Posts by slyowl24

placidfox55 said:Oh, really??!! You can't? ... wow, you totally caught me off guard there... 🙄 😬

🙄

placidfox55 said:Seeing "floaters" can mean a million different things depending on who you ask. Honestly, just go see an eye doctor.

I mean, yeah, obviously. You gotta trust a specialist.

placidfox55 said:It's true that if you wear contacts regularly, protein buildup happens. You can manage it pretty well with those enzyme cleaning tablets. But even that isn't a forever fix—eventually, you just have to toss the lenses and get new ones.

I notice shifts in my vision even without contacts, though maybe not as much. And I'm definitely not putting tiny tablets in my eyes... I just stick to annual lenses. I usually go for the all-in-one solutions. I actually picked up a kit with separate tablets and two bottles of solution, but since I still have plenty of my old multi-purpose stuff, I haven't bothered with the new setup yet.

Kate Garcia2 said:Look, you pretty much figured it out yourself. 🙂
If you're seeing those changes both with and without contacts, there's a good chance the lenses aren't the culprit, right? 😉

rapidheron made a good point. 🙂

That thing you described is called vitreous opacities—basically, cloudiness in the vitreous humor. It’s just a degenerative change in the vitreous, which isn't dangerous on its own. It doesn't really care how old you are; it can pop up in young people too, though it's more common if you're nearsighted.
The vitreous itself is this mesh-like structure made of tiny fibers. Our eyes are constantly moving, and with all that shifting and refocusing on things at different distances, those little fibers can snap. That's what causes those floaters, strings, or little clumps you mentioned.
There’s no cure, unfortunately. You just kind of have to learn to live with the floaters.
It probably isn't anything scary, but you should still get checked out by an eye doctor. If I were you, I'd 😉

Hmm...

So, I first noticed this while I was at the beach looking up at the sky. I was wearing my old backup contacts back then, but I wasn't pushing it too hard—no diving or anything. Now I've got these annual ones that you could basically sleep in...

Alright, fine. If this happens to nearsighted people, cool. But if I somehow caused this by wearing contacts, then damn... I should've just stuck to glasses. I never saw this before, maybe I just didn't notice.

Right now, I wear my annuals for a few days at a time (because honestly, putting them in every single morning is a drag), then I switch to glasses for a day, maybe once a week... at least until the guy at the optical shop swaps my two-weekers (which last 30 days). Hopefully, these expensive annual ones won't hurt if I wear them 5 or 6 days straight. If I accidentally sleep in my two-weekers, my vision is a total mess for a few hours the next morning... with these, I'm fine. I just use some Refresh and it's totally comfortable...

As for the eye doctor, that's the easy part.

Thanks for the help, everyone.

Megan Reed said:Wait, aren't you just using those cleaning tablets for the lentils? 🤔

You didn't get me. I usually just stick to those universal drops—I actually just picked up some new one-day disposables along with the liquid and pill combo—but my point is that I can still see those "hairs" even after I take the lenses out (just less so), and even with using Refresh Contacts a few times a day.

I’m with Brenda Bailey on this one—brine just hits different. It’s cleaner.

rapidheron said:I see those "floaters" too, but honestly, they look more like staph infections to me. Back when I tried to play doctor and diagnose myself, I ran to my eye doctor. He did a full exam and told me it’s probably just changes in the vitreous humor—pretty common if you're nearsighted.

Same thing happens when I look at a bright background. They aren't still, either; they drift around. Like, if I look up, they "jump," then slowly slide down or whatever.

But I didn't notice them until I started wearing contacts, and the number actually seems to go up when I have them in. Sometimes I'll wear my glasses for a day or two just to see if it "clears" things up, but it feels like it lasts way longer than that. Is there even a way to stop this entirely?

Your description is spot on, though. That's exactly how I see them... just floating around, lagging behind whenever my eyes move.

Not sure what else your doctor mentioned, but I'm not really buying the whole vitreous thing myself. Doesn't sound right to me, but hey, I'm no eye specialist.🙂

Man, there are some real pros in here... I’ve got a quick question about contacts...

I’ve started seeing these little "hairs" dancing around in my field of vision. I'm guessing it's just protein buildup from my eyes—since my eyes definitely produce way more gunk when I'm wearing lenses. You can only really see them when you're staring at a solid, bright background.

How do I actually get them out properly? I've been using artificial tears pretty consistently, but it doesn't seem to be doing much (maybe I'm not using enough, though I do apply quite a few drops at once).

Should I head to a drugstore and grab some sterile saline or distilled water? Is that safe for the eyes? I know those ultrasonic cleaners for contacts exist, and they use distilled water or something similar... so if that's okay for the machines, why wouldn't it work for me?

Also, is one of those ultrasonic gadgets actually worth it? They look like they cost about $100?