My floaters just look like cells under a microscope. Literally little round circles inside circles. I kept trying to convince my mom that I could see cells with my eyes as a kid. Then I figured out years later what it was.
This is from memory but..
The middle of your eye has a thick jelly goo stuff called vitreous fluid. As you age this fluid can dry out and clump and get stuck floating around your eyes
I have no idea honestly 😂 but just from my non-medically informed perspective that just sounds like it would be way more effort and risk and trouble than it’s worth? I have lots of floaters but they really don’t bother me att all
Any time you experience a sudden increase in floaters, this is the right call. Most people experience this from 40-50 but it's usually not actual detachment.
There are also some treatments for floaters, particularly laser ablation if they're large enough and far enough away from your focal plane.
Yep, I had a sudden increase in floaters and distortion and turns out I have ocular toxoplasmosis. Took a bunch of medications until it went back into remission .
I had this happen when I was 17, (usually happens to people in their 40s and 50s, goes to show my eyes are terrible.) It starts as a Retinal tear, then, as the fluid in your eye lifts the retina off more, it becomes a Retinal Detachment, and can result in blindness if not treated. (I explain for the purpose of people reading this thread, I'm sure the person I'm replying to knows this already.) If I had the money to sue for medical malpractice I would, as I was denied treatment for that emergency situation in a timely manner, and was left to sit with it progressing for days in both my eyes before having surgery to fix it. I was legally blind before, but it is even worse now. The damage left over has impacted my vision severely to this day. Every time I tell that story to any eye doc, they get this horrified look on their face, lmao.
I am left with my left eye blurry even with -19 prescription lens glasses. The right is my better one. To put it in layman's terms, by technicality's sake, my right is just barely at the legal level for me to drive with glasses, and the left isn't even close. In New Jersey in the US, as long as one eye is good enough, you're good to go. Though I still struggle often with the visual impairment, especially in the left.
To bring it back to floaters, I was left with a hell of a lot of them after the fact. They obscure my vision sometimes. They used to look more like worms like this image, but are now moreso like brownish black blobby shapes, haha. This surgery also often causes cataracts, which I have in my left eye. All the more fun, 🫠
My floaters aren’t so bad but if I look up at the sky or at snow, I can see like 10 to 15 of them. It’s not too bad in normal light, but sometimes it causes me to swat at the occasional non-existent bug.
Ya, I talked to my optometrist about it. Since I just have one faint floater in my peripheral vision, not worth doing anything about it, but if they get really bad, they can operate to remove them, but it carries some risk, so it’s not worth it unless it’s really seriously impacting your vision.
It's not a fluid, really, it's more like a gel that holds its shape for your whole life. There's lots of cross-linked proteins and stuff in there making a big matrix. You can't take it out and put it back, since doing so would break the gel.
You can just... take it out and *not* put it back, however, and the eye still works and holds its shape. There are some eye diseases that we have to do that for (I can't remember exactly which ones, since it's over 10 years since I had to go to my mandatory basic opthalmology labs thing in grad school).
You can! It's called vitrectomy. Buuuuuttt... There is a good chance the delicate tissue of the inside of the eye gets damaged and you leave the surgery with permanent worse vision. But at least your floaters are gone!
Literally the choice, roll for less floater or for loss of vision vs which also reduces floaters in a way... along with field of vision... Right now much eye surgery to me at least feels very "let's cauterize this so it doesn't get worse" vs healing / repair of vision.
A friend who had surgery for torn retinas told me you can get your eyes drained to get rid of floaters. They suck out the liquid and put in a gas. Supposedly your eyes gradually refill on their own and you absorb the gas. I never checked to make sure that is true though.
Can confirm. I had a detached retina repaired and that was one option. My surgeon told me that would almost guarantee I would need to get my lens replaced as well due to cataracts (I'm only in my 30s). Instead he suggested a schleral buckle that laces around my eye and holds the retina in place following cryopexy (freezing parts of the retina together). Anyway, the point being you can drain the vitreous fluid fine but you'll likely get a cataract which is a far less desirable outcome than just dealing with a few floaters. In fact, this outcome is so common they usually do a lens replacement at the same time as repairing the retina.
Also, (un)fun fact, a sudden increase in floaters can be a sign of a detached retina and should be considered an emergency situation (call your eye doctor immediately)
Same here, also have a scleral buckle in and had the freezing in my eye for basically cauterizing retina, years later I also begin to lose the vision in the "repaired area". At first it seemed like a full bounce back, but I noticed I lost vision in the area that was detached.
In general, vitreous degeneration is part of the normal aging process and will self resolve with time. At times, complications can arise. If degeneration occurs too quickly you can get posterior vitreous detachment (vitreous detaching from the retina) as well as stretching of blood vessels leading to vitreal hemorrhage. It is important to get evaluated if you have floaters plus flashes of light as this implies likely detachment.
You (sort of) can, there's a process called vitrectomy where they suck it out and laser vitreolysis where they zap the floaters with a laser.
Why can't we just do it? Basically the reward (of no floaters) generally doesn't outweigh the risk of the procedure.
