Large floaters

[travis1953]

Hello, I am 58 years old, yesterday (April 1st) while on a trip to the grocery store driving down the freeway i noticed a black line running up and down the left side of my left eye, I thought it was possibly a dog hair but without irritation. I rubbed my eye once or twice once I arrived at the store, It was driving me nuts so I went into the bathroom and looked closely in the mirror and saw nothing upon leaving the restroom everything went nuts, my whole left eye-vision was covered with these large distracting sooty type of floaters, by the time i left the store and got outside my left eye vision had become slightly foggy with hundreds of tiny little dots, after about an hour I laid down to rest for a bit then things settled down. At around 7:00 pm we went out and after dark i noticed a small flash of light again on the left side of the left eye, by this time i was getting a little freaked out by all of this. Today Monday the next day everything was going okay with an occasional dark floater going by, now at 9:pm today I went outside in the dark and looked to the left and to my surprise-no more flash of light on the left side just i slight small flash not happening all the time just a little farther up between top and side but in doing this all of the sudden the large trails of the sooty floaters came back, this was about 30 min ago and even as I sit here and type it seems to be getting better. Your thoughts will be VERY much appreciated. Thank You Travis

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

Travis. The laser does not clear or cure the floaters it seals a retina tear/hole to prevent a retina detachment. However over a period of time most floaters settle to the bottom of the eye out of the line of sight or the brain uses neuroadaptation to tune them out. I have floaters in both eye. My brains tunes them out. However whenever I answer a question about floaters I seem mine including a large Weiss ring floater in the left eye.

JCH MD

[travis1953]

Dr. Hagan, Thank you so much for your response, I had Laser surgery yesterday, the Dr. said it all went well. So much had gone on in such a short period of time that i missed some of the information, but was sent with pamphlets to read, I am still experiencing the blood floaters with some blurred vision, I see in a couple of statements that could take a few weeks to a few months to improve. I am scheduled for a return follow up this Friday, I will have my questions ready.

                              Thank you SIR, Travis

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

Travis, the sudden onset of floaters and your other symptoms necessitate a dilated eye exam by an Eye MD ophthalmologist. Either ask your personal MD to refer you or go to www.geteyesmart.org and find one near you and call now. Use the search feature and archives to read about floaters.
JCH MD