Management of Eye Floaters | Colin McCannel, MD, FACS, FRCSC | UCLAMDChat

Colin McCannel, MD, FACS, FRCSC
Ophthalmology
UCLA Stein Eye Institute (SEI)

[Hoover]

How wonderful to hear a gentleman from the medical profession speaking so lucidly and with great wisdom. Thank you so much.

[peggyoconnell]

This was an excellent presentation! Thank you so very much! You explained everything very systematically and well!

[SelinaUniverse]

For everyone who has eye floaters and are currently in panic: keep on reading.
I first encountered floaters when I was about 19 but somehow they moved out of my field of vision, then at 27 I suddenly had a bunch of them. At that time I also had bad anxiety, stress etc and I couldn’t stop looking for the floaters that it became a daily obsession. But: I overcame it. It WILL get better! Try to find the core of where the anxiety comes from, maybe with a little more help like therapy or someone you trust to talk to. Strangely, I still have floaters but I barely notice them because I’m not scared of them anymore. The mind can be a powerful ally or your biggest enemy. If I can do it, you can do it too!

[John-fvqt]

I cannot believe doctor cannot help with floaters every doctor I saw said they can't do anything very sad..

[TonyReznik]

Im only 24. And i dont understand why i have so many at such young age. Life became miserable. No one from my family or my friends have them or the ones who do, dont have that many. I cant imagine how many i will have when im 50. I extremely depressed because of this. I seek help and dont know what to do.

[atrevor]

First of all an excellent presentation that has given me peace of mind. Mine arrived at 64 years of age and I am researching everything. Most of my adult life I have dabbled with self hypnosis for sleeping after shift work and preparing with day time naps. So I am going to use my self hypnosis to convince my subconscious mind that my floaters are not there. I will let you know how I got on. If you don’t acknowledge or understand your own subconscious mind you will dismiss me as mad. Finally all of you who are coming to terms with floaters you have my absolute deepest empathy.

[felixthedon]

My partner and I have just watched this video and found it extremely informative and perfectly presented 😊 what an awesome guy keep it up 👍👀

[topotone]

Can you share information about the lightning flashes that I am experiencing at the onset of PVD? Thanks

[relaxatry]

I have floaters in my eye which cause disturbance in vision.

[cades.clips]

About a year ago I was at the beach and I was catching a wave and I hit my head on the sand and when I got out of the water I had this huge floater across my right eye vision and I’ve had it ever since. Do u know how this happened?

[macs-]

If you've neck & shoulder pain along with eye strain and floaters. Let me tell you its due to the pressed eye nerves in neck(which causes restricted blood flow) caused by misalignment of spine. I tried few exercise and I'm seeing visible reduction in floaters in just one session. I so badly want to share it with people who are suffering from eye floaters cause I can understand what they going through.

[avairybird]

I noticed when looking at a white wall it like black thread with knots in it

[LelandJonesJr]

Thank you for presenting the relevant issues pertaining to if or when YAG laser surgery is an appropriate procedure to be considered to remove floaters. I am fortunate enough to have found an ophthalmologist who was willing to use his skill with the laser to clear enough of the debris in my dominant eye to be able to have functional vision for reading and driving, which I was gradually becoming discouraged from doing due to progressive loss of vision. I suspect the costly supplemental health insurance I carry had something to do with my good fortune, along with my being an ideal candidate for surgery. Living with floaters for most of my life was a constraining irritant many of us are forced to "actually live with", but my progression to pending avoidable blindness, being allowed to frequently occur by the medical profession in our wealthy nation, is a sign of declining empathy in our society. My effective treatment should never be considered "controversial among the medical community!"

[peggyck]

Very informative, thank you for putting this comprehensive presentation together!

[JakeWang]

Dear Dr. McCannel,

Thanks for the video. Do you have any advices on how I can really re-program or re-wire my brain to really be able to not giving any attention the floaters? I had a big onset of floaters and I have to say they are distorting my heartbeat and breathing rhythm which I think its very healthy threatening, since they are so often in the vision and hard to avoid.

[c.s.]

Shaking my head to get the floaters out of the way, doesn’t work for me. Why? They seem to stay put in the same spot.

[pthaloblue]

Thanks for the informative video. I did go see an ophthalmologist when I woke up a month ago with blurry vision and weird new floaters in one eye. I'm an artist and this is a really upsetting thing to have happen, it's been hard to work and to not stress about it! I appreciate your reassurance and I will give it some more time to resolve.

[MartinSage]

I first experienced flashes of multi colored laser beams in the peripheral area of my left eye one evening. Two days later in the AM 5 spiders appeared and floated around. A week later I saw an optometrist who told me he couldn't see any tears. Will return in a month to double check all is OK.

[bikemediageek]

Thank you. This was validating to hear. Most people/articles will say something like, they are not a big deal, but this is not true when they are bad. it is like living with a disability that no one else understands since it is not apparent.

[dianeallen]

Thank you for your presentation. It is very helpful. However it has made me more scared I'm getting retinal detachment but I'll see an ophthalmologist Thanks again