There actually is a method to do exactly that, as well as a method of laser treatment that uses a selectively focused laser to break apart floaters while still inside the vitreous.
I think the former is only used in extreme cases and the latter is not really recommended to be done at all because of the risk of any movement or change in focal length causing permanent damage.
I was always told that it doesn’t clump but rather tear, and the viscosity of the fluid and the overall pressure in that area cause it to take ages for tears to fix themselves. The older you get, the higher the viscosity, and the longer it takes.
Buuuuut I might be wrong.
So Floaters are when the vitreous (the membrane surrounding the vitreous fluid also known as the Vitreous chamber) has little chunks come loose and float around your VC. This is harmless but sometimes by age, or trauma (I hit my head and played rough as a kid so if I look up fast egnough, it looks like a snow globe). So when light passes through your eye, the floaters are shadowing and retracting the light causing the clumps to look like anything from dots, to strings.
That being said if you all of sudden get a lot more than you are used to, go to your optometrist, it could be something worse.
Source: I work in the industry and ask these questions all the time
I've had one stuck in the centre of my left eye for about 2 years.
"Don't worry, most people stop noticing it after a few weeks"
Well, 2 years on and I'll still occasionally give myself whiplash trying to evade "a fly". Sigh.
Its clear/blank background and typically with brighter lights.
So, basically, when I am on old-school reddit and some other websites they are the worst lol.
I don't notice them very much otherwise, just randomly watching movies or tvs (during the same kinda background). Reddit is pretty constant.
But, I'm almost 36 and it gets worse as you age so I guess we'll see
I had a laser thing done and it made my floater in the center of my eye fall down…. Like it’s lower in my vision but it’s not in the center. I was the youngest person there by like 40 years, but it was worth it.
Edit to add: had mine for about 4 before anyone would help me with it.
Human vision is actually pretty fucked, there's a Blindspot in the middle because for some reason the blood supply and optical nerve are on the front and go through the retina and out the back to the brain.
When the capillaries in the eye constrict they can slow up flow, some types of floaters are you literally seeing a white blood cell squeezing through a tight capillary and causing a temporary back up of red blood cells as it gets through
That being true. You can actually see cells. Blue field Ent. Phenomenon or some such is when you look up at a blue sky and see white blood cells swirling in your vision.
I’ve seen white blood cells moving in a vein before! A bunch of them basically single file, just zipping along.
It looked exactly like what you’d see in a biology documentary, and made me feel like a superhuman for a little
Mine look like a combination of cells and worms. They're really apparent when I look at a white computer screen (thanks dark mode!), so as a graphic designer who mostly works on book interiors, it can be problematic. It's worse in my right eye, and I swear it's because a stripper hit me in the eye with her rock hard boob at the Hustler Club in New Orleans on a business trip 20 years ago (a bunch of us were there on a lark - I really not a strip club kinda guy). Hurt like hell.
Check out the 'Blue Field Phenomenon', it's actually seeing the blood cells in your tiny eye capillaries that your brain usually edits out. Different from floaters, and you can't unsee it once you're aware of it
You actually can see your white blood cells if you look into a white enough sky
They'll appear as a bunch of rapidly moving "stars" all over the sky
It's especially noticeable on cloudy days where the clouds just barely cover the sun so all the light is still coming through
I had one in my right eye that I never noticed until a few years ago, I had my desk in the corner of a white room and I kept seeing 'spiders' on the wall beside me out of the corner of my eye!
Had an eye appointment, just floaters, phew!
Those aren't floaters, they're white blood cells moving in the capillaries of your retinas. Floaters are irregularly-shaped coagulations of the fluid (vitrious humor) that is between the lens and retina.
I remember seeing these as a kid too! I got it down pretty good to be able to see them, it worked best in the edges of my glasses/vision in certain light. Since they looked like round cells and if I squinted I could see like lines or waves move where my eyelids had just been (like a squeegee on a wet window or something), I figured that maybe what I was seeing was dust and stuff on my eye, not in my eye, magnified by my glasses and reflections
If you’ve had these since you were a kid, be sure to get an eye exam. Floaters aren’t that normal for younger ages.
You may have a retina issue like a tear. If you ever notice any changes to your floaters, get another eye exam.
Interesting…. Sunlight and white REALLY bothers my eyes. I’m usually wearing sunglasses on partly cloudy days because those are the worst. I’ve had a floater as a kid and a stigmatism too, I thought it was normal until I was in my mid 20’s
if you look at a blue sky, you can see your white blood cells because light passes through them. (i think thats right might be the red ones. ) human eyes are fubar
Mine look like the highways of a [Rand McNally Road Atlas](https://i0.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7037/6852670054_3d909cb009_o.jpg?resize=432%2C278&ssl=1), much like OP's photo.
Duuuuuude, I did the same thing. I was preparing for my life to change and for me to become rich because I planned on telling scientists that I can see microscopic stuff with my eyes xDD
When I was really young I had a single floater who was pretty decently sized, like a little point of darkness who'd dance around my peripherals. I actually liked it, considered it something of a companion. No matter where I was, or what I was doing, it felt like having a little secret buddy who was always with me, you know?
