Floater diagnosis, 22 y/o

Hi, I'm a 22 y/o female with -4.25 prescription.. I've posted before about a related question.. I'm wondering what I can expect to happen with time. I've heard that these will "settle down" and that my brain will adjust, but can I expect them to worsen each year since this is a degenerative "process"? I'm worried because I've had these for almost a month and they have impacted my personality and desire to go outside a lot. I'm a medical student and have sooo much work to do but I have been so distracted by these. I'm hoping it's true that I'll adjust, but if they continue to get worse it seems like it would be hard to keep adjusting over and over again....

Does anyone have personal stories to share about their experience with time.. or doctors have any clinical experience??

Much appreciated!!

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear LLindi,

Floaters can be quite troublesome and annoying to people.  Most people do adjust and the floaters become less bothersome over time. It is important to have your retina examined and to look for signs of a retinal detachment.  A sudden change in the number of floaters warrants an immediate examination.

Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California

[walkietalkie]

If you have so much work to do floaters should be out of your mind. Sooner or later they will be out of your mind.  Floaters are still new to you so get preoccupied with them.  

[naoye]

I can certainly relate to your feeling distracted by and worried about floaters.  I had a large, dark floater in the centre of my right eye vision.  When it first appeared, I was terrified because I thought it was a spider hanging from my eyebrow that couldn't be brushed away.  It was hard to believe when my ophthamologist told me it was nothing to be worried about.  

But, over some months, it did actually come to seem a lot smaller and and lighter in color.  I think your eye learns not to focus on the floaters.  It was still an annoyance, depending on the lighting circumstances, but definitely not almost incapacitating as it was at first.  My personal experience was that I didn't develop any more floaters in this eye - for the few years before the floater was elimated by a vitrectomy that was done for other reasons.

A year ago, after cataract surgery on my left eye, I developed a similar floater in that eye - but it didn't bother me as much.  Maybe my eyes had learned how to not focus on floaters.  I haven't developed any new floaters since then.  

Even though some people do get more floaters from time to time, I don't think it's a "process" by which they inevitably increase over time.  (I don't have any medical knowledge or training though.)

Hope your eyes are managing to adjust.  Good luck with your studies.  

[ashkayi]

A related discussion, Floaters was started.