Floaters

P.S. thought this would be a thread about poo.

^OP hall of fame missed opportunity

i mean first response

Chap: the first response calmed me down, the second made me a little nauseous. So thanks (divided by two)!

Are eye floaters caused by drinking too much?

i have em, they dont really bother me

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Literally about 5 minutes before I first noticed them, I had used Jesus's name in vain on the Warren Oates thread. So they're caused by using Jesus's name in vain.

thought this thread was going to be about dead bodies in a river

i have them, getting worse as i age

I've had them since childhood, and my opthamologist (as a younger adult, I've had lasik and haven't seen one in 12 years) would call in assistants to look at my retina (I had very clear vitreous fluid and well-preserved "embryonic" vestigia of some sort). I think its more a matter of having microscopic vitreous fluid detritus floating near of your optic nerve than anything to worry about. When external objects start looking cloudy at any focal range, then I'd worry.

i have tons of floaters -- i think it's cuz i have no pigmentation in my pupils (or is it retinas? i don't remember) -- anyway they don't really bother me anymore

That's helpful. Nothing external is cloudy--it's a little mess of something that passes in front of whatever's external, and only on the right eye. Anyway, I'll find out more tomorrow. "Getting worse as I age" is disconcerting.

my wife has them, she just ignores them these days.

i've had these as long as i can remember. they've stayed the same as far as i can tell, and i mostly notice them against a blue sky background. always thought they looked like little chains of bubbles.

little chains for me

i've always had these, at least as far back as i can remember, and i have more or less perfect sight

used to think they look like lil microorganisms

had these since childhood - for a while developed terrible fear/compulsion suspecting they were souls of the dead and therefore I had to make sure they floated sideways or upwards out of my vision because if they disappeared downwards they were going to hell :(

i had them as a kid more often but i haven't had one in a while. i honestly didn't believe until now that they were on my eye! never really thought about it.

i've had these my whole life. i have a really early memory of reaching up into the sky to try and catch them, with a friend who had them too.

They're just dead cells aren't they?

More or less, yeah. Had these as long as i can remember, a whole bunch in the right eye, not so much in the left. Vision is and always has been pretty sharp (although slightly less so in the right - probably just coincidence). I can usually ignore them, but sometimes lie in bed of a morning flicking my eyes back and forth to try and get the largest cluster in the centre of my vision for closer examination. Fun times.

i've always had them, as far back as i can remember. they've never gotten any better or worse, but they don't impede my vision at all. pretty much only notice them when i'm looking at the blue sky, or at well-lit white surfaces. never known what they were, nor have i ever worried much about them.

look either like microorganisms, dust motes, or bits of thread/hair.

Ah yes Ive had an annoying floater in my right eye forever. I always notice it if im staring at a white wall - it'll skid back and fro on my vision. Doesnt obscure anything but can be annoying, in the same way my tinnitus is when I pay it mind.

This has all been very helpful, thanks. As long as it's not Stage 1 on the way to a detached retina, I can live with it. I'm at work today, going golfing tomorrow, nothing's changed. It's very annoying right now, but all the reading I did (and from what most people say here) indicated that you eventually adjust.

To comfort you further, I've had them for approx ten years, and on my most recent trip to the optician was told I have extremely healthy (if quite myopic) eyes.

I would always see these little round things floating in front of my eyes in the bathtub when I was a kid, I thought they were blood vessels. I've always had really great vision and eye health.

i always thought everyone had these? can't remember ever not having them - just that they're something you only notice if you're looking for instead of through them.

omg i thght this was gonna be about bodies. lol

Blue field entoptic phenomenon!

First really noticed mine when I was eight or so. I think some part of me thought I was looking at air molecules very very close to my eyeball.

No retinal detachment. Prognosis: float on.

i only notice them when i'm either looking at the sky or on ilx (whitest site on the net)

The problem with explaining to a concerned patient what floaters are is that I become unpleasantly aware of my own floaters for the rest of the day.

I can imagine.

I ended up going in for a check when a particularly visible one came into my vision. Got a check-up and the diagnosis that everything was fine, followed by a week of noticing every floater in my vision.

I notice mine when I'm reaaaaalllly tired

^^^ (although I only have to be fairly tired)

Mrs. Redd just had one looked at today but apparently it was nothing serious, as you seem to indicate.

sometimes I see floaters when I eat a lot of kale or other similarly fibrous vegetables

i get the protozoa shaped ones

I feel like I have this when I get stuff on my contact lenses but I don't think I've ever actually had them. Of course now I'm gonna start checking for the immediately and will probably notice 10 within the half hour.

The ones in my right eye evidently wanted some company, so now I've got them in the left eye too. These are somewhat different--instead of the hanging-string effect (which I eventually got used to and never thought about anymore), it's more like a sudden flicker. I was worried that I was seeing flashes of light--more serious--but I went back to the eye doctor, and she says there's no pulling away from the retina that she can detect.

I am wondering if, before it ever gets to that stage, I should go and have preemptive laser surgery, which is supposed to be fairly mild. I dread to think I'll be driving along one day on the highway, and suddenly the one eye goes dark.

I have them and have for years and unless someone points them out to me, I barely even notice them anymore.

that's scary with the flickers. good that there's no sign of detachment - might have been just a temporary anomaly.

Thanks. Freaked me out a bit because of the difference from what I was used to, but I assume the optometrist would have taken action immediately if necessary.

Hate these shitters

What’s to hate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZklwTGZutc