Gnats are swarming me! AHHHH!

[nthnjacob]

I had a bout of optic neuritis that has since cleared up. At the same time the ON started, I noticed these little black fly looking dots in my vision field and one small thin piece of black thread. Very subtle but there. They drift where my eyes are looking. They are more visible when I look at a white piece of paper. I have 2-3 total in both eyes. Any ideas?

[jazzgirl]

Sounds like floaters, and they're not MS-related. I'd see an eye doctor, though, just to be sure!

[Redwings]

That's a classic description of common floaters. Google floaters and you'll be reading your own description!

Most people have them to some degree. (I have mega floaters!) They're so common that a lot of people don't even know they have them until something calls their attention to them -- something like an eye infection or ON. There's a difference between sudden onset and sudden discovery of an existing situation.

With a few uncommon exceptions, floaters aren't related to MS, and what you're describing is the common kind, not that rare exception. However, there are other, non-MS conditions that can cause floaters. If you haven't had a recent comprehensive exam by an optometrist or ophthalmologist -- the kind of exam that includes dilation of the pupils and a thorough exam of the insides of the eyes -- it's a good idea to get one just to be sure there's nothing abnormal going on.

[teacher4life]

Hi nthnjacob,
I've had ON, but it was a while ago! It sounds like this could be related to your ON, so make sure you see your opthamologist. Unless you're older (late 40's or 50's), you probably don't have floaters. Good luck.

[Redwings]

Unless you're older (late 40's or 50's), you probably don't have floaters.

Although floaters do onset and increase with increasing age, normal, harmless floaters occur in all age groups. The way the eye develops and changes before birth sometimes results in floaters in childhood. I've had floaters since I was a kid and they increased in number during my 20s. It would have been nice if they'd held off until my 40s or 50s , but that isn't always how normal changes in the eye happen.

So floaters aren't necessarily age-related, and the cause can't be determined based only on age. Any new onset (or even new discovery) of floaters should be checked by an eye doctor to determine the cause (causes aren't necessarily age-related, either). And the greater the number of floaters and the more suddenly they appear, the faster they should be checked out.

[nthnjacob]

Thanks for the responses. I have seen an optometrist who was not able to see anything wrong with my eyes, except a minor inflammation due to ON. He even said he almost had to know the ON was there to even perceive that. I think it was ON because of the red distortion. I did not lose very much vision though. I do know for a fact the floaters either appeared or worsened with the ON.

My question is do floaters and/or ON appear in a regular eye exam? If so, why did nothing catch the Dr. attention?

Thanks and God Bless.

[Redwings]

My question is do floaters and/or ON appear in a regular eye exam? If so, why did nothing catch the Dr. attention?

The tiny dot and thread floaters are too small for the eye doctor to see. But from the inside of the eye, they're close to, or relatively close to, the retina, so the person sees them as being bigger. In addition, floaters float and drift with eye movement, but they don't travel far, so the person gets to see them quite frequently and is very aware of them.

Under the right conditions, eye doctors can see larger floaters. Unless there's something else that's unusual about them, those general little floaters don't catch the eye doctor's attention because they're normal anatomy. The unusual floaters do catch the doctor's attention, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there's something wrong and the doctor might not comment on them.

As for optic neuritis, 2/3 of cases of ON occur in the portion of the optic nerve that's behind the eye (retrobulbar ON) and don't show any visible signs inside the eye. Even raging cases of ON can look completely normal from inside the eye. In those cases, there's nothing visible that would catch the eye doctor's attention. That's what led to the expression about ON: The patient doesn't see anything and the doctor doesn't see anything.

Even in the other 1/3 of cases, a mild case of ON can be so subtle as to also show no visible signs. From your description it's not possible to tell what might have been visible during your episode.

My first case of ON was so subtle that neither I nor my doctor could tell that it was ON. There were no visible signs inside the eye. Over the years I've had dozens of episodes of ON and only one of them was visible inside the eye.

It's only weeks or months after an episode of ON that the aftereffects become visible. If the episode was severe enough, a portion or all of the optic nerve head loses its normal pink color and turns pale. Pallor indicates some degree of atrophy, which doesn't get better. This occurs after, not during, ON.

Mild cases of ON can resolve completely and might not result in pallor. But when it exists, pallor is abnormal and should get an eye doctor's attention. That's important because there are several conditions that can lead to pallor and it needs to be followed up on to determine the cause. But again, this occurs after, not during, ON.