Floaters, or something else? - Eye & Vision Message Board

jchar45 · 01-11-2001, 10:36 PM

Since I was about 19 I have suffered from strange phenomena related to my vision. The first of which was little blue-silvery "stars" which would fade in and out randomly in various parts of my peripheral vision. These usually happen in a dark room, and at the present I hardly ever see them. The other is a little more distressing. I have seen for years now, these "streaks" that cross my visual field. They move incredibly fast and the best way I could describe it is like a shooting star. There is no light flash involved, like lightning or anything, it is simply a straight, quick "streak" of nothing. Sometimes it resembles a speck of dust flying quickly past me in a straight line. Or if a small insect flew by quickly. This is the best way I can descibe it. It is worse under certain lights, especially a small room composed of mainly flourescent lights. They occur randomly, are at times constant, like some sort of wierd streak show. Occur in multiple directions as well, up, down, diagonally, all over the place sometimes. I have consulted numerous doctors, an optometrist, opthamologist, and my primary doctor. The optometrist and my primary said that it sounded like floaters. But nowhere in the description of floaters have I found anything like this. The opthamologist examined my eye and said I had some floaters, but could not confirm that what I was experiencing was related. This of course worried me because out of all the Dr.s he was supposed to be the expert and he couldn't even give me an explanation. Has anyone out there experienced this or does anyone possibly have some insight? Thanks for your replies.

dude · 01-12-2001, 12:00 AM

Floaters are particles floating inside the eye. The eye is filled with a substance called vitreous. The vitreous is composed of jelly, fluid and fibers. In youth, the vitreous is a solid gel, like jello, and the fibers are held in place. As we mature, this gel starts to breakdown into water. The older we are the more watery it becomes. Also sooner if you are nearsighted. The fibers now can move within the vitreous. They can float, twist and clump up. HOWEVER, they are all interconnected (the fiber are connected) and not free floating.

Floaters often are described as translucent specks, lint, bugs, germs, strands floating in the vision. They will move when you move or flick your eyes to the sides or up and down, but the floaters will go back the the same general spot where they were initially. These are the normal floaters. Most floaters such as these are seen with a lighted background such as looking at the sky or in a room with white walls.

Abnormal floaters can be due to blood in the eye from a hemorrhage or from a tear in the retina (the lining of the eye).

If your spots are random and like a light show, it could be from a migraine. Migraine sufferers will often see visual hallucinations for several minutes to an hour before they get a headache. These range from shimmering vision, pulsating vision, tunnel vision, shooting stars, expanding/pulsating spots, jagged lines in the vision, heatwaves in the vision, central or peripheal blind spots, etc..

You can also have a visual migraine or migraine equivalent or migraine without headache (all the same thing). There is no headache in these cases.

Hodor · 03-07-2001, 01:56 PM

I am a 36 year old female who has also experienced these stars and streaks of light. (I also have regular floaters, but I think these are a seperate thing.) For the longest time I didn't understand what is was from. Through a period of several years I asked doctors about it but never got answers. Then suddenly about 6 months ago they started to get worse and I even started experiencing white outs over my whole vision. After that I got medical help again I was told this is probably all related to silent migraines. (I never got headaches with any of this.) Of course that seemed bizarre to me but I listened to the doctors advice which was: eliminate all caffeine, monosodium glutatmate (MSG, also known as autolyzed yeast extract on ingredient lists), red wine, smoked foods, artificial sweetners (as diet soda is) and artificial flavorings. It wasn't easy but it has worked wonders!! For whatever reason I became more and more sensitive to stimulants and I didn't realize I was consuming so much of it. All these strange events in my vision have dissapeared. IF I cheat sometimes it comes back, which proves to me it is working. Since his advice worked so well, I read every ingredient list and question every restaurant. You will be amazed at how much of this stuff processed food has!