Floaters/detached retina-anyone??
 

I have seen floaters in my eyes for quite some time now, probably a couple of years. However, I recently started seeing rotating circles in the outer corners of both of my eyes. They only last a few seconds, but this goes on all day long, off and on. Also, two nights ago, I started getting these "lightning strikes" in my right eye. It looks just like lighting bolts....very bright!

Has anyone experienced anything like this? I've googled and came up with detached retina.

I went to the opthalmologist yesterday. He did a thorough exam and told me to come back in 3 weeks to get it checked out. He said it is common in people over 60 (I'm not over 60....yet!) and to not panic. He said the body might possibly absorb the vitreous fluid that is causing the pulling of the retina.

He told me if I started seeing more floaters to come back to him.

I'm really thinking I should get a second opinion.

Me too.

I hate that they always say "if the floaters increase, come back" and when you do, they don't do anything. Mine are bothersome, and have increased significantly!

When was the last time your Thyroid was checked ? as it can cause symptoms of eye problems.

If it was me having this happening, I really would get appointment to get a second opinion, second opinions are always best when anything unusual is going on. Please keep us updated on how you are doing, praying all goes well.
Hug, Patti and Jack

I've always had them since I was a kid. Thought it wad normal. I used to think I had a fur or hair on my contact. I wore contacts since 4th grade and glasses since 1st.

I have had floaters for years and guess my brain has learned how to ignore them. I have never had the lightening strikes you are describing.

However, when I had laser surgery on my eyes ten years ago, I had the most bizarre rainbow beams that lasted for about 6 months. Very annoying.

Hope your vision stuff goes away soon!

My mom has floaters, she has been blind in one eye since a little girl dur to an accident, so she has always been very careful to keep her good eye healthy. She has sarcoidosis which has affected her good eye. She see's a specialist that specalizes in Vitreoretinal and Uveities, he is the only one i will let work on her eye, he has saved her sight for many years now. He started her on a higher does of prednisone and then tapered her down to just a small does daily which she will take for the rest of her life. I would try to see someone who specializes in this field. Mom's biggest fear is to be totally blind, she would rather be deaf than be completely blind. Growing up blind in the one eye has never been a problem for her, if you seen her you would never think she was blind in the one eye.
Please get a second opinon with a specialist. Good luck

It is probably so routine to the doctors to see patients with floaters, etc. that they don't see it as an emergency as the patients do. What I heard him say was "Take two aspirins and get plenty of rest". lol Frustrating!

I just had a TSH test about a month ago. It was at a very good number. I go to a GP for this. Was going to an endocrinologist a few years back. My GP never checks anything other than the TSH. I really need to be more aggressive about my hypo-T and find someone who really understands how to treat it.

I didn't realize that thyroid levels can affect one's vision. I know if I approach my doctor with this kind of question, he would look like a deer in headlights. lol

Why is it that thyroid issues are so misunderstood!!!

Thanks for the tip about this. I'm going to do more research.

Thank you, Patti. A second opinion sounds like the best thing to do.

I just hate it when I see the floaters. I always try to swat them away! lol

I can deal with the floaters better than I can deal with lightning strikes. They are so bright! Did you have laser surgery because of floaters or a detaching retina? I can't imagine seeing rainbow beams for that long. That would be so frustrating.

The circular, spinning "things" in both outer corners of my eyes drive me insane, especially at night when I try to sleep.

Hi Lila! :) I too have had floaters for donkey's years (!!!:D) but have never experienced the bright lightning flashes :eek:

According to my doctor, floaters are usually caused by an upset or imbalance from somewhere else in your body, the kidneys for example...and there's not a lot that can be done.

My daughter always gets the lights and flashings shortly before she gets a migraine...do you suffer with those? Sally x

I hope your mother's eyesight stays healthy for the remainder of her life.

I didn't know there was such a thing as a Vitreoretinal and Uveities specialist! I'll definitely be looking into this. Thank you so much!