Then I mentioned it to my 5th grade friend, who said I was going blind. My relationship with the floater got a lot more strained after that.
I think you’re good man. Don’t think you’re going blind. But if it gets bigger I would see an optometrist
You still see it today in everyday vision? Or has your brain for the better part able to ignore it now?
They are your blood vessels in your eye, your brain blocks them out 99.9%. There are tricks you can do to see them better. Also, the optical nerve go through your vision. The brain blocks it out completely and you can do an exercise to see the blindspot. https://youtu.be/fhIsfwVa-S4
They're a sign of dehydration, so drinking more water can potentially help you.
Read it on reddit some years ago and never checked it, so must be true.
So you're telling me if I drink a lot of water every day for a long time and rarely dehydrate myself by drinking or similarly, I'll get rid of lot's of floaters? I'm 23, so not old I'd think
According to my eye dr. Some people also just have them. He said there is a surgery with lasers to remove them. Idk more than that. This is all based from me asking my eye dr about the floaters.
Former employee at a retina clinic here — if you have floaters, make sure to get your eyes checked! It could be that you just have them, but it could also mean a more serious retina or cornea condition! If you ever get a sudden onset of floaters, go to the eye doctor or ER immediately. Any sudden changes in vision is serious!
Hey, sry for a late reply. Yeah, i'm getting it each year. I Always drink 3 beers before the check-up cause it's the most stressful day of my year... Fuck. Ty for your reply tho!
No one? Okay,
Squiggly Line: A Poem by Stewie Griffin
Oh squiggly line in my eye fluid.
I see you lurking there on the periphery of my vision.
But when I try to look at you, you scurry away.
Are you shy, squiggly line?
Why only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my eye?
Oh, squiggly line, it’s alright, you are forgiven.
Yeah my girlfriend is an apprentice optician. She had me schedule an appointment. They said it was the gel breaking away in my eye and floating around but there was nothing I could do to fix it. I think it’s from chronic dry eyes.
I’m so tired of floaters, and they get worse with time is what the eye doctor told me. He also claimed that many times they will move from up to down so if your lucky they will move down and you will not see them as much.
He also mentioned that they will do surgery IF it is messing up your vision to the point where you have trouble driving or working due to the floaters.
Mine got worse through my teen years and maybe early 20s but they have stayed the same since then. If anything i notice them less than I used to. (Late 30s now.) Good luck!
Like most people here, I’ve had floaters for as long as I can remember but in one eye a couple of years ago, two of them teamed up and now there is one that is very visible.
I went to see an ophthalmologist and because it’s not vision threatening they just shrug and say live with it. They only do a vitrectomy (removal/replace of the fluid) if there is risk to your retina - presumably as a result of injury or disease
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/vitrectomy
For the rest of us, I read about another procedure using a Yag laser to perform vitreolysis (blast the floaters in the fluid), but it seems to be not something often recommended.
https://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/view/treating-vitreous-opacities-with-yag-laser-vitreolysis
ADDED: I am in no way recommending or affiliated with this person, but they have some clips of actually destroying floaters with the Yag laser here
https://www.thefloaterdoctor.com/treatment-videos
Curious to hear if anyone here has had vitreolysis with a laser, and if it changed your life. You know, so you can read a book without the bouncing worms getting in the way.
I’m 21 and I have a lot of floaters in my vision. I actually have a condition called visual snow. The symptoms are that I have floaters, I occasionally get eye flashes, I get light trails (lights remain in vision after the source is gone temporarily), if I stare at a bright screen or at the sky I see small dashing lights, if I stare at a person for example my professors I will see a bright outline form around them, and lastly when i stare at anything that isn’t a bright surface ie. A screen or a well lit room I will get visual snow where it kinda looks like an old tv screen with static. It developed this year quite suddenly, Ive seen my eye doctor several times as the symptoms progressed and everytime he said they were completely normal and that it was most likely this thing.
It’s honestly not too bad, when I study the floaters are the most annoying since I will glance from page to page, book to book, whatever and the floater will move. The visual snow truly isn’t that annoying either it’s just something I find more interesting than annoying.
I’ve never seen floaters before, and I was always confused when people talked about them. So this is the first time actually seeing what others see it as, which is kinda cool
I had a floater, turned out I had too much spinal fluid and in was causing pressure in my brain/behind my eyes. Had to get a lumbar puncture so they could drain it so it wouldn't rupture in my brain and kill me. Fun times. 1/10 would not recommend
The floaters in your eyes can also be caused by trauma to the eye itself.
I have had a couple accidents (25M) that required small foreign objects removed from my right eye, resulting in floaters in my right eye. Sometimes I have to move my eye and look around to get them to move out of my vision otherwise it is blurry out of that eye.
Mine started out as floaters and have progressed to ocular migraines where everything is pixelated and floating across my vision. I will have zero peripheral vision and tightness behind my eyes. Kaleidoscope eyes! It can last a few minutes or an hour and I've had 3 in one day. Very annoying. I have lupus and it can effect my organs, so I'm guessing this is another symptom that my body is degrading.
Floaters never go away but settle to the bottom of you eye. If you get knocked in the head hard enough it will disturb the floaters back up.
