Am I ok?

Hello im am 21 years old, i am a paramedic. My question is about eye floaters. I started seeing them when i was 15 years old, i had just moved to a new city and just ending initial puberty stage. It was summer time and i was @ a friends house when the first one appeared it was a black dot, so i was young and uneducated about medical issues and so i thought it was something in my eye. Tried to get it out but i was unsuccessful. So i asked my mom and she said it was normal her also being a paramedic. So i listened to her and ignored it til the next day the squiggly lines(worms) and three black dots on the other side. I was worried but i listened to my mom. I learned to live with them noticing no changes since the initial onset. I have had the same ones for 6 years and they havent changed. I have perfect 20/20 vision. It has really had an impact on my life and the way i lived, making me more daring and outgoing. I thought i i had a tumor in my occipital lobe so i went in for an mri and results came back negative. So i decided to look online, im scared of going to an eye doctor because i dont like bad news, i get enough of it in my job. I am ok? What should i do?

Thank you!

[hanaguchi]

Hi,
I have had floaters for over 15 years and have learned to ignore them most of the time. Sometimes depending on the background color of what I am looking at it is hard to ignore them. I think I have a few more floaters now and I have had them checked a couple of times but basically the doc said that if they aren't that bad then don't do anything. When you have your annual eye check up I would ask the doc about them but it sounds like we are in the same situation.
Good luck

[h02184]

I have the same problem - I've always had floaters, but when I started working after college and reading/ watching computer monitors a lot, it started getting worse. I am a clinical research assistant and look into microscopes a lot, perhaps it's just that i notice them more... But I've had slit lamp exam (with pupil dialator and everything) and she said nothing's wrong with my eyes, they're just annoying like the previous poster wrote. Don't worry about them unless they're getting REALLY bad all in a sudden and you can't see through them. There's not much they can do, anyway.

On the other hand, I'm sure you know about this but if you start seeing flashes of light (like if you see things like a camera flash is going off all the time) it could be a sign of retinal detachment and you should go see your eye doc.

Good luck! :)

[FWK]

Hi guys,

I just started seeing floaters a week ago, i thought I was dizzy or had dust in my eyes or something, but now I know they are floaters....not many and one at a time and looks like a worm with a spot.

Anyway guys, did u know that vitamin A is related to floaters and some supplements can solve the problem if you are young....test for vitamin deficiency it can be a problem.

Regards,

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Act like a paramedic and get over your illogical notion about seeing physicians. Go to an Eye MD physician. Find one at www.aao.org     Odds are high it will reassure you.

JCH II MD