cliff Notes. I'd read the whole "Me and My New Body" manual you got when you were 0 years old. It's got all sorts of info in there. Of course, you may want to skip some of the intro as I assume you've figured out walking and possibly talking.

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VAW123@reddit

SAME!!! I always had floaters but this is like a huge container ship in a sea of bathtub toys. It moved again today and I kept checking my glasses to see if they were smudged. They weren’t. 🧐🙄

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bene_gesserit_mitch@reddit

I’ve got a wee black floater in one eye that emerges sporadically from the tangles of seaweed in my eye to pester me. It’ll remain in my vision for several days at a time. At first I think it’s a bug flying around my head. After I get used to it, real bugs go unnoticed. I’d take it to the shop, but the warranty is long gone.

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Local-Royal-6477@reddit

I have one too. I work in ophthalmology as well so it’s annoying but I’m not fearful

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meandhimandthose2@reddit

I had the same thing on Christmas eve. I panicked as my husband had the same symptoms a few years ago and his turned out to be a detached retina. Then almost exactly 2 years later, it happened again on the other eye.

Has a retinal detatchment last year because of this.

Illustrious-Bat1553@reddit

Oh wow that happened to me took some antibiotics and natural stuff. Seems to be working. Thanks for the information

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StuffiesRAwesome@reddit

I was surprised to learn most people don't have floaters. I had two eye surgeries before I was 10 and that caused me to have floaters. You get used to them.

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vineyardmike@reddit

I had a retinal detachment last year. Had to go into surgery and recovery was a few weeks. After that I had to have a few laser surgeries to proactively fuse my retina to the back of my eye. Fortunately I've recovered fully.

I asked the doctor afterwards what caused it. We went through the risk factors. I have none of them. In fact I have only been to an eye doctor a few times to get my eyes checked. She said "well sometimes it's just part of getting old". OUCH!

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Practical-Shelter-88@reddit

Oh I had that in my left eye! About a month later in the right. It was awful

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Aware-Owl4346@reddit

Be thankful it’s just the vitreous detached. I had that along with a black shadow on one side on my vision. The retina itself had started to detach. Thankfully they got to it in time and lasered it back in place. If you see something funky in your vision DON’T WAIT see an ophthalmologist (not optometrist)

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Sad_Construction_668@reddit

I be had diabetes since childhood, and my retina didn’t detach, but it did start to grow weird blood vessels and start to bled into my eyeball. I had to have laser surgery x then drain and refill my eyeball, and then got cat tract surgery for good measure.

First vitreous detachment was annoying but made no change to my life (although the lightning storm in my peripheral vision was a bit much). The second vitreous detachment, though, caused my overall vision to degrade suddenly. Fun!

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ColoradoAfa@reddit

That happened to me in my mid 40s. I don’t see it anymore, just hang on and it’ll seem normal again.