The idea of having floaters in one’s eye arguably seems like an extremely abstract and foreign concept to anyone who has never experienced them. If you’re someone who does not have floaters in your eyes, I envy you; if you are like me, however, and do have floaters in your eyes, you can attest to how irritating, and furthermore, distracting they can be at times.
I’ve had floaters in my eyes for a few years now. I can’t exactly pinpoint when I first started experiencing them, but I know they worsened after I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, which is not out of the ordinary as Lyme bacteria can affect eye health. After getting absolutely wrecked in rugby about a month ago, however, and sustaining a severe concussion, my floaters have never been worse, to the point I see them more often than not. I’ve also noticed the number of them in my vision has increased, so I booked an appointment with my eye doctor to see what’s going on.
I did not know this, but my optometrist informed me that floaters are a result of tears in the eye. This sounds extreme, but it isn’t as severe as it sounds. “Eye floaters are most commonly a result of normal aging-related changes in the vitreous gel. As we get older, an acute development of a big central floater is a common symptom of a posterior vitreous detachment, where the vitreous gel separates from the back of the eye,” says hopkinsmedicine.org. They aren’t necessarily anything to worry about, unless you begin noticing more of them, or you see them more frequently.
My best description of having floaters is like seeing black spots, shapes, strings and almost worm-like figures moving across your eyes while you’re looking at something else. They aren’t fun, but they’re tolerable.
Photo by Harry Quan on Unsplash
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