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I am pretty myopic and have had floaters in my eyes for many years. Today, however, I noticed a strange, new one. It is very long and dark and acts differently than my other floaters: One end of the stringy thing is not mobile, but is fixed instead. All the rest of the stringy thing is mobile, so when I move my eyes, instead of floating up or down like the other floaters, it seems to spin around the fixed point, or unfurl from one side, then the other if I shift my eyes back and forth.
I was freaked out enough that, in spite of Covid, I called my optometrist about 30 seconds after I noticed it earlier today. She saw me in her office two hours later! (Wow, no?)
I had all kind of tests done. She said that both my retinas look very healthy and what I had was an unusual kind of floater. Instead of just floating, it is partly still attached to something (the vitreous?) which is attached to the retina. She said that it will probably break free at some point in the future and all will be fine. However, when it breaks free, there is a small chance that it will bring part of the retina along with it. I asked how likely that would be and she said: 2-3% chance and, if it happened, it would most likely be within the next 6 weeks. So, she wanted to follow-up with me in 3 to 6 weeks.
Ugh. Any ideas on how to ignore this long, black stringy thing in my eye? Any ideas on how not to think too much about a possible retinal tear? There’s really nothing I can do to make it better or help myself in the meantime, so it is harder to feel in control. (The only thing she told me was don’t lift anything really heavy for a while, but I don’t usually lift very heavy things, so that’s not exactly a health project for me).
Ignore it. You can though you do not believe it up front. I have been fighting this stuff now for 7 or 8 years. I have wet macular degeneration which you do not want to have. But I get an assortment of weird floaters and optical aberrations in the troubled eye. Basically you learn to ignore them and most go away. Some of the optical stuff does not but you learn to live with it. It is by the way nice to have one eye that works properly. To a large degree the brain relies on the good eye and your vision feels normal. It really is not as you can tell by closing each eye.
But wait a while ignoring the problem. Mostly they resolve.
Ignore it. You can though you do not believe it up front. I have been fighting this stuff now for 7 or 8 years. I have wet macular degeneration which you do not want to have. But I get an assortment of weird floaters and optical aberrations in the troubled eye. Basically you learn to ignore them and most go away. Some of the optical stuff does not but you learn to live with it. It is by the way nice to have one eye that works properly. To a large degree the brain relies on the good eye and your vision feels normal. It really is not as you can tell by closing each eye.
But wait a while ignoring the problem. Mostly they resolve.
Ok, thanks! I will see how that works. The ignoring it, I mean.
I was freaked out enough that, in spite of Covid, I called my optometrist about 30 seconds after I noticed it earlier today. She saw me in her office two hours later! (Wow, no?)
Optometrist??? With something like this, I would have been visiting an ophthalmologist.
No need for an ophthalmologist unless a part of the retina detaches which an optometrist can diagnose.
Having said that though being highly myopic puts you in a very high-risk category for Detached retina,And you need to be closely monitored
No, it is the right thing to do. The optometrist refers you to the opthamalogist if necessary.
Update: It has already broken free and is now floating around like the other floaters. My vision is still perfectly fine, so great!
Great to hear!
But I stand by my opinion. Not just because of a risk of detached retinas. Eye problems are often a sign of a totally separate systemic disease, drug interactions, etc. It's not reasonable or expected that an optometrist would diagnose those things.
Odd how one only 'thinks' about the critical-necessity (and the overall mechanics) of inhaling & exhaling oxygen in order to stay alive, when we THINK about it...
...otherwise it's a completely 'autonomic' action on the part of our bodies from the moment we take our first breath, till the LAST moment, when we give-up our spirit.
Short version: just get busy doing something, live your life as usual, and next time your eye catches a glimpse of that floater, just smile & chuckle at one more of life's 'funny little quirks'.
As my Mom once told me (when I started getting seriously worried about her failing eye-sight): "We are JUST VEGETABLES !"
Been to an ophthalmologist over this exact sort of thing. A persistent floater. In her evaluation, it was unremarkable. What partly detached will eventually fully detach, and the floater will move out of your field of vision. For individuals over 30 (me, barely) this is normal and while it may be annoying, it will eventually move (be it weeks or months).
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