Am I going blind?

[Will101]

I am a 16 year old boy and my eye sight has recently taken a turn for the worst. It all started about 4 months ago with the onset of floaters. I went to the opthamolagist who said no retinal damage and to live with them. They have gotten so bad that I can't enjoy life anymore. Just going outside makes me feel weird because of the floaters going everywhere. They went from none to a bunch in 4 months and just recently within a week or two I have been having trouble focusing on objects far away. Not too far though.

[Will101]

Went to see another opthamologist yesterday and everything is normal besides the floaters and a cupped disc. I am still seeing like static in a T.V. all the time though. I do not know what it is. But I gues I just have to live with it like the floaters and entopic phenomena. Maybe the static is from too much computer time? Just throwing things out there...

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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[Will101]

Ok, I believe that I will go get a second opinion from another opthamologist.  Hopefully that will set things straight.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

You may be focusing in on an entopic effect known as the blue field or flying corpusle effect. Read the entry on www.wikipedia.com about that.

Discuss this with your parents. Go to a second ophthalmologist, ideally a retina specialist (find one near you at www.aao.org) and go in and get a second opinion.

If this second MD Eye physician doesn't find anything other than "ordinary" floaters then quite worrying unless something changes.  Also remember that getting fixated on some part of the body's workings can be a sign of depression, anxiety or both.

JCH MD

[dukey]

Well, at your age, I personally think you should make an effort to determine the cause of the floaters. Whilst floaters are very common, they are not all that common at your age and not in the manner that you describe them. Are you myopic (short-sighted)? You should also be concerned about your loss of distance vision.