I had a line suddenly appear in my vision a few weeks ago. Emergency optician didnt know what it was and referred me to urgent NHS eye clinic who were really confused about what it was. They said it wasn't a cotton wool spot as the area was too "defined". They really worried me about all sorts of horrible diseases they thought I had. I've just had all the tests back and I don't have any of the diseases they suspected but the eye clinic is still very confused about it and they can't figure out what it is. There is swelling of the retina and a small patch when they do the retina photo. They told me to go away and come back again in 6 weeks and they will do more tests. They really scared me and when I asked questions like "am I going blind?" they said they couldn't answer that. So obviously I have been really stressing out about it.
I decided to go back to my normal optician today for a check up and had all the retina scan tests. The optician said it IS a cotton wool spot, nothing to worry about and it should go away on its own within 12 weeks. Some are caused by the scary diseases that the eye clinic mentioned but some just happen for no reason. She said it is already healing as the swelling in the retina has almost gone and the patch on the photo is much fainter than it was 3 weeks ago.
So just wondering if anyone else has had a cotton wool spot on their retina? I also don't understand why the experts at the eye clinic were so confused about diagnosis and pessimistic about my sight when the optician seemed to know what it was immediately and was very reassuring?