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OP, yes, there are things you can do. Not available 15 years ago.
This is what you can do.
1. Sit and wait. Floaters tend to resolve on its own (mine in same L eye is slowly getting better). Also, contralateral eye picks up, brain remaps and vision improves.
2. Laser floater removal. Plenty of info online. Pin point floater destruction inside eye. Requires special laser not available everywhere and experienced operator. If they miss and hit retina.....
3. Vitrioscopy. Micro puncture in eye ball, vitreous removed and artificial vitreous inserted. Said to have 60% complications rate but - been around for years and thus you have experienced ophthalmologists that have thousands of this done. #2 is still in baby steps.
My original floater came on all of a sudden, as I was getting ready to leave my eye doctor's! I thought there was a wisp of hair fallen down over my forehead and kept absentmindedly sliding my hand across my face to get rid of it, then I finally looked in the mirror and there was no hair there! Duh! That was about 10 years ago and the floater is basically the same but my brain has learned to ignore it.
In the years since, I have gained one other biggish one, in the other eye, and several little tiny dots. None of these has changed much, if any, but I am lucky in that they are not right exactly in my line of vision directly ahead. They have not reabsorbed, so I guess they are a little different from one my husband got which the eye doctor said would eventually reabsorb, and it mostly has.
Hopefully you are in the care of a good ophthalmologist who can keep an eye on it and let you know if he thinks there are things he can do. Sometimes there are, I understand. Good luck with it. It's not a unique thing but a really bothersome one.
Where you diagnosed with Granual Corneal Dystrophy ndcairngorm? My husband has it and it's hereditary. Typically develops after your 30's. It's a very rare eye disease and most ophthalmologists are not even aware of it. We found one at Loyola University medical hospital in Chicago and then he left to go back to India! We just found another doctor and he told my husband that the only solution would be a retina transplant, but he's to young (43) and needs to wait at least 10 years. Laser removal won't help his condition as the "floaters" are too deep and the laser could cause scare tissue. He was also aware that there are clinical trials being done in Australia, so maybe in 10 years there will be better options.
*****Not saying the OP has this I was just curious about ndcairngorm as it's hard to find people that have this condition. Thanks!
I had a lot of problems with large floaters for the first few years after cataract surgery (especially after follow-up laser surgery). Eventually they went away -- the eye absorbs them. You just have to be patient -- but they are annoying.
There's nothing you can do OP. Sorry. I've worked as an ophthalmic technician about 15 years, and I have heard this complaint from many patients. Unfortunately floaters are a natural process of aging, just as many other undesirable things are, however, many patients who have them end up not noticing them as much. They are still there, just less noticeable after a while. Just be sure and keep your follow up appointment with your retina specialist to be sure all is well, although the symptoms of retinal detachment are pretty obvious, such as the sudden appearance of what looks like a black curtain obstructing the vision in part or all of your visual field.
Ah, well. And it would have to happen to me. My brothers can wear glasses that have soot covering them and they don't mind. Me, I go crazy when I have a spot on my glasses. You can only imagine what this is doing to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat
I have several large floaters in my right eye from a vitreous detachment. As a result I'm having some trouble driving on overcast days.
They're supposed to go away, the ophthamologist said. I sure hope so.
Thank you, that's what it was, a vitreous detachment that gave me this colossal floater. I couldn't remember the name.
Now that I know what caused it and that there's nothing I can do, can I still rant about it?
Now that I know what caused it and that there's nothing I can do, can I still rant about it?
Absolutely, be my guest.
I think I'm so troubled by mine because I had a cluster of events all at once: the vitreous detachment, a middle-ear infection that has turned me virtually deaf in my left ear and a recurring lung infection.
I know I can come back from each of these but with failing functions, it feels like the decline of an elderly person. I spent my entire two week vacation asking people to repeat themselves and having DH drive because I can't see clearly.
OMG, Fluffy, I don't know you are dealing with all that at one time. I had an inner ear infection back in the 80s that left me partially deaf with my ears ringing away. I know what you mean about feeling the decline. I realized I couldn't hear and I couldn't see and I can barely walk more than a block. I was thinking maybe I should just stop talking and be a complete dumb, deaf, blind person.
Wait a minute - I think I have the dumb part down already, even with being able to talk.
I have had floaters since I was in fifth grade, maybe they weren't like the spiders they are now, but they started out as cell-like things floating when looking at the window outside my class, that is how I knew I had them even back then. They became floaters when I was in high school and now it has been many decades of them, I don't see them unless I am looking out for them, somehow my brain just does not see them anymore. My eye doctors have said in the past that I have high astigmatism, maybe that's why I have more floaters, I don't know. You notice them more because you've never had experience with them until your macula detached a bit, but in six months you will be a lot better and the big floater will be hopefully gone. The brain does get used to stuff over time.
Where you diagnosed with Granual Corneal Dystrophy ndcairngorm? My husband has it and it's hereditary.
*****Not saying the OP has this I was just curious about ndcairngorm as it's hard to find people that have this condition. Thanks!
No, I was never diagnosed with this name. So I think I just have the common garden variety floaters. I have a friend that has so many floaters she jokingly says, "It's like looking through soup!" Fortunately she can joke about it - because otherwise it just starts to bother you and give you a bad attitude. In reality one gets so they're not as noticeable - it will take more than a couple of months, though.
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