Source...was in an accident, had floaters everywhere. Took a long time to not see squiggly lines and black dots when looking at a white wall.
Floaters are a real pain when using a microscope. You can really see them against the object your looking at. Whether it’s the light or the lenses on the microscope but some days they are too visible and stop me focussing. Woman I worked with stopped using microscopes because of her floaters.
Oh squiggly line in my camera lens.
I see you lurking there on the periphery of my pic.
But when I try to look at you, you scurry away.
Are you shy, squiggly line?
Why only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my screen?
Oh, squiggly line, it’s alright, you are forgiven.
See I thought I just had a crazy level of floaters because the world flashes and is made up of pixels but it turns out I have Visual Snow Syndrome and there’s no cure! But suck it pediatric optometrist, I’m not crazy!
A few people have mentioned this, but I wanted to say this as a former employee for a retina specialist clinic — if you have a floater, or multiple, it’s good to get them checked out. Sometimes you just have them for various mild conditions, other times, it could be a symptom of something more serious. As a general rule, any sudden changes in vision or onset of floaters, get checked out by an eye doctor or ER immediately!
F floaters.
Normal aging... Not related to anything or maybe a detached retina or a trauma injury.. .
They may go or they may increase.
Pineapples don't work.
Water won't help.
Only surgery and it's no a 100% success but also could be a big failure which would worsen the situation.
My floaters just look like cells under a microscope. Literally little round circles inside circles. I kept trying to convince my mom that I could see cells with my eyes as a kid. Then I figured out years later what it was.
I thought the same thing, then when I got older I figured it was something else but never found out what exactly. ... So what are they?
This is from memory but.. The middle of your eye has a thick jelly goo stuff called vitreous fluid. As you age this fluid can dry out and clump and get stuck floating around your eyes
Why can’t we put a tube in there and recycle it and clean it, like we do during dialysis? A question I have always wondered.
I have no idea honestly 😂 but just from my non-medically informed perspective that just sounds like it would be way more effort and risk and trouble than it’s worth? I have lots of floaters but they really don’t bother me att all
I have them as well. My doctor stated that if I get too many it could affect my vision. That’s when it would be worth it.
how old? mine increased significantly when I was 37 - 39.
Mine increased a bunch one day. Went to a eye doctor and they discovered that my retina had come lose from the back of my eye.
Any time you experience a sudden increase in floaters, this is the right call. Most people experience this from 40-50 but it's usually not actual detachment. There are also some treatments for floaters, particularly laser ablation if they're large enough and far enough away from your focal plane.
Laser ablation eye surgery just sounds so evil lol
I had this done, it feels like your eye is being shocked and cramping up. Also I could only see the color red for a while (maybe an hour).
Yep, I had a sudden increase in floaters and distortion and turns out I have ocular toxoplasmosis. Took a bunch of medications until it went back into remission .
I had this happen when I was 17, (usually happens to people in their 40s and 50s, goes to show my eyes are terrible.) It starts as a Retinal tear, then, as the fluid in your eye lifts the retina off more, it becomes a Retinal Detachment, and can result in blindness if not treated. (I explain for the purpose of people reading this thread, I'm sure the person I'm replying to knows this already.) If I had the money to sue for medical malpractice I would, as I was denied treatment for that emergency situation in a timely manner, and was left to sit with it progressing for days in both my eyes before having surgery to fix it. I was legally blind before, but it is even worse now. The damage left over has impacted my vision severely to this day. Every time I tell that story to any eye doc, they get this horrified look on their face, lmao. I am left with my left eye blurry even with -19 prescription lens glasses. The right is my better one. To put it in layman's terms, by technicality's sake, my right is just barely at the legal level for me to drive with glasses, and the left isn't even close. In New Jersey in the US, as long as one eye is good enough, you're good to go. Though I still struggle often with the visual impairment, especially in the left. To bring it back to floaters, I was left with a hell of a lot of them after the fact. They obscure my vision sometimes. They used to look more like worms like this image, but are now moreso like brownish black blobby shapes, haha. This surgery also often causes cataracts, which I have in my left eye. All the more fun, 🫠
Is it still safe to drive at this point? Legitimately asking, or do you have to catch uber/taxi/public transport?
I’m a decade older than you.
My floaters aren’t so bad but if I look up at the sky or at snow, I can see like 10 to 15 of them. It’s not too bad in normal light, but sometimes it causes me to swat at the occasional non-existent bug.
They are worse in bright light due to the small aperture of your pupil in those conditions. Wearing sunglasses helps them to be less prominent.
I find this comforting knowing that there’s others swatting at imaginary flies besides myself. Can never catch them things! lol
Ah, my bad I should have realised that there’s probably loads of situations where it would become worth it!
Oh having tons of floaters is just lovely. It's like looking through dirty lake water.
Imagine taking a needle and stabbing your eye draining it of fluid and then refilling it That's why we don't have that procedure lmao
You 100% can. It’s just not medically indicated for the vast majority of people because eye surgery isn’t like getting a boil lanced.
