My Floaters Are Gone. Long Live My Floaters?

"Jan Owen" wrote in message
news:J8i_a.78095$zy.4412@fed1read06...
Hi, Al,

Be VERY careful about this. Sudden onset of, or an increase in, floaters
can be a sign of an impending detached retina.

Jan,

Thank you for your concern. I went to the doctor the very first day I
noticed my floaters. My doctor was also concerned about the possibility of
a detached retina, and for this reason examined me 3 times in the first
month. He now tells me that there is a much reduced possibility that the
floaters could lead to a detached retina. It seems that my problem is
simply floaters (thank the lord!).

I can speak to this, as I had one a couple years ago, and it was NOT a fun
experience. The surgery was an amazing experience all in itself, but not
one I ever want to go through again. Could easily have lost the sight in
my right eye, but instead, after surgery, my corrected vision is once
again 20/20 in both eyes, and on a good day, can be 20/15 combined, though
it seems more often to be closer to 20/20...

WHEW!!!

Happy your story has a happy ending.


But the bad news is that I now have LOTS of floaters in my right
(eyepiece) eye. It's still not a big problem until I dial the power up,
but once the exit pupil gets small, the floaters become quite
pronounced...

My floaters have not been too much of a problem at the telescope. The
reason for this is that I got the floaters about 5 months ago and only used
a telescope about 6 times during that period (4 times during the day for
solar viewing and twice at night). These 6 times at the telescope were the
ONLY opportunities I had because the rest of the time it was either cloudy
or raining...no kidding!

Al

Good luck!

Aqueous or vitreous?

Howard Lester



I'm not sure... here is a drawing of my floaters, I made this in late 1999,
when they were brand new and at their worst.

Drawing:
http://www.eagleriver.com/floaters.jpg

What happened? I had an ultra hot and bright camera flash go off about 10
inches from my eyes, at a time when I had a very intense flu. About 1 month
later.. here came these floaters, for the first time in my life. I believe it
was the camera flash heat on my retina more than anything.

Curiously, since the last four years, these floaters have diminished by 80%
perhaps. I hope I'll get to "95% better" in another 4 years.

For people who like to fixate on their medical problems, you could sell Radian
3's as "Floater Viewers". I find the most effective method of examining ones
floaters is to take a Radian 3 (out of a telescope) and look through it with a
light source behind it.

Bright skies are another easy way to see them, as my drawing indicates.

Also, if I take my 4 diopter glasses off and look at christmas trees, all the
lights go wild as they are affected by floaters.

Since I had total clear vision before 1999, floaters disturbed me very much for
a good year. Eventually I got used to them flying around. I still have "bad
days" and I wonder if it has to do with things like dehydration, etc.

Mike C

"Orion" wrote in message ...
Other than the fact most people never look at anything thru an eyepiece at
high magnification....
Orion

"Fred Ma" wrote in message
...
P.S. The astronomer's reasons are not much
different from other people's reasons for
wanting to get rid of floaters.

Fred


I'm sure a floater is equally distracting whether
it obfuscates the stars or a view of an integrated
chip, either in a microscope or on a computer screen.
Or looking at instrumentation like oscilloscopes and
spectrum/network/logic analyzers. Or looking at
presentations projected on a screen.

It totally ruins efforts at trying to rapidly read
many technical papers, and composing/reviewing/revising
papers can be quite frustrating. Most, if not all, of
what I've read on this thread is applicable to astronomers
and nonastronomers alike.

Fred (posting on the bottom)

"Orion" wrote in message ...
Other than the fact most people never look at anything thru an eyepiece at
high magnification....
Orion

"Fred Ma" wrote in message
...
P.S. The astronomer's reasons are not much
different from other people's reasons for
wanting to get rid of floaters.

Fred


I'm sure a floater is equally distracting whether
it obfuscates the stars or a view of an integrated
chip, either in a microscope or on a computer screen.
Or looking at instrumentation like oscilloscopes and
spectrum/network/logic analyzers. Or looking at
presentations projected on a screen.

It totally ruins efforts at trying to rapidly read
many technical papers, and composing/reviewing/revising
papers can be quite frustrating. Most, if not all, of
what I've read on this thread is applicable to astronomers
and nonastronomers alike.

Fred (posting on the bottom)

WayneH wrote
in message
. ..
On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 21:05:09 +0000 (UTC),
(Brian Tung) wrote:

In most cases, floaters are not distracting when the
exit pupil is large. It only becomes an issue when
it's small--say, less than 1 mm or so. In severe
cases, of course, it can be distracting at any
pupil, but that would not be typical, I'm guessing.

It is therefore less of an issue for unaided-eye
observations, like a presentation on a screen, or
viewing a computer monitor.

Brian, it is apparent you do not "suffer" from
floaters. I recently had vitreous separation (in
both eyes, over a three month period!). The
resultant floaters make reading a book or text on a
17" LCD monitor unpleasant. Damn good thing I'm
retired, because I sincerely doubt I could function
in the workplace well enough to keep my job.

In discussing this with various eye docs, and fellow
"sufferers," I find my experience to be pretty
typical.


Not that it changes things, but at least I am not alone
in this. I am not retired, just finishing up a Ph.D.
in fact. I can say it is many,many times more energy
draining to read deeply and critically when the
floaters act up. I've been single mindedly focusing on
finishing, but many times, I wonder what were my
options afterward.

