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Thread Spinoff: Objects float in my vision

Sdashiki

Sdashiki

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 11, 2005
3,529
11
Behind the lens
this is an offshoot of this thread where I was reading through the thread and came across some people describing what I notice, especially when I am at work (where I post 90%) in front of this glowing CRT.

I have floating stuff in front of my vision, have had it for years, maybe even longer I just am not sure.

It basically looks like I have dust or particles between my eyeball and my contact lenses, but when I am not wearing my contacts, they are still there.

Tiny out of focus things that when I look one way or the next they follow, but not directly, its like you can tell they are in some sort of fluid the way they move about.

I dont mind it so much as it is annoying to catch a glimpse of something moving through my vision and then focus on it only to not be able to touch it or move it or do anything.

What is going on here and am I screwed in the long run in terms of my vision?
 
I've got the exact same thing. I think they are called "floaters" (I'm sure thats not the technical term). From what I've heard, they are pretty much harmless. I'm no doctor, though. Anyone else have thoughts?
 
harmless is a relative term.

sometimes, especially in front of a bright white monitor etc, its like there is something blurring the spot where the floaters are so I have to move my focus and it moves away.

annoying and I would think eventually detrimental or at least degradative.
 
Harmless.

Everyone has them, not everyone notices them. I do, more so when I am bored and have nothing better to look at.
 
Foaters in your eyes

As your eyes age, you occationally get pieces that break off and float around. You can't focus on them, as they are inside your eye, but they cause blur and distortion at times. There is very little you can do about it, and they actually come and go. You will have more problems if you are diabetic, so don't become diabetic.

Mine were bothersome 10 years ago, but I haven't really noticed any in perhaps 5 years, so there is hope.
 
Go and speak to your optician/optometrist.

While everyone has these, there can be problems associated with them when wearing contact lenses which don't get enough oxygen to your eyes or which you wear for a long time. These can lead to the veins surround your eyes growing which can looks like more of these 'floaters'.
 
Hmm, I've never experienced anythin like that, but sometimes I get like a bunch of "sparkles" around my field of vision. It's really rare but when it happens I just say OOooo! Then it goes away. It's like electricity goes around my eyes or sumthin' I dunno.
 
I have one too, but I only notice it when I'm looking at something bright or looking up at the sky. It doesn't ever bother me during day-to-day life. One plus is that it can provide long periods of entertainment by trying to focus on it when I'm extremely bored. :)
 
Yup, Floaters.

Hmmm, been reading this site for years without bothering to register or post, but your I caught your post title in the corner of my eye, appropriately.

I saw a doctor 10 years ago with precisely your symptoms. It was indeed a floater, albeit a slightly larger than average one. They're small clumps of cells which have sloughed off the interior lining of the eye, and float about between the retina and the lens. They are indeed harmless, with one caveat: In rare cases, usually following some trauma (eg, car crash), they can be a sign of a detatched retina, which is more serious.

NB. I'm not a doctor. If you have serious concerns you should see a Doctor.

For what its worth, 10 years later, I still have the occaisional floater, which doesn't really bother me at all, and my eyesight is otherwise perfect.
 
Yeah, I've got loads of these. :( I've always had a couple, and then a couple of years back I suddenly got quite a few, and one in particular was quite large. I still have it (and them). It is very annoying. I wear glasses, but have never tried contacts.

At the time, I did nothing about it, but when I had an eye test last year I asked my optician and she said that they're nothing to worry about unless you suddenly get loads of them. By then it had been 4 or 5 years since I got them, so I wasn't too bothered.

Oddly, I got them at the same time as I first got the weird migrane thing as mentioned in the other thread, but I don't think they're related necessarily. At the time I was drinking too much, smoking, not sleeping much, and generally not looking after myself, so that may well have been the cause. It's very irritating to think I'm stuck with them for life though.
 
SamIchi said:
Hmm, I've never experienced anythin like that, but sometimes I get like a bunch of "sparkles" around my field of vision. It's really rare but when it happens I just say OOooo! Then it goes away. It's like electricity goes around my eyes or sumthin' I dunno.
Click to expand...
I used to get those every so often... maybe once a month. Never did figure out what caused them to appear, but for me they were accompanied by an actual physical sensation of tingling. Been a while since it's happened, though.
 
I see things that are in odd, transparent-like shapes, looking almost as microorganisms look under a microscope.

lol it seriously looks like I am seeing the microscropic organisms that are on my eye.