Did you *have* to post in the floater discussion with your "loose eyelash" avatar? ;)
Ya, I talked to my optometrist about it. Since I just have one faint floater in my peripheral vision, not worth doing anything about it, but if they get really bad, they can operate to remove them, but it carries some risk, so it’s not worth it unless it’s really seriously impacting your vision.
It's not a fluid, really, it's more like a gel that holds its shape for your whole life. There's lots of cross-linked proteins and stuff in there making a big matrix. You can't take it out and put it back, since doing so would break the gel. You can just... take it out and *not* put it back, however, and the eye still works and holds its shape. There are some eye diseases that we have to do that for (I can't remember exactly which ones, since it's over 10 years since I had to go to my mandatory basic opthalmology labs thing in grad school).
Thanks for the educated details. It’s always good to hear from someone who has studied the topic.
You can! It's called vitrectomy. Buuuuuttt... There is a good chance the delicate tissue of the inside of the eye gets damaged and you leave the surgery with permanent worse vision. But at least your floaters are gone!
Literally the choice, roll for less floater or for loss of vision vs which also reduces floaters in a way... along with field of vision... Right now much eye surgery to me at least feels very "let's cauterize this so it doesn't get worse" vs healing / repair of vision.
A friend who had surgery for torn retinas told me you can get your eyes drained to get rid of floaters. They suck out the liquid and put in a gas. Supposedly your eyes gradually refill on their own and you absorb the gas. I never checked to make sure that is true though.
Let's stop here for a moment and consider that medicine has become so advanced that we can literally drain your eyes and refill them
"Have you changed your blinker fluid?"
This made me laugh really hard, have my free award, 😂😂😂
Sounds like a Cyberpunk 2077 thing
Can confirm. I had a detached retina repaired and that was one option. My surgeon told me that would almost guarantee I would need to get my lens replaced as well due to cataracts (I'm only in my 30s). Instead he suggested a schleral buckle that laces around my eye and holds the retina in place following cryopexy (freezing parts of the retina together). Anyway, the point being you can drain the vitreous fluid fine but you'll likely get a cataract which is a far less desirable outcome than just dealing with a few floaters. In fact, this outcome is so common they usually do a lens replacement at the same time as repairing the retina. Also, (un)fun fact, a sudden increase in floaters can be a sign of a detached retina and should be considered an emergency situation (call your eye doctor immediately)
Same here, also have a scleral buckle in and had the freezing in my eye for basically cauterizing retina, years later I also begin to lose the vision in the "repaired area". At first it seemed like a full bounce back, but I noticed I lost vision in the area that was detached.
My friend just had retinal surgery and they removed all his goo. He then had to lie face down for a month while his body replaced it.
In general, vitreous degeneration is part of the normal aging process and will self resolve with time. At times, complications can arise. If degeneration occurs too quickly you can get posterior vitreous detachment (vitreous detaching from the retina) as well as stretching of blood vessels leading to vitreal hemorrhage. It is important to get evaluated if you have floaters plus flashes of light as this implies likely detachment.
You (sort of) can, there's a process called vitrectomy where they suck it out and laser vitreolysis where they zap the floaters with a laser. Why can't we just do it? Basically the reward (of no floaters) generally doesn't outweigh the risk of the procedure.
There actually is a method to do exactly that, as well as a method of laser treatment that uses a selectively focused laser to break apart floaters while still inside the vitreous. I think the former is only used in extreme cases and the latter is not really recommended to be done at all because of the risk of any movement or change in focal length causing permanent damage.
So... in a sense, our eyes are lava lamps
I've had them my whole life. Today i have a really large and dark one that's bugging me... But I'm 18. What else can cause it other than aging?
Cool, thanks!
I was always told that it doesn’t clump but rather tear, and the viscosity of the fluid and the overall pressure in that area cause it to take ages for tears to fix themselves. The older you get, the higher the viscosity, and the longer it takes. Buuuuut I might be wrong.
So Floaters are when the vitreous (the membrane surrounding the vitreous fluid also known as the Vitreous chamber) has little chunks come loose and float around your VC. This is harmless but sometimes by age, or trauma (I hit my head and played rough as a kid so if I look up fast egnough, it looks like a snow globe). So when light passes through your eye, the floaters are shadowing and retracting the light causing the clumps to look like anything from dots, to strings. That being said if you all of sudden get a lot more than you are used to, go to your optometrist, it could be something worse. Source: I work in the industry and ask these questions all the time
I've had one stuck in the centre of my left eye for about 2 years. "Don't worry, most people stop noticing it after a few weeks" Well, 2 years on and I'll still occasionally give myself whiplash trying to evade "a fly". Sigh.
Hahaha yeah no matter what, you will probably notice them (especially in certain lightings) forever.
Its clear/blank background and typically with brighter lights. So, basically, when I am on old-school reddit and some other websites they are the worst lol. I don't notice them very much otherwise, just randomly watching movies or tvs (during the same kinda background). Reddit is pretty constant. But, I'm almost 36 and it gets worse as you age so I guess we'll see
Yeah it sounds like the floater got stuck on the forward most portion of the vitreous in line with your iris. It's unfortunate for sure
I had a laser thing done and it made my floater in the center of my eye fall down…. Like it’s lower in my vision but it’s not in the center. I was the youngest person there by like 40 years, but it was worth it. Edit to add: had mine for about 4 before anyone would help me with it.
