This is sort of long but I thought it might help someone avoid what I'm going through. Two weeks ago I noticed some "floaters" in my left eye. I've seen them before but these were longer than usual. Didn't think too much about it but over the next several days new things began to appear. Tiny black dots, "snow" in the background, slight blur, and a small spot in the corner that looked like something was blocking my vision. But there was no pain and my vision wasn't affected very much at all. I had catarac surgery 6 months earlier and thought maybe something came loose. Called the clinic and explained my symptoms and was told it would be four days before I could see a doctor. Luckily, one of my Sunday School friends nursed for an eye doctor and she told me to call back and tell them it's an emergency. They worked me in the next day and sent me straight to surgery. 25-30 percent of the retina had detached in two places. I've had to keep my face down 24 hrs/day for the last 8 days to keep everything in place (about the toughest thing I've had to do). Got checked out today and everything looks good but my eye won't clear up for several more weeks and the doc said I might never get the vision back like it was. The retina starts to die within 90 minutes of being detached and I went a week before getting it looked at. So pay attention to your eyes and if you notice anything different get it looked at immediately--tell them it's a possible retina detachment and they'll see you that day (the doc asked me who I talked to the first time, so somebody might have gotten fired). Also, there doesn't have to be an injury for it to happen. It tends to be genetic related (my brother had it several years ago) and part of getting old (the eye jell shrinks and can tear the retina when it does).