Floaters

As I sit and stare at the computer screen quite a bit these days, I’ve noticed something unusual: I’m starting to have lots of “floaters” in my eyes. Have you had those before? Just doing a little reading apparently there’s a genetic influence, so you may be fortunate enough to have avoided this.

Those who’ve had them know what I’m talking about. You’re looking at a bright area and notice a piece of dust gliding close to your eye. It may be a circle, it may be particle that resembles a worm, but either way it just floats there in front of your field of vision: a little shadow, with a halo around it. The first few times this happened to me, I tried to swat it away like a mosquito buzzing around my head. When I was unsuccessful at making it go away, I’d try and concentrate closely and pinch at it with my fingers. Then I’d eventually realize that it was actually in the fluid of my eyeball and I was helpless to do anything about it.

Apparently, it only gets worse as you age, since your body doesn’t get rid of them. But there is hope, I guess. Cataracts run in my family, and when they do surgery to replace your lens, they can also filter out the fluid I’ve been told. I can’t stand the thought of my eye being cut open, but the thought of having it cleaned up and like-new is appealing. Hopefully, by the time I need this done they can also make me have 20/20 and do this with a magical laser that doesn’t hurt.