Eye Floaters - feeling desperate - positive stories only please

[echops]

I'm not sure if anyone can help me but I'm feeling terribly frightened and desperate. My darling daughter is 3 months old and absolutely gorgeous. However, during the last few months of pregnancy I seemed to develope a few stringy eye floaters that I ocassionally saw on white walls etc.

However, during the last 6 weeks these have become far far worse - I have dots / cobwebs in both eyes. They are totally distracting when I move my eyes as they swirl about. I've seen a consultant who didn't seem at all bothered by them and said I'd just have to get used to them. This seems impossible as they are so incredibly intrusive (I have about 9 in each eye). Has anyone a positive story about eye floaters and how they no longer see them despite feeling as desperate as me? I realise they never go away but I can't believe my brain will eventually stop seeing them. They really are terrible and I'm getting to the point where I don't think I can cope with them anymore - they are totally exhausting me.

[Beaaware]

did he test you for glaucoma?

[MrsMiamla]

I've got floaters and I honestly only notice them now if I specifically look for them iyswim. I just did it then and yup, they're still there but can't remember the last time I saw them.

I do notice them more when I'm tired though and I'm guessing this might be why they seem worse to you at the moment. I'm assuming you're tired having a 3mth old, and if you're not, why not?!

[echops]

Yes - eyes are healthy apart from floaters.

[potplant]

I have these as well. Stringy bits and dots which move when I move my eyes.

The consultant said exactly the same thing to me - you get used to them, and he's right Ihave. I was very reassured as I had a really thorough examination of my eyes (clamped them open for what seemed like hours). I had convinced myself I had a detached retina.

I don't really notice them that much tbh, if I look at white walls, or looking at bright like sunbathing. Although since typing my reply I have started to notice them a lot more.

Try not to worry about it for now concentrate on your LO.

[echops]

Hi MrsMiamai - how bad were your floaters?

[PrettyCandles]

I suddenly developed a massive floater when I was pg with dd, so I went to the optician. I was swatting at a non-existent fly for about a week before I realised what it was.

Optician was not concerned, though gave me a list of symptoms to look out for in view of my extreme shortsightedness (worrying about retinal detachment).

It took a few weeks for me to stop seeing the floater. Drove me nuts because I never knew whether there was a fly near me, or someone trying to get my attention, or whether it was just the floater I was seeing.

At an opticians appointment a few years later I asked her to check whether the floater was still there. It was, but my brain had tuned it out so well that I could not see it even when I actively looked for it.

So, yes, you will eventually tune it out.

However, the swirling cobwebs you describe do not sound to me like floaters. They sound like fluff in your eyes. When you blink do they seem to move briefly down and then bounce up again? Are they worse after sleeping?

[FlightyButPolite]

I've had them for years...in fact when I was a young teenager I was convinced that they made me special and that there was some kind of biological secret hidden there that only I could see

I would say, if I stop and think about them, it can be as much as 25% of my field of view obscured.

[echops]

Hi Potplant - thanks so much for your message - how long did it take before you stopped thinking/seeing them?

[MrsMiamla]

loving the idea of a biological secret! but hey, maybe there is

echops they can be bad (especially when i'm tired), or i've been looking at a computer screen for a while (white background to docs I'm working on). I've had the fly swatting moments too!

[potplant]

Ooh perhaps we are all from a superior race of eye floater people!

I'm not sure how long it took me to stop noticing them as it was a few years ago when I went to see the consultant. I 'see' them but they don't bother me at all anymore.

Since being on this thread I can't stop seeing them!

[MrsMiamla]

potplant.... oooh you're right! perhaps we should start trying to read the secret messages!

and yes, i've seen nothing but floaters since being on here too! Damn you Echops! (joke!... I hope it gives you some reassurance that it took you starting a thread about them that made us notice their presence)

[Effjay]

I thought everybody got them... had them for as long as I can remember

[echops]

Oh ladies - hope I haven't started you seeing the bloomin' things again! Thanks so much for your comments. I'd made the mistake of searching the internet and all I came across were incredibly upsetting stories from people on forums! My husband thinks they'll get better when I stop obsessing about them (have been sitting in bed whilst breast feeding at night, searching the net on my Ipod - crazy I know!). With that in mind I'm off to sit in the garden (with dark sunglasses) with baby and to read her a story!