Most pages are white, so pupils are small. Most
document preparation software these days insist on
having a white background. Besides that, choice of
documentation software is driven by functionality
rather than color of background. Furthermore,
most labs are shared, and well lit, again leaving
pupils small, and floaters very noticable.

I wonder what kind of pressure or lobbying it takes to
funnel funds into research to find solutions to
floaters. Technically, the problem seems simple. I
wonder why there hasn't been more work on the vitreous
to see what can make it stay nice and uniformly fluid
or gel-like, and expanded. Or why cataracts develops
when it is replaced.

Supposedly, there are a host of complications besides
cataracts. My semi-communicative eye specialist gave
chilling descriptions of having rubber bands around
one's eyeball (can't remember exactly why). As well,
fixes for the cataracts supposedly leave the lense on
the eye irresponsive. No explanation why, even though
the muscles attached to the lense are still present.

As for laser blasing the floaters, the shock wave
potentially causes retinal detachment. Never a good
thing, since fixes for retinal detachment don't always
leave the best vision.

Then again, we have problems like AIDS, SARs, cancer,
diabetis, etc.. So I guess I understand why funding
for vitreous is not overwhelming.

Fred

WayneH wrote
in message
. ..
On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 21:05:09 +0000 (UTC),
(Brian Tung) wrote:

In most cases, floaters are not distracting when the
exit pupil is large. It only becomes an issue when
it's small--say, less than 1 mm or so. In severe
cases, of course, it can be distracting at any
pupil, but that would not be typical, I'm guessing.

It is therefore less of an issue for unaided-eye
observations, like a presentation on a screen, or
viewing a computer monitor.

Brian, it is apparent you do not "suffer" from
floaters. I recently had vitreous separation (in
both eyes, over a three month period!). The
resultant floaters make reading a book or text on a
17" LCD monitor unpleasant. Damn good thing I'm
retired, because I sincerely doubt I could function
in the workplace well enough to keep my job.

In discussing this with various eye docs, and fellow
"sufferers," I find my experience to be pretty
typical.


Not that it changes things, but at least I am not alone
in this. I am not retired, just finishing up a Ph.D.
in fact. I can say it is many,many times more energy
draining to read deeply and critically when the
floaters act up. I've been single mindedly focusing on
finishing, but many times, I wonder what were my
options afterward.

Most pages are white, so pupils are small. Most
document preparation software these days insist on
having a white background. Besides that, choice of
documentation software is driven by functionality
rather than color of background. Furthermore,
most labs are shared, and well lit, again leaving
pupils small, and floaters very noticable.

I wonder what kind of pressure or lobbying it takes to
funnel funds into research to find solutions to
floaters. Technically, the problem seems simple. I
wonder why there hasn't been more work on the vitreous
to see what can make it stay nice and uniformly fluid
or gel-like, and expanded. Or why cataracts develops
when it is replaced.

Supposedly, there are a host of complications besides
cataracts. My semi-communicative eye specialist gave
chilling descriptions of having rubber bands around
one's eyeball (can't remember exactly why). As well,
fixes for the cataracts supposedly leave the lense on
the eye irresponsive. No explanation why, even though
the muscles attached to the lense are still present.

As for laser blasing the floaters, the shock wave
potentially causes retinal detachment. Never a good
thing, since fixes for retinal detachment don't always
leave the best vision.

Then again, we have problems like AIDS, SARs, cancer,
diabetis, etc.. So I guess I understand why funding
for vitreous is not overwhelming.

Fred

fred ma wrote:
...
Most pages are white, so pupils are small. Most
document preparation software these days insist on
having a white background. Besides that, choice of
documentation software is driven by functionality
rather than color of background. Furthermore,
most labs are shared, and well lit, again leaving
pupils small, and floaters very noticable.
...

Hi Fred,

I wonder if reading with sunglasses would help?
Something like 25%-50% light transmission?

- Alex

fred ma wrote:
...
Most pages are white, so pupils are small. Most
document preparation software these days insist on
having a white background. Besides that, choice of
documentation software is driven by functionality
rather than color of background. Furthermore,
most labs are shared, and well lit, again leaving
pupils small, and floaters very noticable.
...

Hi Fred,

I wonder if reading with sunglasses would help?
Something like 25%-50% light transmission?

- Alex

On 18 Aug 2003 20:34:55 -0700, (fred ma) wrote:

Most pages are white, so pupils are small. Most
document preparation software these days insist on
having a white background. Besides that, choice of
documentation software is driven by functionality
rather than color of background. Furthermore,
most labs are shared, and well lit, again leaving
pupils small, and floaters very noticable.

If you have the luxury of preparing your documents on Windows machines, most
software will observe the rules of the display scheme you define. Word,
FrameMaker, Mathematica, and other such will happily operate with light colored
fonts on a dark background. Outside of the Windows environment, at least some
programs support individual control of color preferences. And this does greatly
reduce the impact of floaters.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On 18 Aug 2003 20:34:55 -0700, (fred ma) wrote:

Most pages are white, so pupils are small. Most
document preparation software these days insist on
having a white background. Besides that, choice of
documentation software is driven by functionality
rather than color of background. Furthermore,
most labs are shared, and well lit, again leaving
pupils small, and floaters very noticable.

If you have the luxury of preparing your documents on Windows machines, most
software will observe the rules of the display scheme you define. Word,
FrameMaker, Mathematica, and other such will happily operate with light colored
fonts on a dark background. Outside of the Windows environment, at least some
programs support individual control of color preferences. And this does greatly
reduce the impact of floaters.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com