I am seeing black floaters...

[pozguy75]

I am seeing a little black floating speck out of my right eye...and after finding out yesterday I am on of the 80% of adults with a +ve CMV, I looked up on the net about CMV retinitis...

Okay...so call me a WW if you want to, but there is definately something there...it's really annoying...so, I forgot to mention this yesterday when I at the dr's office...so I will be calling in the morning...

Oh, well, what to do...what to do...

[Moffie65]

Listen Jeromy,  CMV is nothing to mess with.  Blindness can follow in six weeks to three months, so please don't delay with this one. 

Now, I want to know what your CD4 is right now.  There is very little possibility that the floaters are caused by CMV if your CD4 is well above 200.  Blindness is out of the question at that level.  I have what is called the "Amsler Grid" taped to the inside of my medicine cabinet, and this is one thing you really need if you are already CMV+.  This will tell you if this is just a normal event, or otherwise.

I wouldn't panic just yet, but thankfully, you are doing the right thing in going to see a doctor tomorrow.  Please don't let this one wait for one second; blindness is one thing that most of us are not ready to accept as a side effect of HIV.  I have known far too many people that have suffered with this one, and it almost always was because they got lazy and didn't do anything proactive about it in the very beginning.  Others were in such bad shape with their immune systems that they couldn't fight off the very fast progression of the disease.

Please be careful, and take care of yourself sweetie.

In Love and Support.
(edited to correct a bad spelling)

[pozguy75]

Luckily my CD4 in July is 693...so who knows...I just want to have it checked out. It's been annoying me for about a month now...

[Moffie65]

Gee, Jeromy, we are almost twins.  My CD4 in July was 692, but alas, yesterday the new reading came in at 499.  Oh well, guess we will have to wait a few months and see if it will be in the 700 range again, or if this is a permanent drop.

OH Well!

[pozguy75]

Does this mean I am Danny Devito and you are Arnold Schwartznager???

[Moffie65]

Jeromy, you are way too strange, but really funny!

[pozguy75]

 

[Eldon]

Jeromy, take heed to Moffie's advice. He said it plain and clearly.





Have the BEST Day!

[Jeff64]

here from the Mayo Clinic regarding floaters

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/eye-floaters/AN00885

I get clear floaters...tiny little distortions that pass by sometimes. Must need the goo in my eyeballs filtered.

I saw brown floaters this morning, but that is a whole other story.

Jeff

[randym431]

Floaters come to many and most, hiv or not. Just one of those getting older things. Mine come and go but can be ignored. I started seeing them back when I was still neg and just at 40 years old. I ask some people if it was something to worry about and they all said no. But I ask "gee, whats next with aging". No one ever warned me that your bod falls apart as you get older.
Some days my floaters are almost non noticable. So thats life I guess.
Yours night be gone tomorrow, and back next week, like mine.

Dont worry. And PUT A SHIRT ON, you're driving me horny...   

[Christine]

Hi Jeromy,

I was diagnosed with cmv retinitis about three years ago. I had floaters, and it looked like I was looking through a dirty window. It can be treated.

But it progresses quickly. Have an opthamologist exam your eyes right away. Today right away...not in a few weeks.

That all being said, your cd 4's are really good, so I am guessing the floaters are just the benign, annoying floaters. But, better to be safe than sorry...so go to the Dr.

Christine

[aztecan]

Hey Jeromy,
Since Moffie, et al, have already told ya to be checked, and you are doing it anyway, I'll just add that floaters seem to be a way of life for most folks as they age.

With a CD4 as high as yours, you are most likely not in any danger from CMV. I always qualify statements like that because someday, someone will prove me wrong.

As Christine pointed out, too many young people fail to faithfully see an ophthamologist regularly. For you, every couple years would be fine. But there are a lot of things that can happen to the eyes.

I go every year. My eyes are in tip-top shape, medically, even with the floaters. Now, if someone wants to adopt me and pay for Lasik . . . . but I digress.

I can see pretty well, well enough to see the reason all those young men are chasing you! 

All I can say is, nice photo!

HUGS,

Mark

[pozguy75]

As many of you have pointed out...it is indeed a minor, benign annoyance...I had lasik a month ago, but I had the little bugger prior...so...I am not going blind from CMV...I will though from something else my mother warned me about!!

[wellington]

I dismissed my mothe ron that point, else I would have been blind long, long ago.

Can you describe these "floaters" at all? i experienced something that sounds similar when my CD4 was much lower, but to me it seemed more of a localized disturbance - like when they pixelate a face of someone testifying on the news - than it did a dark/black area. At first I thought it was just a small hair on the surface of my eyeball, refracting light in an unusual pattern. As I wear contacts for hours on end, I just doused my eye with some saline and remove the lens - but the distortion remaind. I've not had any relapses but being educated about this event never hurts. I also tested CMV+.

[alisenjafi]

I get white floaters every so often. My friend with a similar prob was told it has to do with calcium loss. Any way talk to your doc. And at least you don't see dead people- then again you'd get a bad tv show!
Johnny