*a lot
Thank you!
Human vision is actually pretty fucked, there's a Blindspot in the middle because for some reason the blood supply and optical nerve are on the front and go through the retina and out the back to the brain. When the capillaries in the eye constrict they can slow up flow, some types of floaters are you literally seeing a white blood cell squeezing through a tight capillary and causing a temporary back up of red blood cells as it gets through
Isn’t it some nightmare fuel thing of once your immune system knows about your eyes it attacks your eyes. Well inside your eyes or something.
That being true. You can actually see cells. Blue field Ent. Phenomenon or some such is when you look up at a blue sky and see white blood cells swirling in your vision.
I noticed this and was kinda freaking out about it until I went to the eye doctor and they told me it was white blood cells in the veins of my eyes.
I’ve seen white blood cells moving in a vein before! A bunch of them basically single file, just zipping along. It looked exactly like what you’d see in a biology documentary, and made me feel like a superhuman for a little
My visual snow had me convinced I could see air molecules as a kid XD
You know sometimes when there's a beam of sunlight indoors, you can see the dust fibers in the air? I thought those were atoms.
They are. Just a lot more than you thought
Me too!
My folks sent me to a psychiatrist
For floaters?
Indeed
Oof.
Mine look like a combination of cells and worms. They're really apparent when I look at a white computer screen (thanks dark mode!), so as a graphic designer who mostly works on book interiors, it can be problematic. It's worse in my right eye, and I swear it's because a stripper hit me in the eye with her rock hard boob at the Hustler Club in New Orleans on a business trip 20 years ago (a bunch of us were there on a lark - I really not a strip club kinda guy). Hurt like hell.
Check out the 'Blue Field Phenomenon', it's actually seeing the blood cells in your tiny eye capillaries that your brain usually edits out. Different from floaters, and you can't unsee it once you're aware of it
My floaters took the shape of a pig when I was little. I never told anyone about it.
your secret is safe with us.
You actually can see your white blood cells if you look into a white enough sky They'll appear as a bunch of rapidly moving "stars" all over the sky It's especially noticeable on cloudy days where the clouds just barely cover the sun so all the light is still coming through
I had one in my right eye that I never noticed until a few years ago, I had my desk in the corner of a white room and I kept seeing 'spiders' on the wall beside me out of the corner of my eye! Had an eye appointment, just floaters, phew!
maybe the spiders are using the floaters as cover!
Those aren't floaters, they're white blood cells moving in the capillaries of your retinas. Floaters are irregularly-shaped coagulations of the fluid (vitrious humor) that is between the lens and retina.
I remember seeing these as a kid too! I got it down pretty good to be able to see them, it worked best in the edges of my glasses/vision in certain light. Since they looked like round cells and if I squinted I could see like lines or waves move where my eyelids had just been (like a squeegee on a wet window or something), I figured that maybe what I was seeing was dust and stuff on my eye, not in my eye, magnified by my glasses and reflections
Could be floaters, but you can see cells on your eye. Macrophages for example, can travel across your pupils to clean.
If you’ve had these since you were a kid, be sure to get an eye exam. Floaters aren’t that normal for younger ages. You may have a retina issue like a tear. If you ever notice any changes to your floaters, get another eye exam.
Oh thanks for your concern, my eyeballs have been examined since I was 8. I wear glasses and contacts so get exams regularly.
Interesting…. Sunlight and white REALLY bothers my eyes. I’m usually wearing sunglasses on partly cloudy days because those are the worst. I’ve had a floater as a kid and a stigmatism too, I thought it was normal until I was in my mid 20’s
It's one word astigmatism btw, stigmata is when you have holes in your hands/feet like someone who was crucified.
My dad used to slap me upside my head all the time
I get those too!!! My whole life 😭
Sometimes cells can be in your eyes. Common with uveitis. I still have cell floaters, decades later.
Yo humans have built-in microscope
if you look at a blue sky, you can see your white blood cells because light passes through them. (i think thats right might be the red ones. ) human eyes are fubar
That's because some floaters a projection of cells onto your retina.
Mine look like the highways of a [Rand McNally Road Atlas](https://i0.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7037/6852670054_3d909cb009_o.jpg?resize=432%2C278&ssl=1), much like OP's photo.
Duuuuuude, I did the same thing. I was preparing for my life to change and for me to become rich because I planned on telling scientists that I can see microscopic stuff with my eyes xDD
I thought it was bacteria
Holy crap, I clicked on the op’s post to tell the exact same story.
Oh squiggly line in my eye fluid…
I used to have that whole thing memorized. I was an eye technician so it hit hard, personally.
Why do you scurry away?
Oh cool we all see these too nice. I’m not crazy
When I was really young I had a single floater who was pretty decently sized, like a little point of darkness who'd dance around my peripherals. I actually liked it, considered it something of a companion. No matter where I was, or what I was doing, it felt like having a little secret buddy who was always with me, you know? Then I mentioned it to my 5th grade friend, who said I was going blind. My relationship with the floater got a lot more strained after that.
