Is it real or is it Memorex?
Last night as I was getting ready for bed I saw a little black speck floating around in the left side of my vision and I thought Great, another floater to add to the collection.
I’ve got a lot of floaters in both eyes, and have ever since I was in my 40s. Most of the time I can ignore them, although they are more prominent under certain light conditions. It’s a bit like looking through a slightly dirty windshield. Although it’s really not all that bad, I certainly have no desire for it to get worse, and I was worried last night that that had happened.
Until a few moments later, when I realized that the little black speck was a tiny flying insect (perhaps a gnat?). It was external to me, not internal, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Sometimes I get fooled like that.
As a result of my back injury I have some nerve damage in both feet. For years it was really, really bad, featuring a host of what’s called paresthesias, which are strange sensations that sometimes feel like something external—heat, cold, burning—but that actually arise from disordered nerves rather than anything that’s happening out there in the world.
I had several in particular that were very, very odd. One was a sensation of extreme heat, so much so that my feet would turn bright red and even felt hot to the touch, whether or not the outside weather was hot or cold. Another sensation was of hypersensitivity—I had to wear very smooth socks, for example, because any other kind felt terribly scratchy, almost like straw. Another sensation was the feeling that I had a blister on my foot, but when I would visually examine the spot there was nothing to be seen. One of the oddest phantom feelings was that there was a small piece of Saran Wrap clinging to the bottom of my bare foot, sticking to it annoyingly. But when I’d bend down to find it and peel it off, there was nothing there but my foot itself.
So I learned to ignore it. And then one day, after enduring the annoying sensation for several hours, I bent down to look at it and discovered that there was a small piece of Saran Wrap clinging to my foot.
Sometimes it feels like there are little tufts of carpet fiber sticking up beneath my bare feet. I’ve learned to check with my hands before I get the scissors! Makes you wonder if the hallucinations suffered by some people with mental disorders are a variation of the same thing. You have my sympathies, Neo. What our nerves tell us, we react to as if it was real, and that can be disturbing indeed.
Have you tried Chinese or Japanese massage therapy, from martial artist lineages, on the leg nerves?
I seem to recall you describing a visual anomaly which I believe is called an optical migraine. That’s what my neurologist called it. I get them occasionally and if it is what you described, you are the first person I’ve heard of that gets these things. Lasts 20-30 minutes. First time it happened I thought I was having a stroke.
Were you walking around like a cat with scotch tape on it’s foot? Shaking the foot vigorously between every step?
RogerInMN–I get the eye-migraines (no corresponding pain, about 2/yr), 1st one about 10 years ago. First time I had one, I thought it was the beginning of the onset of blindness, until I saw an ophthalmologist the following day. I’ve talked to 2 other people since then who also get them. A definite trigger is light reflected off a dark, shiny surface, like granite or a car.
Too funny. Oh, laughing with you. Now, my floaters are getting better, and through mind conditioning, my paresthesias has much improved. Still, both can get me, in their weird ways, or through faux denials. Just reminds me that… you never can, for sure, at first, always quite know. I still think it’s part of what makes the world, in a more humorous way (at least to me, in these ways), a gas.
Floaters – yep, I’ve have them really bad in my one eye for a while now. I do like your description of a slightly dirty windshield. That is often what it is like. I found myself often taking off my glasses to clean them when these floaters first started and getting frustrated that cleaning didn’t help. But, I’ve sort of learned to live with them now; and, am just thankful that I am not blind.
Can I assume that you are nearsighted? They often affect us nearsighted folks more than others.
But, if nothing else Neo and others, if you start to have “bright flashes of light” accompany those floaters then get yourself to the eye doctor.
Like immediately. ASAP. That day! Don’t wait!
If floaters are accompanied with bright flashes of light, or if you see bright flashes of light without floaters, and I don’t mean because it is a thunderstorm, then that could be a sign that your retina is having problems. And is in possible danger of being damaged.
For many folks, again, especially those of us who are nearsighted, the eye ball will shrink up and pull away from the side or back of the eye. It is called posterior vitreous detachment. It eventually happens to more than 70% of us. Many folks won’t even be aware of it; but, for some it will cause floaters and for some it can tear the retina as it pulls away causing incurable blindness.
Not that everyone who sees bright flashes of light is having this problem; but, folks shouldn’t just dismiss it hoping that it will go away.
It also happens very, VERY, suddenly. As I said, if you see those flashes of light, call the eye doctor and tell him/her. They will most likely see you that day or refer you to a retina specialist who will take you in without an appointment that day. That is how sever the condition is. You can go from being sighted one day to being blind in less than a week.
I hope that isn’t being too much of a downer!
Now, as for the cling film stuck to your foot. A little good housekeeping will solve that. No doctor needed.
My phantom “beetle toe,” in which it felt as if a carpet beetle were crawling between two of my toes, has largely disappeared over the years. I didn’t realize it was gone until one day I noticed I didn’t feel “them” anymore. That was my oddest phantom nerve prank.
Be well!
But, if nothing else Neo and others, if you start to have “bright flashes of light” accompany those floaters then get yourself to the eye doctor.
Like immediately. ASAP. That day! Don’t wait!
Yup!
Ymarsakar Says:
July 21st, 2015 at 3:44 pm
Have you tried Chinese or Japanese massage therapy, from martial artist lineages, on the leg nerves?
This, Zhan Zhuang.
Video series here.