As lilliemae suggested in her post above, the thyroid can cause these symptoms, which I didn't realize. I have Hypo-Thyroidism. This is another thing I'll need to research. Thanks for mentioning this.

I had migraines for about 30 years just like clockwork. I would get an aura before a lot of them hit. I don't get them anymore! (Knock on wood!!!!)

I asked the doctor if the flashes could be migraine related. He said that if they don't last for about 20 minutes or longer, then they are not. My flashes come and go intermittently and only last maybe a minute or so, but they are so frequent!

Would 'being of a certain age' :rolleyes: and the hormonal upset have any bearing on this do you think? Just trying to rack my brain here....:) Sally x

I get floaters from time to time. My eye doctor told me it's skin sluffing off behind your eye. As for the lightening strikes.....I have gotten these as well...although mine almost look like i am looking through a tiny jagged flashing circle. My eye doctor asked me if I got a headache after...I did...not a bad one...He said that a lot of people with migraines get these flashes...said it's a warning that they will head up with a major headache
And I'm not over 60 either!

I had this happen to me about a year ago, all of a sudden I saw flashing in the corner of my eye. It continued on for about a week, then I had a shower of floaters in my eye, the flashing stopped and the floaters eventually mostly went away, I still have a few in that eye. If you look up eye flashing on the internet, I think it says it could be a detached retina, or the lining in the back of the eye sloughs off with age. I didn't go to the doctor (my bad I know), because I hadn't hit my head or anything to cause a detached retina. I now take Andre Lessman's Ultimate Eye Support along with his Astaxanthin, which you can get on HSN.com. if you go on website read all
the reviews on these products, and you'll see that these have helped with the tissue in the eye that we don't get from our diets. I haven't had any problem with eye flashing since.

The only time I had this happen was when I was taking Chemo, it scared me so much. After I finished Chemo it went away.
I certainly hope you can find out what is causing the problem.

I LOVE Andrew Lessman products, was in awe seeing how his lab operates and how VERY CLEAN,it was very impressive when HSN televised live with him at the Lab in Nevada. Sure a good feeling to see where products are made and how conscientious they are in providing quality.
I have Jack on the Ultimate eye support and it seems to have helped him a bit, although there really isnt anything Dr.s can do due to the injury. I also put him on their Essential 1 multi vitamin daily, Essential Omega 3 twice a day, also Vitamin D3 and Resveratrol-100. (in my research regarding Parkinson's I learnt the Resveratrol is beneficial as well as additional Vitamin D3)
I totally agree our foods today are far from providing the nutrition our bodies need.
Hugs, Patti and Jack

Please make your Dr check more then just your TSH. Do you know that it is impossible to even diagnose Hashimotos by only checking the TSH & is what my ex-doctor insisted would tell her EVERYTHING she needed to know about my Hashimotos. I had my TSH checked 5 times in 9 days & was having a thyroid storm the whole time BUT my TSH was perfect all 5 times it was checked, so your Dr checking only the TSH is a complete waste of time if you have Hashimotos. Remember , your paying for that needle stick that's telling nothing about your condition.
And yes, thyroid conditions can totally blind you but is usually only temporary & sight restored after meds begin.

Please get to see a specialist in macular problems. I hesitate to post this as it may not be your situation but read it as a warning. I hope you won't wait about getting two specialists' opinions. I don't want to scare you - your situation is likely totally different but consider my situation.

I had floaters for years, then the lightening and zizzy circles in the edge of my vision and then one day, everything looked very strange in my right eye. I realized I could no longer see straight lines normally - they were bent and things I focused on were quite thin and abnormally distorted. Went to a macular specialist who said I had a tear in the macula from a congenital condition. Wait and see. 9 mos. later the distortion was so bad I had to have surgery and by then, the damage was done and surgery resulted in legal blindness in the right eye - huge gray defect in the central vision where I see nothing though I have peripheral vision. The specialist told me the lightening and zizzy looking things were ocular migraines from a congenital retinal partial detachment I'd had all my life - never found by my eye doctor before because finding it took special testing the specialist did. The retinal detachment had loosened with age and torn more, the healing caused tightening and scarring to pull on the macula, stretch it, strain it and then tear it.

