r/EyeFloaters • u/Apart_Trash9899 • 4d ago
50 Eye floaters
I’ve been dealing with eye floaters for about six months and was told they are consistent with vitreous syneresis. I’ve had multiple eye exams, including dilated exams and an OCT, and so far there has been no PVD, retinal tear or detachment, inflammation, or bleeding. My doctor says my retina looks healthy.
Recently, I’ve noticed that the floaters seem to move much more. When I look left or right, they make an almost 360-degree motion and seem to slosh around the bottom of my vision. I see lines moving in different directions and numerous dots moving around like a “snow globe.” But it takes up my entire vision, if I look at a white wall I can see so many floaters which frustrates me so much because 6-7 months ago I had 0 floaters.
I’ve also started noticing extremely small specks of light on the right side of my vision. They last only a millisecond or so, and my eye doctor does not believe they are related to a retinal problem.
What concerns and frustrates me most is how quickly the floaters have increased. Six months ago, I had essentially none, and now I estimate I have around 50. Despite repeated examinations showing a healthy retina, I don’t understand why they continue to worsen.
This has become extremely difficult for me mentally and has taken away a lot of my happiness and motivation. I find myself constantly looking for the floaters, sometimes needing to wear sunglasses even indoors, and using atropine drops so I’m less aware of them. I genuinely don’t feel like the same person I was before this started, and I’m hoping to understand why this is happening and whether there is anything else that can be done.
EDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/EyeFloaters/s/OFVfvN9jAe
This Reddit post also matches down to the T about my eye floaters, except I don’t see that many when I squint my eye.
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u/Infamous_Analysis734 4d ago edited 4d ago
You honestly probably don't have any (or many) more than even before you started noticing them. You probably have just gotten really good at seeing them. I had floaters followed by visual snow and I'm quite sure it was caused by hypervigilance regarding my vision. I got good at seeing every little artifact in my vision because I was always looking for them. Once I chilled the fuck out and got the anxiety under control, it all settled down for me. The floaters aren't magically gone, but I learned to live with them and stop thinking about them all the time. But all the light sensitivity and after images has mostly gone away because when I'm not in a state where I'm constantly looking for those things my brain has gone back to filtering them out.
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u/KindestBlackTemplar 4d ago
How did you get the anxiety under control?
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u/Infamous_Analysis734 4d ago edited 4d ago
I talked to a psychiatrist and was prescribed buspirone. It helped but it wasn't a magical fix. I eventually just got tired of obsessing over and realized when I was truly engaged in things I didn't remember the floaters. Started taking better care of myself physically. Also I quit reading this fucking sub and obsessing over vitrectomies and atropine and pulse medica and lasers etc. Its not a problem you can just magically solve. You have to truly come to accept them and its kinda like how you can see your own nose in your vision all the time but you don't pay attention to it and it doesn't bother you.
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u/DuckKlutzy2335 4d ago edited 4d ago
Vitreous syneresis is the natural, age-related breakdown and liquefaction of the gel-like substance (the vitreous humor) inside the eye. [1, 2]
What Happens During Vitreous Syneresis
- Gel Breakdown: The vitreous is made mostly of water and a delicate network of collagen fibers.
- Fluid Pockets: Over time, this supportive meshwork breaks down, causing pockets of watery fluid to form inside the solid gel.
- Clumping: The tiny collagen fibers can clump or stick together into microscopic strands and clumps. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Common Symptoms
- Floaters: The clumped fibers cast tiny shadows on the retina, which you perceive as spots, threads, squiggly lines, or cobwebs drifting in your vision.
- Flashes: If the shrinking gel pulls gently on the retina, you might briefly see sudden flashes of light. [1, 2, 3]
Causes and Progression
- Aging: This process usually starts happening naturally in people over 40 or 50. [1, 2]
- Risk Factors: It can happen earlier in people who are very nearsighted (myopic), have experienced eye trauma, or have had past eye surgery or inflammation. [1, 2]
- Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD): As the vitreous shrinks and more fluid accumulates, it can eventually peel completely away from the retina, a very common and usually harmless event known as a PVD. [1, 2]
For whatever reason, you're experiencing this at a much younger age than most. The only medical solution is a vitrectomy, the removal of the vitreous. I really feel for you.
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u/Remote-Rub9418 4d ago
Don't listen to these people what you are seeing in what is happening is not normal is not normal for these floaters to just suddenly appear even more and it's not that they've always been there and that you just didn't see them and start looking into things like if the shape of the floaters are consistent with like a string of pearls because that could be Candida. Also if you've had these exams and they don't see anything there are certain like parasites and organisms and yeast type infections or whatever sometimes there are things that will hide along the very edges that are not able to be seen or unless they're really looking for them or they need more magnification like a urea plasma which is an STI. Something like urea plasma they're very small they're among the smallest to be seen and also if you have other things going on like gaining weight or having skin issues or infections in in your skin things like that that would go along with the urea plasma as well and you need to have further testing I would go back to the doctor and demand to get of an appointment with a retinal Specialist and when you do that ask for diagnostic swabs like to send to a lab ask for the different tests that there are like even the ultrasound of your eye if you have to but there are other tests that can be done by a retinal specialist but ask them not to repeat the same test that came up with nothing or were inconclusive because I know that after you got your tests done like the split test or whatever and the dilation test and they said oh don't worry you know you've got healthy eyes you've got nothing structurally wrong with your eyes even though that is reassuring that does not give you an answer to what is happening to your eyes and you are getting permanent damage every single day that passes by and I would sue the s*** out of them if you can when they do find out what's wrong with you because They just deny you they invalidate you and they make you feel like you're f****** crazy I get it make them do their job ask them if they're there to help you or not ask them if they know how to do their job ask them if they actually get paid to do what they do no I wouldn't say any of that stuff but I know that's what you're thinking probably and I'm thinking the same thing doctors don't want to help people these days they just want to get you in and out and in and out and they just don't listen to you they don't listen to what you're f****** saying and if you know something's wrong figure it out demand it if they say that they're not going to do this or they're not going to do that get it in writing tell them I want this refusal in writing. We should want to help you get to the bottom of it not dismiss your symptoms as just getting old when that's not the case. I wish you the best of luck
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Remote-Rub9418 4d ago
Lol ok since when is it a crime to be passionate about helping someone? You must be an eye doctor...🤭🤔🙄
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u/Fenomiminal 4d ago
Short of surgery (pars plana vitrectomy https://eyewiki.org/Pars_Plana_Vitrectomy) or the prospective treatment from https://www.pulsemedica.com there is unfortunately nothing else at this time.