"Aging and Vision" Topic

With the large number of 40+ guys that post here, maybe someone among you will be able to shed some light on this (hee-hee made a funny) for me.

I picked up my first "floater" around age 25. I'm 41, and a diabetic with good eye health aside from being severely near-sighted. I've managed to pick up several "floaters" in the past few years.

They don't bother me with most activities except reading and painting. Two seemingly vital things in wargaming dontcha know. Is there any treatment for this?

Please share your knowledge and experience.

Thanks.
Terry

I have a couple myself. It's my understanding that they are generally harmless, but if you have a lot of them suddenly it can be a sign of eye damage. There isn't really a treatment for it. If it gets really bad they can stick a needle in your eye and suck some of it out, but you have to be near blind before they'll do that.

I've had "floaters" (eew, that word usually means #urds that don't sink) ever since I was a kid. One thing I used to do back then to entertain myself was to lie on my back and use the sky as a backdrop to watch the floaters go back and forth across my eyeballs: sort of like watching cells under a microscope! Other than a slight densifying of the mass, nothing has changed. There is always laser surgery.

How are floaters different from cataracts? A friend of mine had his eyes cleaned with laser surgery and got his brightness of vision, and colors, back: before that, he couldn't even tell at night what the color of traffic light ahead was and everything had gotten very murky….

Cataracts are the lens, floaters are in the larger fluid portion of the eye.

I've got floaters in my right eye caused by physical trauma a couple of years ago, but they don't bother me when reading or painting. It's light or bright expanses that make them really noticeable for me, like looking at the sky, a computer screen or a light-painted wall.

No real cure for them I'm afraid, unless, as Jana Wang mentioned, your condition is really serious. My optometrist told me confidently that they'd fade over time , but a couple of years down the line mine are still very much present.

He also recommended vitamin A as an antioxidant to help disperse them. Here's a page about eyes, vitamins and antioxidant effects (though not specifically relating to floaters) found through a quick google search:

link

I am a Type 1 Diabetic, 44 years. 15 years a ago I woke up one morning with numerous floaters in my left eye. The floaters were a sign of damage to my eye caused by the diabetes. I had to have laser surgery on my eye to repair the damage. Eventually my right was also affected. Since that incident I have been seeing a specialist once a year and my eyes have been good. My advice is to see your eye doctor as soon as possible. Diabetes does bad thing to your eyes over the passage of time.

Tom

They can be absolutely harmless specks and, I belie, usually are, but I seconed Waterloo and urge you to see your optometrist as soon as you can.

I had a tiny haemorrage in my left eye a couple of years ago (connected to cronic and long-term short sight) which has affected my close-up vision. I've had laser treatment and that seems to be successful, but when I first saw the specialist, he asked me if I had excperienced floaters in recent weeks.

Yours are probably just something you have to learn to live with, but please, get your eyes checked out soon.

Sue K.

DO NOT TAKE ADVICE FROM AN OPTOMETRIST!

You *must* see an opthopmologist (a real eye doctor). Be choosy and select one based on experience with Diabetic Retinopathy. This is an absolute imperitive. Many problems associated with diabetes can prevented or limited with prompt, knowledgeable care.

As soon as I was diagnosed with diabetes, I went to an opthomologist who sent me to another opthomologist who specializes in laser surgery. Best one in the state and nationally recognized -- when it comes to my vision, I don't play.

Long story short, after many lasers and many months (and keeping my glucose under control), the retinal swelling and bleeding is under control. Whew! The consequences had I done nothing would have been dire. I need to keep up regular examinations because, as we all know, diabetes is progressive and chronic.

AGAIN: DO NOT TAKE ADVICE FROM AN OPTOMETRIST!

(Unless he/she refuses to see you and sends you to an opthomologist instead.)

That reminds me,I'll need to make an appointment for my next eye exam. Last year,they, thankfully, only found normal signs of aging with my eyes,and as a Type 2 diabetic,I know how important it can be.