Doesn't happen all the time, and when I see them, they seem to "drift" in some direction. The drift increases as I move my eye more to follow it. If I try my hardest not to follow it, the drift doesn't occur.

It's not an object I can focus on either, its like I see 'past' or through it.

I'm not sure if it's from my contacts or not, since I don't go without them often enough for it to be likely to occur then.
 
Josh said:
I see things that are in odd, transparent-like shapes, looking almost as microorganisms look under a microscope.

lol it seriously looks like I am seeing the microscropic organisms that are on my eye.

Doesn't happen all the time, and when I see them, they seem to "drift" in some direction. The drift increases as I move my eye more to follow it. If I try my hardest not to follow it, the drift doesn't occur.

It's not an object I can focus on either, its like I see 'past' or through it.

I'm not sure if it's from my contacts or not, since I don't go without them often enough for it to be likely to occur then.
Click to expand...
You're exactly right. Those are microorganisms and dust particles floating on the surface of your cornea.
 
^ I can see microorganisms that are on my eye?

Strangely...that is the coolest news I've heard all day.

It never really bothered me, and I always thought it was interesting, but it just got a lot more interesting LOL
 
Josh said:
^ I can see microorganisms that are on my eye?

Strangely...that is the coolest news I've heard all day.

It never really bothered me, and I always thought it was interesting, but it just got a lot more interesting LOL
Click to expand...
Because they're SO close to your lens and your retina, they're usually SO out-of-focus that you see right through/past them... kinda how you can see through drops of rain on your car's windshield when you're driving, by focusing around them. Usually, to see the things floating on your eyes, you have to close your eyes (so that there's nothing else for you to see) in a bright environment (so that there's some light penetrating your eyelids).
 
I get a load of these, too. They're perfectly normal and more obvious if the light is bright (such as on a sunny day or if you're in front of a bright monitor). Apparently I'm more prone to them due to the fact that I'm very, very short-sighted – it's something to do with my eyes being an odd shape meaning that I get more debris floating off in there, according to my optician. I guess being diabetic doesn't exactly help with this problem, either.

They're generally harmless, although as others have mentioned if you get a load of them suddenly appearing it can be a warning that your retina is about to detach, which obviously requires urgent medical attention. My optician told me it's pretty obvious if there's a serious problem, though – apparently if you're in the detached retina stage of things it's like looking through a snow storm in that eye, so I wouldn't go worrying too much if I was you. Just mention them to your optician the next time you pay him a visit.
 
A good thread.

I've noticed these from the time I was a kindergardener. I wear contacts now (have since I was 12), and frankly I wear them too often for my health. The number of "floaters" hasn't really changed much over the years though.

I always wondered what they were, or if they were anything at all!
 
Applespider said:
Go and speak to your optician/optometrist.

While everyone has these, there can be problems associated with them when wearing contact lenses which don't get enough oxygen to your eyes or which you wear for a long time. These can lead to the veins surround your eyes growing which can looks like more of these 'floaters'.
Click to expand...

Good advice- I went to my optometrist (actually I don;t have one, so I borrowed one) and he checked me out, explained inmy case, it;s likely I am seeing floating protein strains that have broken off. He did wnat to take a good look though, becuase it can be an early sign of other problems. But as everyone else has said, he explained everyone gets them, very - very - very few people actually have a problem.

I thought for sure it was a warning sign that I was loosing my mind. First I see floaty shapes, then leprochauns start telling me to sharpen the axe....
 
I just want to thank the original poster and the participants in this thread. I do have these floaters occasionally and normally I can quickly adjust my focus around them so they don't bother me. However reading about them in this thread caused me to keep re-focusing on them so now I keep seeing them and can't seem to break the cycle.... kind of like when you think about breathing, you can't seem to let autonomy take over until you get sufficiently distracted.
 
Lau said:
Yeah, I've got loads of these. :( I've always had a couple, and then a couple of years back I suddenly got quite a few, and one in particular was quite large. I still have it (and them). It is very annoying. I wear glasses, but have never tried contacts.
Click to expand...


Same exact story here. When I was a kid and bored, I used to chase these things with my eyes -- my floaters always seemed a pace ahead of where my eyes were looking, and it passed the time.

Personally, I think they're pretty cool.

A simulation, for those of you uncool enough to not have floaters. Mine look much lighter, and I can generally only see them when I look for them (though I guess they do sometimes intrude) ...

floaters_example.jpg
 
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