I had brown floaters for a while but they went away.

I've had so many strange eye problems, including common floaters, "retina" migraines (usually a perfectly formed "C" shape that has serrated edges; usually followed by a "real" headache migraine) that I hardly know where to begin.

I've had some 7 operations, usually for detached retina. I never get any signal for detached retina, but can spot the missing area now with ease when I look at an evenly-lit field. Sometimes my detachments are the result of a bump on the head, but sometimes when exercising and my heart is beating fast, simply leaning over will cause a detachment.

The important thing with a detachment is to get to a retina specialist as soon as possible. If you wait, the detached area is likely to grow and the chances of a good outcome decrease.

But what should one allow a doctor to do? Most will opt for surgery - which I've often had. But a friend decided against surgery and instead chose to have a bubble of gas injected, then keep head in position so that the bubble presses against the detached portion of the retina for a couple of weeks. He may be on to a better solution, for during one of my surgeries when I only had a local anesthetic and was aware of everything, the surgeon accidentally hit a probe that was inserted into my eye. That bump damaged the retina, and I've only had peripheral vision in that eye ever since.

Another surgeon chose to inject silicon to hold the retina in place. A bad idea, for I had strange refraction effects for years that distorted the shapes of objects that I viewed. However, the silicon did temporarily hold the retina in place until it could be "welded" in place with a laser.

Regarding detached retinas, it probably would be a good idea to plan your strategy before one occurs, for you'll probably be in surgery within the hour if a retina surgeon can be found in time - and you won't have time to think it through before having to choose a plan of action.

A burst blood vessel also can be bad if you don't take it easy (don't lean over pick up anything) and not lean over for a few weeks while the rupture heals (a sudden swarm of dark floaters is the clue to indicate a burst vessel). Once I failed to take that advice and did lean over. Instantly my eye flooded with blood and I was completely blind in that eye. Once some of the blood cleared on its own, I discovered a detached retina and had surgery.

On another occasion, I had some visual anomaly, the details of which I've forgotten, and the retina specialist said I had several tears in the retina - reason unknown. No rush, he fixed them later with dozens of zaps from a laser surgery device. A tear is not that serious, and the laser fix is fast and not very expensive.

Because of the large number of surgeries, I developed cataracts and had them cut out and new plastic lenses inserted. Unfortunately, one morning I awoke and began rubbing an eye that was itching. The rubbing pressed one of the lenses right out of its place and it sank into the eyeball. This was a very rare event, but it did happen to me and did require surgery in order to fish it out. So be careful how you rub your eyes after cataract surgery.

Finally, I developed glaucoma. After taking eye drops to keep the pressure down, I had another type of laser surgery to open wider the discharge port in both eyes. That went well.

Moral of the story? That's just the story of my eyes; nothing wrong with the rest of my body that a whole-body transplant won't fix . . .

My goodness, after that saga I feel fortunate indeed. It reminds me of the old saying," I had no shoes and complained, until I met a man with no feet".

I use to have floaters all the time, it was fun trying to control thier movement with my WILL, ha ha, now I have not had any for some time. Miss the little guys sometimes....
Oh what we can use to amuse ourselves.

Paul B

Getting old sucks! I got my floaters (left eye) last month......I need my right knee replaced, but the shattered femur I got two summers ago hasn't stitched yet , !#*%.....I'm still on crutches. Polycythemia has me on chemo-theraputics, and monthly phlebotomies round things out. Oh yeah, and for the last 28 years I've had chronic fatigue syndrome with fibromyalgia. Getting old sucks!

robert.......turned 60 last week.

i know i carry a lifetime guarantee, but i sure do wish i could get spare parts for the bits that aren't quite making it....

i suppose there's some degree of comfort to be gained knowing one's not alone...

i know i carry a lifetime guarantee, but i sure do wish i could get spare parts for the bits that aren't quite making it....

#1. You obviously didn't buy the extended warranty.
#2. Even if you did, the fine print gets you every time.

Mike

"I've had so many strange eye problems, including common floaters, "retina" migraines (usually a perfectly formed "C" shape that has serrated edges; usually followed by a "real" headache migraine) ...

"Ah, the old ocular migraine! I had rather benign floaters in my left eye for many years. Mine are quite innocuous, and only really noticeable under certain circumstances. And they're never in direct line of what I'm focusing on -- they're always off-center. So no big deal.

My first ocular migraine was a different story, though. Started out as a small 'hole' in my field of vision, directly at the point of focus. If I were at the computer, it would block out the text in the middle of a sentence I was trying to read. Scared the bejeebers out of me! It eventually started to both fade and grow, until it formed that jagged 'C' and kept growing until it appeared only at the periphery of my vision field, flickering gently like a ceiling fan that's just out of sight. After about 1/2 hour, it was gone.

I went to the ER and they ran all kinds of tests, finding nothing. They even kept me for observation overnight. Several weeks later, I described the symptoms to a coworker, who said 'Ocular migraine -- I get those all the time!' I looked up the term on the 'net, and saw a picture that exactly matched what I saw. It's called a migraine aura.

Next time I visited an eye doctor, she listened to my story & stopped me about two sentences in, confirming that they are quite common. Makes me wonder about the competence of the ER doctors who were testing my heart and doing an EEG, etc...

I get about one per year. I just relax and lie down for about 20 minutes or so in a dimly-lit room and let it run its course. I'm very fortunate that I usually don't get the headache that sometimes accompanies these things. And, if I do, they're usually dull, not the stereotypical head-pounders.

I'm in my late 20s, and have a few of these. If I concentrate and look at a blank light-coloured surface or a bright blue sky (although for the latter, you'll also get a blue field entopic effect, which is a completely different but universal phenomenon that occurs with the eye), they're fairly easy to pick out. It's only the ones in my left eye that annoy me every once in a while, although not nearly as much as they did when I first noticed them a couple years back. Last time I got a new prescription for glasses, I splurged on a pair of prescription sunglasses to go along with the new regular pair; so when I'm outside on a bright day the floaters are no longer an issue.

They're fairly common, and not just with age, either. My ophthalmologist has mentioned he's had quite a few children and teens in complaining about them. They're especially common at earlier ages if you're myopic (near-sighted), as that condition causes the eye to stretch slightly which can lead to the vitreous (the gel-like solution that fills the eye) to peel away from the retinal surface at the back of your eye much earlier than it would in non-myopic eyes (barring physical trauma to the head, or directly to the eye), which is one of the most frequent causes of floaters. I'm near-sighted, and the eye that has the most noticeable floaters is the one with the strongest prescription.

They're not so much a legitimate medical problem as they are an engineering defect in the way our eyes are designed. They can be removed, of course, but most doctors advise against it unless they're extremely numerous and extremely debilitating. There's nothing to stop more from forming after the surgery; and indeed, the surgery that removes them can sometimes cause minor floaters itself.

"My first ocular migraine was a different story, though. Started out as a small 'hole' in my field of vision, directly at the point of focus. If I were at the computer, it would block out the text in the middle of a sentence I was trying to read. Scared the bejeebers out of me! It eventually started to both fade and grow, until it formed that jagged 'C' and kept growing until it appeared only at the periphery of my vision field, flickering gently like a ceiling fan that's just out of sight. After about 1/2 hour, it was gone."Exactly!! In my post near the top, I described my "problem" as a "silent migraine" - not sure what the medical term is for these but your description is "spot on". I've talked with several other folks who have had the exact same symptoms. It is, indeed scary, but since my first experience was as child, now it's not so unnerving.

Thank goodness I've never had one while driving - however, since they start gradually and I now know what to expect (and can pull to the side and wait my 30-45 minutes).

...Jerry