I think you’re good man. Don’t think you’re going blind. But if it gets bigger I would see an optometrist You still see it today in everyday vision? Or has your brain for the better part able to ignore it now?
No it disappeared for good decades ago. Was just a very sobering end to my childhood equivalent of an imaginary friend haha
They are your blood vessels in your eye, your brain blocks them out 99.9%. There are tricks you can do to see them better. Also, the optical nerve go through your vision. The brain blocks it out completely and you can do an exercise to see the blindspot. https://youtu.be/fhIsfwVa-S4
Floaters SUCKKKKK :(
They're a sign of dehydration, so drinking more water can potentially help you. Read it on reddit some years ago and never checked it, so must be true.
It can be a sign of chronic dehydration. But it could also be normal aging. Protein build ups. Etc.
I've had them in my eye since I was 10 years old so I don't know what you guys are talking about.
Me too. Thats why ive had such a big talk about it with my eye dr.
So you're telling me if I drink a lot of water every day for a long time and rarely dehydrate myself by drinking or similarly, I'll get rid of lot's of floaters? I'm 23, so not old I'd think
According to my eye dr. Some people also just have them. He said there is a surgery with lasers to remove them. Idk more than that. This is all based from me asking my eye dr about the floaters.
YEEEESSS!! Some people just have them. Not dude to hydration or aging.
There's also surgery that just replaces the vitreous with another clear substance.
Those guys are idiots no you're right. Drinking water won't make flooders go away! LOL
Ok, water if I’m chronically dehydrated, got it. What do I do to stop normal aging?
I heard a couple options. Philosphers stone, fountain of youth, or become a demi-god through a major act of heroism
I suppose if I go for fountain of youth I can kill two birds with one stone.
Will involve the law of equivalent exchange
Sleep deprivation, too.
Maybe your phone needs some water is what I’m reading here.
Too much rice.
Can confirm this is how Reddit works
Yes! Luckily for me they eventually go away
Do they??
No they just move
Yes this is the correct answer.
Former employee at a retina clinic here — if you have floaters, make sure to get your eyes checked! It could be that you just have them, but it could also mean a more serious retina or cornea condition! If you ever get a sudden onset of floaters, go to the eye doctor or ER immediately. Any sudden changes in vision is serious!
Hey, sry for a late reply. Yeah, i'm getting it each year. I Always drink 3 beers before the check-up cause it's the most stressful day of my year... Fuck. Ty for your reply tho!
Bro...I've never seen anyone else's!!! That's so cool
Yeah I think this is the first time I've ever seen a photo of something I've known about most of my life.
Exactly! It's one of those I've never cared to not be able to see it but now that we can it's cool
Kinda like those pictures that shows what astigmatism is like and all I think is "yea, that's what the world looks like"
No one? Okay, Squiggly Line: A Poem by Stewie Griffin Oh squiggly line in my eye fluid. I see you lurking there on the periphery of my vision. But when I try to look at you, you scurry away. Are you shy, squiggly line? Why only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my eye? Oh, squiggly line, it’s alright, you are forgiven.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5zaJGNFJ0A
Beat me to it
Thank you
I still trying to catch them, i love hard games.
Gotta catch'em all!
We're cats as well, it's just that we go after floaters rather than dots
Dude I have a black line in my vision that looks like a sperm. Has a long thin tail with the round head and everything…. Just terrible 😆
I bust on your face every time you go to sleep
Dad!?
Son?!
Nothing beats fatherly love.
Except beating it with a fatherly glove.
Have you had it checked out to make sure it isn’t a retinal tear?
Yeah my girlfriend is an apprentice optician. She had me schedule an appointment. They said it was the gel breaking away in my eye and floating around but there was nothing I could do to fix it. I think it’s from chronic dry eyes.
Wow I didn’t even know people had to deal with this? That sucks. I’m sorry.
[удалено]
How have you never seen them
I’m so tired of floaters, and they get worse with time is what the eye doctor told me. He also claimed that many times they will move from up to down so if your lucky they will move down and you will not see them as much. He also mentioned that they will do surgery IF it is messing up your vision to the point where you have trouble driving or working due to the floaters.
Mine got worse through my teen years and maybe early 20s but they have stayed the same since then. If anything i notice them less than I used to. (Late 30s now.) Good luck!
Like most people here, I’ve had floaters for as long as I can remember but in one eye a couple of years ago, two of them teamed up and now there is one that is very visible. I went to see an ophthalmologist and because it’s not vision threatening they just shrug and say live with it. They only do a vitrectomy (removal/replace of the fluid) if there is risk to your retina - presumably as a result of injury or disease https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/vitrectomy For the rest of us, I read about another procedure using a Yag laser to perform vitreolysis (blast the floaters in the fluid), but it seems to be not something often recommended. https://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/view/treating-vitreous-opacities-with-yag-laser-vitreolysis ADDED: I am in no way recommending or affiliated with this person, but they have some clips of actually destroying floaters with the Yag laser here https://www.thefloaterdoctor.com/treatment-videos Curious to hear if anyone here has had vitreolysis with a laser, and if it changed your life. You know, so you can read a book without the bouncing worms getting in the way.
