I have been reading the posts on this thread because 2 weeks ago I was sitting outside enjoying the view in the evening, and had a sudden feeling that I had something in my left eye. When I searched in the mirror, I couldn't find anything. The next morning, I saw a rather large black circle that followed my eye movements, so I made an appointment with my opthamologist. He dilated my eyes, tested my pressure, and did a thorough exam. He said I have a floater in my eye that is probably the result of my vitreous gel breaking down as a natural part of aging. He made an appointment for 2 weeks out and I went home feeling relieved. Then, about a week later, my eyesight suddenly worsened and seemed to have a cloud that was in my sight. I returned for another exam, telling the eye doctor I have a very active imagination so perhaps nothing had changed. After the exam he told me that in fact the vitrious gel had definately pulled away from the back of my eye. He said I was fine and that no retinal tear showed up. He made an appointment for 1 month out.

It's been 2 weeks since this all started, and my left eye is getting worse. I can't focus well at all, and the cloudy area is there all the time. I feel as if I am looking through a fine white porous screen. Also, there are more black floaters in my left eye now, although these are much smaller than the first one that I can see all the time now. I'm trying to research if this is just part of the vitrious gel separation, or if something worse is going on. I'm worried as I have lots of painting and drawing I want to do now that I'm retired. I don't know if I should wait another 3 weeks before I see the doctor, or if I need to go to a retinal specialist. I don't want to go blind, which as someone else said here, is a very scary thing to consider. It never occurred to me that I would have problems with my eyesight as I got older.

I have T2 diabetes, insulin dependent with an A1c of 6.8 - 7.3 at my tests. I have had cataract surgery in both eyes 3 years ago. Otherwise I'm pretty darned healthy. If anyone has experience with this type of occurance or knows of research in this area, please let me know. I will continue looking through Mayo papers, and other research on my own as well.

Thanks, Gail
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