It sounds barmy but I've been so so upset by them - have felt as though life as I know it is over. Trouble is, our whole house is a magnolia colour so I've been seeing them all the time in this sunshine and it's sent me over the edge! To think that you don't notice yours anymore has really given me hope. I just wish they didn't move about so much when i moved my eyes. . .

[sunshiney]

OP

I can offer you reassurance. I've had floaters for years. It started as an adult, but not during pregnancy. My eyes are otherwise healthy though. Just checked now by looking at the wall and when my eyes stop moving a veil of black squiggles swirls around. There is no part of my vision that is floater free.

I can can really empathise with how anxious it makes you, it impacts horribly on you until you are used to them and have accepted it. I was so depressed when it began for me.

Truly the few minutes since looking at your thread is the most thought i've given them in the best part of ten years now. I don't see them at all, your brain tunes them out, it does not cause me vision problems. And mine are really bad.

You'll be fine in time

[echops]

Thanks so much Sunshiney! Will show my husband your post so that he knows for once I've read something positive!

[ant3nna]

I've had floaters for years. Most of them are small but a few are quite long and annoying. I mostly don't see them now unless I stare at computer screen or something light coloured for a little while. My vision is not obscured but the floaters to travel over all my field of vision.

I find mine quite annoying because I often see movement out of the corner of my eye. I always have to check what it is even though I know what I have actually seen is a floater at the edge of my vision.

[potplant]

'(have been sitting in bed whilst breast feeding at night, searching the net on my Ipod - crazy I know!' Download some talking books, listen to music. Step away from Google in the middle of the night - no good will come of it.

[bruffin]

I have had a few floaters for years , a money spider in my left eye and railway tracks in my right eye.

I find them most annoying in bright sunlight. I have regular check ups at the hospital because I have high ocular pressure, but my doctor is not worried about the floaters at all.

[rabbitstew]

echops - I agree with the others, you will get used to them. You are only bothered by them now because you are looking for/at them all the time (you've actually counted them?!...). I've had floaters since my mid-teens and can honestly say they just don't bother me - I'm still relatively often aware they are there, but can "see through" them so to speak, rather than being distracted by them so that I'm looking at the floaters rather than, eg, the text on the page. Tiredness and stress make them more noticeable/noticeable again, as can bright sunlight and dry eyes - any eye discomfort makes them more noticeable, because you are focusing more on your eyes. So, you could try dry eye drops or something like Optrex to soothe your eyes, if they are generally a bit uncomfortable in addition to having floaters, as you are less bothered by tiny flaws in your vision if your eyes are comfortable!

Also, my mother, who had a detached retina, was told that many of her floaters (of which she really did have many) would settle down after a while a bit lower down, out of her field of vision most of the time, so would be less intrusive unless something stirred them up again. So maybe your floaters will settle down a bit in time and come into your field of vision slightly less often? Whatever happens, you do certainly learn to live happily with them and become unaware of them most of the time.

[chipmonkey]

echops, I am an optometrist and a floater sufferer!

I hadn't realised how many floaters I had until one day when I went out of the snow. There were hundreds of them!

Try to stop watching and following them. The more you move your eyes, the more they move and the more noticeable they are.

I would also consider losing the magnolia but each to their own!

[rabbitstew]

Yes, you could say you are a magnolia sufferer.

[oliviacrumble]

Am typing this through a sea of floaters!

Have had them for at least 15yrs.

Optician says nothing to worry about.

To be honest, I don't even notice them anymore. They seem to be worse at certain times, such as being tired etc.

Please try to stop focussing on them, and I'm sure your quality of vision will improve.

[sphil]

Another person here who's had them for years - loads of the things! I felt just like you when they first got bad (I was in my 30s I think, but it was pre-children)- they were so intrusive. I can honestly say they don't bother me at all now - I am aware they're still there but it's as if I 'see past them', if that makes sense.It's as if my brain really has got used to them. At the time I really couldn't see how this could ever happen, but it has.
Being well-hydrated helps, so remember to drink lots - mine were much worse when I was breast-feeding. And being tired, hormonal etc.as others have said

[maighdlin]

i developed migraines and accompanying vision problems when i was pregnant. I would take a migraine then for about 24 hours later i would have funny vision. The way i described it was like when you see sperm flying about under a microscope. I was referred immediately to hospital (family background) but the doc just said it was just migraines caused by stress. I still get them now and again like the cravings for KFC (i thought they are supposed to stop when you gave birth)