Sounds like floaters and we all have them even as children but they get worse as JD mentioned when we age. I had some of the gel break off a few months ago and it looked like a dark worm like thing in my vision and I also had flashes when I looked to the side - it scared the heck out of me. I'm relieved the dark worm like thing got better. I thought I had a detached retina but I was lucky it was just some of the gel that broke away.