macteacher

Hi all,

I was recently diagnosed with having eye floaters. To my surprise, a lot of people have them. From my priest to my neighbour to the local grocery store clerk. Apparently this is fairly common.

My question here is, how many of you have floaters in your eyes and does it affect your commuting in a negative way?

Cheers

hueyhoolihan

yes, i've got a floater (in my eye). but beware, i had an ophthalmologist misdiagnose me once. he kept trying to convince me i had a floater, when in fact, it turned out that my retina was hemorrhaging from a case of malignant hypertension! how could he have missed that? i mean they've got all that opthalmologist equipment and stuff.

enigmaT120

I have them. It doesn't affect my commute or anything else as I normally pay no attention to them. If you focus on them you're not focused on anything outside your eyeball.

Now that I think about it I don't think I can see them in the dark anyway.

Yan 

I thought everyone has them? Mine are only visible against a bright homogenous background (like the sky), and when my eyes are stationary; which is pretty much never unless I'm daydreaming.

andychrist

I was taught in Psych 101 that everybody has floaters, the amazing thing is that the brain somehow compensates for them-- otherwise we would not be able to see at all!

a1penguin

Floaters are not uncommon. Mine come and go. I am at risk for detached retinas, so my eye doc monitors my eyes closely. I have great insurance coverage; they pay for a second pair of reading glasses, but won't pay the $39 for the digital retinal scan. Wikipedia has a good article on floaters. Even if you don't wear glasses and have perfect vision, you should still get your eyes checked annually.

SuncoastChad

I've had 'em for many years. When I'm bored I move my eyes quickly and check them out!!
My eye keeps an eye on them but otherwise they don't affect my activities.

DiabloScott

I've got 'em. My condition is pigment dispersion syndrome. Sometimes there's a lot and it's kind of weird, but only once were there so many that it was distracting to what I was doing.

FunkyStickman

I have them, but they're not severe. Kinda weird, but eh.

mikeybikes

I have a couple floaters. I've had them ever since I can remember. They've never interfered with my eyesight in any way.

scottsmith

I have the clear kind that I can only see against a bright, relatively uniform background (Just what like Yan described).

My wife has darker ones that she can see in most lighting at or above an average comfortable level. She really first noticed hers after a mild head injury (indoor slip & fall) and had quite a bit of trouble with the issue. As soon as she heard it could be associated with retinal detachment, she went full-on hypochondriac! In her case it never lead to that, as it usually doesn't.

She's never been a bike commuter but there were a few occasions when she found they distracted her while driving but she could still focus on driving. Mainly it was a distraction for her in college and when she initially started working with computers. She said it was more or less like seeing bugs flying past or hovering in front of her. She hasn't had any trouble with them for several years now though. I don't bring it up to her because of the psychological aspect where once she notices them, they're ALL she'll notice for a while!

Good luck handling yours.
Scott

mikeybikes

Reminds me:

channeleaton

I've had them for a long while but they have never been bad.

The only time floaters become a problem is while I'm dove hunting.

Bird!
...oh...

frpax

Great post!

Yeah, I have a couple of floaters too. Had 'em for as long as I can remember. No biggie.

I'll stay away from dove hunting, though... thanks for that tip! LOL

gerv 

If you suddenly start seeing a bunch of new floaters, time to get to the eye doctor.

I have one floater that resembles a Colnago.

ZManT

Put me down for one in the left eye.

I see it when surfing BF or working on spreadsheets, word docs, or project schedules. ...

not a big deal, but my eye doc always asks if it's gotten bigger or changed . .... I sometimes daydream of a procedure I can have done where an optho goes in with something and cuts it out ... but I guess they don't do that.

Litespeedlouie

I've had a big one in my right eye for several years. It's like a moving ball of lint. I just learn to ignore it, as my retina guy says they can come and go. He does say he could do a surgery to fix it if I really wanted to, as mine apparently involves a split in the aqueous stuff filling the eyeball. But that's surgery...

hxzero

I've got some pretty ****ty vision and am at risk for retina detachment - I started getting floaters about 3 years ago (first noticed them after an especially heavy night of drinking - bad surprise). I hardly even notice them now - they'll never get in your way unless you're focusing on them specifically, and even if you try, they'll move out of the way since they're in your eye.

K'Tesh

EYE think an image would help clarify things... Now that EYE've looked into it, EYE see, that EYE've had them too.

In just looking at that image, meyene seem to be acting up.

unterhausen

I hate to think how they took that picture.

I have had ophthalmologists and even my retinal specialist ask if I knew I had them like it was unexpected. I always ask them if it isn't true that everyone gets them, and they always agree that it is almost universal

andychrist

Him: I keep seeing spots.

Her: Have you seen a doctor?

Him: No, all I see are spots.

nashcommguy

+1 Have never had any problems that I can recall. In my mid-40s I started to need reading glasses, but never progressed past 1.00. So, I've been fortunate. Hadn't noticed them for months until this thread brought it up.

2manybikes

I forgot I had them until I read this. I can find mine if I look for them, but I don't think about them.

scottsmith

Maybe THAT was Cheney's problem...?

gecho

I didn't have much problem with them until having a dilated pupil exam about 4 years ago. After that there were big floaters that annoyed me for a year or more. They are mostly gone again now.