Nine years later, same thing happened in the left. This time I got to the doctor on Christmas Eve, the morning after symptoms started and had surgery 3 days later. Have some distortion in the central vision after the surgery but no blindness.

Eventually within 2 years, I developed severe cataracts from the macular surgeries and after both were removed and corrective lenses implanted, I see better than I ever have in my life! I have occasional 15/20 vision in the left eye even with the distortion and the peripheral vision in my right eye is excellent - and it helps my left eye focus better now it's been corrected with a good lens! Even though I am blind in the right eye, I actually have the best overall vision I ever had, even with corrective glasses which I used to have to wear to drive or watch TV. No more glasses after the lens implants except to read!!! I now drive and watch TV and see far off with no glasses at all.

I do have a muscle problem in the right eye now from the blind portion that keeps the eye from trying to focus so it wanders and that makes reading very hard as I see a good deal of double things but am seeing my second opinion doc on that next month (just got my first opinion) and already know I'm having surgical correction which is about a 5 min. procedure when the surgeon can schedule it next month.

SO GO TO A MACULAR SPECIALIST and then see a second one. Early intervention is often key here. If that first macular specialist hadn't waited on the right eye, I would likely have not lost the macular central vision there - but that is old history now. I have lived and learned. Get to a specialist and then get a second opinion of another good macular specialist. Had I gotten a second opinion I probably would have had early right eye surgery before my macula was too far gone.

It may all just be retinal and nothing macular but a mac specialist can treat that, too. Waiting and doing nothing can be your eyes' worst enemy - take it from someone who has been there and whose sister is blind from macular degeneration and with a grandmother who we now know must have also had severe macular problems. She and my sister and I all started with floaters, then the lightening, then the black spots. Black spots usually indicate little bleeds that come from bits that have torn or detached but not always. But don't fool around with your eyes seeing just a regular eye doctor or even a single macular specialist. See two and see them soon! I pray you don't have a serious condition and the lightening and such are just retinal oopsies and age related as many people have. But don't wait or assume nothing bad is happening where eyes are concerned. Please.

Ouch! Hit me where it hurts!:rolleyes:;) Yes, the doc mentioned that as people age, it is more common. I'm sure my hormones or what hormones I have left are playing a role in it.

OMGoodness! I am so glad that your situation is so much better now. Wow! I can't imagine going through what you went through. I hope I don't have to. I've always believed in going to the best doctors and getting second opinions. I didn't know there were macular specialists out there! I am only 30 minutes from Scott & White Hospital in Temple. I'm sure I can find one there. I'll call Monday and get this second opinion thing rolling.

Did your eyes hurt? My eyeballs hurt. It feels like a sinus infection. I don't have a headache at all. More like tension behind the eye. I told the opthalmologist about it and he just look puzzled.

Thank you for suggesting a macular specialist and also for your concern.

I had some eye pain but mine, too, was said to be from sinuses but honestly since all my problems were fixed, I have no more "sinus" problems like that. I hated to mention such dire problems and scare you but if there is the teeniest chance you are having mac probs, thought it would be worth mentioning to you. I wish someone had told me not to let mac problems lie for 9 mos. - to get another specialist to look at me. Because when I did, he scheduled me for surgery right away. Hopefully and likely, your floaters and other sx. are just the age-related things we all can have from time to time. But if just one person reads this who is having similar problems and gets help sooner than they would have, maybe it will be worth the scare to all who read it and have ever had anything similar! Lots of people have floaters and even the lightening/zizzy things without macular problems. The macula is where our eye fine focuses and without good vision there, you don't enjoy much TV, movies, traveling, driving or reading - life. Fine focus in eyesight is what really makes sight so wonderful. Having only peripheral vision is better than nothing but if I had to live life with only what my right eye can see, it would be a small, limited world. I will be praying you get the best report ever and doc says see me in a year for a recheck! :)