What are floaters?

Without going much into minute details of floaters, I will keep this short and sweet.

Floaters is a common term used to describe opacities in the vitreous in the eyes.The opacities can be due to vitreous degeneration or hemorrages (red blood cells), calcium deposits, and other tissue that has come off the retina during posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). When light travels through the vitreous and falls onto the retina, it encounters these opacities in its path and casts shadows onto the retina. The sufferer sees these shadows which can range from benign to severe. In some cases patient's vision is totally obstructed by these shadows and vitrectomy can be done to remove the vitreous. In other cases the vision is not obstructed but these moving shadows can be depressing. Yet in other patients they are just annoying.

My floaters are severe, persistent, partially obstructing, and are very hard to live with. As medical students, we all are aware of the stress of our lives. I have an additional stress in the form of floaters which no ophthalmologist that I have seen takes seriously. I've been told that it is all in my "head" or that I have to live with it. Floaters have had a devastating toimpact on my life. I dread going to my clerkship rotations. I do not know how I passed my USMLE Step 1 because all I saw was these floaters everywhere on the computer screen on the exam day.

Since the ophthalmic community believes that floaters are not an a chronic condition which severely decreases quality of life, I will use this blog to voice my challenges due to something which is considered so "benign." Yes, I have solutions available in the form of vitrectomy. But 99.5% of the ophthalmologists will discourage me from getting the surgery done. I have no where to go. I do not know whom to listen, ophthalmic professionals or my suffering?