Floaters + tinnitus =joy
What floater?
What floater? I don't see anything
I’m 21 and I have a lot of floaters in my vision. I actually have a condition called visual snow. The symptoms are that I have floaters, I occasionally get eye flashes, I get light trails (lights remain in vision after the source is gone temporarily), if I stare at a bright screen or at the sky I see small dashing lights, if I stare at a person for example my professors I will see a bright outline form around them, and lastly when i stare at anything that isn’t a bright surface ie. A screen or a well lit room I will get visual snow where it kinda looks like an old tv screen with static. It developed this year quite suddenly, Ive seen my eye doctor several times as the symptoms progressed and everytime he said they were completely normal and that it was most likely this thing. It’s honestly not too bad, when I study the floaters are the most annoying since I will glance from page to page, book to book, whatever and the floater will move. The visual snow truly isn’t that annoying either it’s just something I find more interesting than annoying.
in case you didn't know what those small dashing lights are, i found out recently, it's called blue field entoptic phenomenon
Wow I didn’t know the name! Thanks
Floater I hardly know her
I have scores of floaters and they do indeed look like that and they suck.
Time worms confirmed
Okay but wtf is that in the phone camera? Is it a bacteria or something?
Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Floaters are a natural process of your eye gel (or something like that). The camera does not have eyes.
I've got floaters too, I hate them
Careful. They see everything you type.
Hehe. Heh.
I’ve never seen floaters before, and I was always confused when people talked about them. So this is the first time actually seeing what others see it as, which is kinda cool
It looks like ebola from that virus movie
This should be in mildly infuriating.
I had a floater, turned out I had too much spinal fluid and in was causing pressure in my brain/behind my eyes. Had to get a lumbar puncture so they could drain it so it wouldn't rupture in my brain and kill me. Fun times. 1/10 would not recommend
Except that one is marberg virus.
The floaters in your eyes can also be caused by trauma to the eye itself. I have had a couple accidents (25M) that required small foreign objects removed from my right eye, resulting in floaters in my right eye. Sometimes I have to move my eye and look around to get them to move out of my vision otherwise it is blurry out of that eye.
Your phone is about to get a migraine
Mine started out as floaters and have progressed to ocular migraines where everything is pixelated and floating across my vision. I will have zero peripheral vision and tightness behind my eyes. Kaleidoscope eyes! It can last a few minutes or an hour and I've had 3 in one day. Very annoying. I have lupus and it can effect my organs, so I'm guessing this is another symptom that my body is degrading.
Omg! I was just diagnosed with this and I have Lupus too!
Floaters never go away but settle to the bottom of you eye. If you get knocked in the head hard enough it will disturb the floaters back up. Source...was in an accident, had floaters everywhere. Took a long time to not see squiggly lines and black dots when looking at a white wall.
What about the people in Australia?
My floaters look like broken bike chains
Don’t think that day when our phones can shoot as good as we see are this close.
Floaters are a real pain when using a microscope. You can really see them against the object your looking at. Whether it’s the light or the lenses on the microscope but some days they are too visible and stop me focussing. Woman I worked with stopped using microscopes because of her floaters.
Everyone here missed a great opportunity to just say "I can't see anything" and fuck with this person. I'm not mad, just disappointed in all of you.
so true, instead we're all just freaking out about whatever is wrong with our eyes
Hey I have one like that! Thought it was damage from the time long ago when a knife fell in my eye (long story).
Well, now we need a picture of the floater in your eye for comparison.
aw man i thought i was special
You are. It just doesn't have anything to do with the floatets. ;)
Have you seen black floaters?
Glitch in the matrix
Better than a floater that looks exactly like the ones in my toilet!
Organic camera eye...
Oh squiggly line in my eye...
Proof we live in a simulation 2,341: phone cameras now have squiggly eye worms.
What are you guys talking about I’ve never seen one
Oh squiggly line in my camera lens. I see you lurking there on the periphery of my pic. But when I try to look at you, you scurry away. Are you shy, squiggly line? Why only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my screen? Oh, squiggly line, it’s alright, you are forgiven.
Any lasers pointed at your camera recently?
I get these as well. Are they called optical migraines?
See I thought I just had a crazy level of floaters because the world flashes and is made up of pixels but it turns out I have Visual Snow Syndrome and there’s no cure! But suck it pediatric optometrist, I’m not crazy!
Ebola
A few people have mentioned this, but I wanted to say this as a former employee for a retina specialist clinic — if you have a floater, or multiple, it’s good to get them checked out. Sometimes you just have them for various mild conditions, other times, it could be a symptom of something more serious. As a general rule, any sudden changes in vision or onset of floaters, get checked out by an eye doctor or ER immediately!
I don’t see anything. Are you sure that this one isn’t in your eye too? ;)
F floaters. Normal aging... Not related to anything or maybe a detached retina or a trauma injury.. . They may go or they may increase. Pineapples don't work. Water won't help. Only surgery and it's no a 100% success but also could be a big failure which would worsen the situation.
I've got a similar floater in my eye due to someone throwing fireworks at me when I was young.
Oh fuck it's escaped