Eye Floaters

[Ron Bleac]

Eye floaters. We all have them, but only a few of us suffer from them. They're scurvy little phantom bastards that float around in your field of vision, and when you try to focus on them they float away like some supershy animal. What is a floater, you say?

A floater is a piece of organic matter mainly of embryonic origin that floats around in your vitrious liquids, that's the liquid in your eye folks. During development of the human fetus this massive amount of embryonic debrish is smashed into your skull and mushed up into your eyes. The reason we don't see them in the first place is because they're mushed up like a flock of birds into either the top or the bottom part of your eye. The reason many people suffer during life is because of the constant development/degeneration of the tissues in your eye, your vitrious humor changes during your life. The solid part of the vitrious humor is a network of collagen and somethingsomething acid, and when some of this crap liquifies it releases material that inevitably becomes the floaters you see in your field of vision. The reason you see them in the first place is because light hits them and it creates a shadow.

Why are floaters so annoying?

Is there really a need to explain? They begin floating in your field of vision and are completely independent from the movement of your eye due to the nature of the fluid inside. If you attempt to concentrate on one, it'll scurry away to the side of your vision and return later once you forget about it. They have also numerous times tricked me into making a driving error on the road when I thought I saw something in the corner of my eye which really wasn't there. That, and it makes aiming in Real Life and Second Life much worse. Constant movement in your field of vision when firing at targets = bad.

Observe.

See that thing up there? I know it's an advertisment, but it well describes the problem. That, and the music makes it so much better.

If it wasn't bad enough for you, it gets better, I promise. Sometimes floaters seem to temporarily disappear, especially after sleep. They settle down and stop moving and reflect much less light. But then when you get up and go to do your daily whatevers, boom. It busts through your FOV like Winston Churchill through a ten meter solid stone wall. It's like a truck crashing through the forest to plow into the side of your SUV. It's like a fighter jet swooping down to strafe grounded enemy troops. It's there again to haunt you through your day, and no matter what you do it stays where it wants to be. That is smackdab in the middle of your field of vision. Rolling your eyes usually helps, but hey. Roll your eyes all day if you want!

How long do floaters stay?

Oh usually for a few month-..

Wait. No. Oh that's right, forever. You're stuck with it forever because most physicians don't recommend anything to be done about it, they tell you to live with it. Which is easier said than done. There are procedures to get rid of them but they are all extremely obtrusive and have a high infection rate. The ones that don't, cost a pretty penny. For public healthcare, sure it's probably free if you manage to prove to them that it's extremely obtrusive and makes your daily life harder than it needs to be. But the waiting list for surgical procedures is always extremely long. Private clinics will treat you as soon as possible, but good luck scraping up the €€€ for that.

What's it like for you?

Mine are like large, transparent cobwebs in front of my eyes. They are either extremely elongated and stringy or thick clumps of brown mass floating across my vision, and they are extremely.. bloody .. annoying. The worst part about it is that there seem to be so many of them, or that they are large enough for you to mistake for a moving vehicle. Refer to the above Driving with Cobwebs video for reference material.

GG me.

[Cygna]

Dayum, Ron. I didn't know you had bad eye floaters :O I has a question. Of your total awake hours in a day, what percent of those hours is the floater obstructing your vision?

[Arc Vyper]

I couldn't stop rubbing my eyes while reading that. It actually looks really painful to have, like a vain in your eye busted.

[Aelus]

:\ Ron I feel bad for you... There will be a cure in the near future! Also, this might help if you haven't had a chance to look at it yet: http://www.aboutfloaters.com/cure.htm

[Ron Bleac]

Dayum, Ron. I didn't know you had bad eye floaters :O I has a question. Of your total awake hours in a day, what percent of those hours is the floater obstructing your vision?

Well over 60%, if I had to make a guess. They're usually only bothering me at work and when I drive, watch TV and so forth. Once I get home and settle down they seem to quietly sneak away into the background and lurk in the corners of my vision. That or I look right through them.

[Larry Furlough]

I name mine after people :>

[Scarlet Flaks]

I wish I knew how to embed vimeo videos into the forums.. But, since I can't, here's a relevant video.<br /><br />

I've personally never had "eye-floaters", atleast not that I can recall, but they seem very.. annoying.

[Cygna]

Scarlet: Click the "Insert Media" button (icon is an array of pictures right in the toolbar), then paste the direct URL to the video.

Although I just realized A) I have to add support for Vimeo on the Insert Media BBcode, and B) The creator of the Vimeo video you posted chose to disable embedding. >_<

[Trinity Heckroth]

Fix'd