🚀 go-pugleaf

Obviously your friend needs to speak with an ophthalmologist or
neurologist  or both. I have heard of this condition and another
one called floaters where people (not necessarily blind) see little
black spots floating in front of their eyes. Also very
annoying. I do not believe anyone knows the precise causes of
these disturbances but they are related to the central
nervous system. They are not really curable --- perhaps some
CNS depressant drugs might help but one would have to weigh
the magnitude of the problem against the need for taking such
drugs. If I were blind I would want to keep all my other
senses heightened and such medications would definitely be
out.  

In article <33r28c$3ek@www.interramp.com>, knunan@.interramp.com writes...
> 
>Obviously your friend needs to speak with an ophthalmologist or
>neurologist  or both. I have heard of this condition and another
>one called floaters where people (not necessarily blind) see little
>black spots floating in front of their eyes. Also very
>annoying. I do not believe anyone knows the precise causes of
>these disturbances but they are related to the central
>nervous system. 

Sorry, I did not see the original post.  But I want to comment that "floaters"
are very common and are unrelated to any CNS disorder.  They are acutally
optically thick pieces of gel floating in the vitreous humour (sp?).  They
tend to occur in a person's 20's or 30's.  My Mom noticed that my Dad 
had them when he started complaining the his morning glass of milk was 
always dirty.  (He spilled out a lot of milk before going to the 
opthamalogist.)  

I developed a few myself.  They are completely harmless, though annoying
if they occur near the center of your field of vision.  Over time, 
measured in weeks to years, they can move, though not necessarily. 
Mine are not black dots, but fuzzy dark regions with "tails", i.e., they 
are irregularly-shaped bodies.

They are not treatable, so far as I know.  Once the opthamalogist
calmed me down and asured me that I was going to live, I basically had
to learn to ignore them.  I have only one which is poorly situated and
can be annoying when reading.  But considering all the problems one can 
have with eyessight, I don't sweat it much.  As a total percentage of 
my field of vision, my floaters are quite insignificant (surely much less
than one percent.)  The only time they still bother me is in fast-moving
situations, like when I am flying down a hill on my bike.  Sometimes I 
can notice one and "chase it" off to one side of my field of view, 
distracting me slightly from real input for a fraction of a second.   

-Scott
--------------------
Scott I. Chase	                      Mutationem motas proportionalem 
SICHASE@CSA2.LBL.GOV                  esse vi motrici impressae.