Phantom sensations:
… In his office in Mandler Hall, Ramachandran positioned a twenty-inch-by-twenty-inch drugstore mirror upright, and perpendicular to the man’s body, and told him to place his intact right arm on one side of the mirror and his stump on the other. He told the man to arrange the mirror so that the reflection created the illusion that his intact arm was the continuation of the amputated one. Then Ramachandran asked the man to move his right and left arms simultaneously, in synchronous motions–like a conductor–while keeping his eyes on the reflection of his intact arm. “Oh, my God!” the man began to shout. “Oh, my God, Doctor, this is unbelievable.” For the first time in ten years, the patient could feel his phantom limb “moving,” and the cramping pain was instantly relieved. After the man had used the mirror therapy ten minutes a day for a month, his phantom limb shrank–“the first example in medical history,” Ramachandran later wrote, “of a successful ‘amputation’ of a phantom limb.”…
Phantom vibrations:
It happens to me maybe once or twice a month. Just the other morning I was in the elevator with my bike, riding up to our third-floor office. I felt a vibration in my pocket and reached for my phone. It wasn’t there. It was in my messenger bag, I quickly remembered as I tried to act casual…
More here.
RogerInMN, I mentioned that to my doc and he told me what it was. I’ve never had pain with it, nor noticed any triggers for it. Doesn’t last long, and doesn’t really bother me.
If you’re ever in the Baltimore area, my daughter practices oriental medicine and massage therapy there. Email me for contact info if you’re headed that way.
If you don’t want to pay someone, or aren’t interested or able to get out, you can work on phantom things yourself. It’s how I did it, once I both realized what they were AND could stay conscious long enough to… remember. These last few years have allowed me to consciously, on my own, heal many things of body and mind.
Your money and time, though. And, perhaps, not all can be their own physician… or at least heal themselves?
And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…
Sometimes sharing is overdone, and it stimulates over-sharing by others, and before you know it, phantoms emerge, and referrals to “massage therapists” and “natural arts healers” and other exorcists are offered. Lesions and diagnoses are explained. Out of nowhere, alternatives abound in their multitudes.
From Wikipedia:
“Saran (PVDC) is also used for high-quality doll hair that is valued by collectors for its shine and softness. However, due to the fact that PVdC has a high specific gravity because of its high chlorine content, saran doll hair offers poor curl retention.”
Just be glad you do not have tinnitus. Mine came to visit 3 years ago and will never go away. Going to sleep requires extreme fatigue so I am up past midnight and rarely get more than 5 hours of sleep a night. I have adapted but I resent that I have had to adapt.
Tinnitus self help holds.
Jin Shin, courteous, efficient, self-treatment.
Neo, hope you be well.
I had an accident on 2009 with my back which caused a greave pain that resulting from my back disk punctured to inside pushing the nerve, as a result of my back injury my left leg panffull with some sort of burneing&Num sensation moreover resulting to more start effecting other functions of my body parts like kidney and other things
I do not forgot the type of pain until went surgery for my back (L3) it takes a year to recover and get near normal status.
Buprion is known to suppress such false pain/ nerve impulses.
You might inquire with your physician about it and other medicines that address what is — essentially — phantom pain — but very real to the mind.
I had a congenital cataract, accompanied by floaters in one eye. The cataract was removed, but the floaters remained. When in my sixties, I experienced new floaters in that eye that had a tail. My Ophthalmologist saw me immediately and repaired a tare with a laser. It happened a second time and required freezing a spot where a laser couldn’t reach. Some years later the vitreous in the other eye pulled away and left a small hole in the retina and big stringy floaters. The hole was repaired with a laser, but the big stringy floaters are still there. In all cases there were no streaks of light, so watch for tail on your floaters too.
As I think I have mentioned, the symptoms of which I’m not going to recite here.
Corrected:
As I think I have mentioned, I have multiple schlerosis, the symptoms of which I’m not going to recite here.
One thing, though. It has made me a much less fluent typist.
I’ve had a couple optical migraines.
The first time I had looked out a bright window first. The afterimage was brighter then usual and didn’t go away. Slowly the bright spot turned into a bright ragged rectangle. That rectangle slowly got larger until it covered the complete edge of my vision. Then it stopped. All told about 20 minutes or so.
I thought I was having a stroke but everything on my body seemed to work. Later my ophthalmologist confirmed that they are disturbing but harmless.
Bodies sure are strange things.
Optical migraine. I’ve probably had a couple dozen over the past 20 years. Multi-phase event. Phase 1 is an inability to see a complete image. Not obscured, just missing parts. Very annoying. Phase 2 I begin to see clearly in the center of my vision. 50% is clear, rest is fuzzy. Then, Phase 3. The whole circle around the center clear spot becomes a sparkle-y, pulsating glob. The whole episode lasts 20-30 minutes. Glad to hear others have had these things. Thanks for sharing.
I understand entirely, parker. I have a prescription that gives me tinnitus. I can clearly hear what seems like a mosquito buzzing right beside my ear, with occasional cricket choruses in the background. No problem during the day, but it drives me crazy trying to get to sleep.
Floaters are Cool, Neo…But, Flashers are even Cooler. Try “Classic Pigment Dispersion” coming from the mouth of your Eye Doc…Damn, this gittin’ old ain’t fer sissies..!
These last few years have allowed me to consciously, on my own, heal many things of body and mind.
Given the state of American medicine and “healthcare”, everyone will have to do that sooner or later.