Worried about eye symptoms before overdue opticians appointment.

[Silverfish23]

I have an opticians appointment and I’m overdue.
I’m anxious as I’ve had a few issues with my eyes lately.
I get a lot of floaters in my eye. I also keep getting something I used to get sometimes, but not as often. My eyes kind of go out of focus for a couple of seconds. Often it happens when I’m tired but it can happen at other times too. I used to be able to do it deliberately as I child. I have ADHD and I’ve read others can too. It’s kind of like deliberately blurring. I don’t know how else to describe it accurately.
Anyway, it’s been happening more regularly and I’m not sure if it’s still intentional. I know I’ve been very tired lately and stressed, so it could potentially be related.

I know eye tests can pick up all sorts of issues nowadays and I do have health anxiety. I guess I’m mostly worried about a brain tumour or similar.

Sorry I should have said it’s tomorrow

I had similar symptoms and I was having a vitreous detachment, which happens often with age to myopic eyes. Are you short-sighted, OP?

I've always had dreadful anxiety about my eyes OP so I sympathise.

I think the symptoms you describe could have many causes.

You are seeing an expert tomorrow and I think you should just wait and see what they say rather than ask probably unqualified strangers on this forum.

Honestly whatever the cause is there is so much medical expertise regarding remedying eye problems try not to worry unduly.

If you print out a grid or use the one in the link below and look at it are the lines straight or wavy/broken up? You are seeing the optician tomorrow but if you have concerns you can contact 111 and they’ll tell you if you need to make your way to an eye hospital more urgently

https://www.brightfocus.org/resource/amsler-grid-eye-test/

@InfoSecInTheCity I covered each eye like it says to do and the lines weren’t wavy or broken up. They stayed straight, maybe a bit dimmer in one eye.

If you see wavy or broken lines it can be a sign of vitreous detachment, retina/macula detachment, the fact that you don’t have that is a good sign and you already have an appt for tomorrow. Like I said above if you have any worrying symptoms you can and should call 111 but it doesn’t sound like there’s anything emergency/urgent happening.

@InfoSecInTheCity thanks, I’m more worried they’ll find a brain tumour - like a swollen optic nerve etc

As someone who was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes, went through with the surgery to have more emergency surgery for detached/torn retinas in both eyes I would say you need to get to your local eye hospital first thing in the morning.
I wouldn't bother with A&E as they were terrible when I went in with a "suspected" detached retina <even though it actually was>. Came home at 5am in the morning, back in the eye hospital by 9AM and diagnosed within 45 mins.

Are you still driving despite these concerns?

@OrangeMochaFrappuccino

I am - I didn’t think it was a major red flag for being unable to drive.
I don’t have actual vision loss.

@aCatCalledFawkes oh blimey, I’m worried now, why an eye hospital? What in my OP has made you think that it’s necessary? Sorry but I’m a bit perplexed. I’ve always had eye floaters so that’s not a new thing for me.

I’ve got an astigmatism in both eyes also. They told me that last time I went.

I would only say this because you have new floaters and your eyes are dimmer than before. You can call them too ahead of even going in or if you have an appointment tomorrow they will refer you.

I’ll probably just wait for my appointment tomorrow. Now reading about it I don’t think my eyes are dimmer. I do have floaters but I’ve always had them. So hopefully nothing sinister.

Do you suffer from dry eyes? That can lead to transient blurriness.

I think I may need new glasses and I do spend a lot of time looking at screens

Hopefully that's your answer, then.

Hope so.
I’m always worried about brain tumours

Optometrist here. None of the symptoms you describe are red flags for a brain tumour. Please relax. .

have you got myopia above -2?

if you look at a spreadsheet are the horizontal lines all straight?
if they are at all wobbly you need to go to a specialist eye hospital urgently.
this is a symptom of myopic CNV, the next symptom is loss of central vision.

for a couple of weeks before it happened to me i had lots of floaters, and then 3 days before i noticed the lines being kinky .

because i attended moorfields within 24hrs of the central vision loss, i regained a lot of the vision but it is significantly less than i had.

myopic cnv is the first cause of vision loss in the western world. and i had never heard of it

This was me a few years ago!! I had three really odd episodes of double vision, out of nowhere and short lived. All three times I was tired and dehydrated. I also went through a period of having pain behind my eyes and fully convinced myself I had a brain tumour. Turns out I didn’t, my eyes were completely fine and the optician put these episodes down to tiredness and dry eyes - this could be causing your floaters.