Eye floaters and flashing lights warning

[Riverlee]

A relative has suffered from detached retinas in the past, so I’m aware of the symptoms, but many people aren’t. Hence I thought I’d list them.

The main symptoms to be aware of are:

• floaters
• flashing lights
• a dark shadow in your vision
• blurred vision.

If you get these, it’s a medical emergency. Go to an optician or an and e as soon as possible. A detached retina, if left, can cause blindness. It’s not a common condition, but worth being aware of.

What is the dark shadow ? I have a massive grey circle I see and it drives me mad.

I've had a detached retina and agree, you need to act quickly. I didn't and lost all sight in the eye.

I'd go straight to A & E and wouldn't bother with the optician, it's where they will send you anyway.

check the process in your local area though. In mine, I don't think A&E will see you; there is a separate eye clinic, but they only accept referrals, so you still have to see the optician or GP. Although I did get given a list of numbers for them if I started to get symptoms in my other eye.

It's a strange feeling waiting for a PVD in the second eye, when you know that it's caused retina problems in the first eye, and that the chance is higher of it happening in the second. But you don't know when it might start. They say that there is a fair chance within a couple of years of the first, but I've waited for ten years now and still no sign of it starting in the second.

I started with flashing lights in the periphery, then about 6 weeks later, the more acute tear, with black dots and swirls everywhere in that eye. It can be hard to distinguish the initial flashes from things like migraine aura. But the onset of black dots was very clear. Most of them reabsorbed eventually, but I'm left with a lot of bigger, fuzzy, blurry, clearish floaters.

In our area (Kent) there’s a few opticians that run nhs eye clinics. I managed to book into one of those without a gp referral - you can self refer. They did a thorough check up and I was fine.

However, if I couldn’t get an appointment there, or the symptoms got worse before the appointment, I would have gone to an and e.

Maybe worth getting a check-up if you haven’t been recently.

I had flashing lights in my left eye. They didn't even last that long but Googling made me ring an opticians straight away. Fortunately I rang one who had an NHS contract to carry out a full emergency examination and fitted me in right away. I was lucky I didn't have a detached retina but I was left with floaters for a long time afterwards.

Floaters on their own aren't a warning sign though, are they. So it's a combination of the above that are to be acted upon?

New floaters should always be checked out. With or without the other symptoms.

I am very short sighted -9.50 both eyes with astigmatism and lattice degeneration. It’s been really drummed into me to be wary of retinal detachment symptoms. I’ve now had both eyes have a PVD in them and it’s made me super anxious. I’ve been left with terrible floaters and swirls. The 3 different specialists I’ve seen (complex medical issues which also make it more likely) have said I’ve got the worst floaters they’ve seen. 😞

Floaters are normal, but a sudden onset of floaters should be looked at, as it could be something like a posterior vitreous detachment. So if you've had a few floaters for a while it's fine but if one day you suddenly notice you have a lot, book an eye exam. Flashing lights, curtain over vision etc is more urgent..you should see an optician or go to a & e immediately.

I woke up one morning with lots of floaters,never had them before. Panicked a bit so went to spec savers. They were amazing, did full eye health exam and reassured me there was no problem, BUT, not to ignore it as someone had been in earlier and they sent him straight to A&E with a DR.

Bumping this old thread to raise awareness.

I'm sat at Moorfields waiting for laser treatment. DH was very dismissive of my sudden spidersweb style floaters but a flash of white light made me contact the opticians for an emergency appointment. I'm glad I did. I should get full return to normal in a few weeks but could have had permanent damage if I'd left it.

Just to point out that you probably may not get all of these.
Any of them by themselves need checking out.

@LoveFoolMe hope it all goes well.

Thanks @theeyeofdoe

OP, thanks for the reminder.