Flashes from detaching retina

[eyesightlessthanperfect]

For those who have had a detached retina, how obvious are the flashes? I went to my optician last week due to suddenly noticing my floaters so much more (I’ve had a lot for a long time as very short sighted) and she couldn’t see any obvious problems but told me to watch out for flashes in my vision or curtains across. My question is, how obvious are the flashes? A couple of times I’ve thought to myself ‘was that a flash’ but I’m unable to replicate it by moving my eyes the same way. Is it possible these are retinal tear flashes? Or would it be way more obvious than this?

i had those symptoms a couple of years ago. Did have flashes at the outside corner of the left eye only plus scary floaters.

I occasionally get the flash now and the floaters have mostly settled. Have been told that I've been getting stress related ocular migraines plus floaters.

I'm also going through PVD and flashes. I developed my first "greasy splodge" floater in April and at the time I noticed some flashes mainly in the dark. A few weeks ago I saw flashes even in the light and unfortunately developed another grease like floater in the other eye. For me the flashes are like gold coloured fireworks at the edge of my vision and come and go very quickly. As far as I understand the flashes are when the vitrous detaches or is pulling away, but I think it can also be a sign of retinal detachment.
I'm also hyper focussed on the floater. I was just coming to terms with the first one and now I have another. It is just so upsetting thinking this is likely to blighting your vision forever. I got so depressed. I became so focussed on my eyes they felt like lead. I think I had some dry eye as well so after dealing with that I'm feeling a bit better. I'm not through it yet but I'm sure it will get better.
Fortunately I can still see ok. My floaters flick into vision as I move my eyes around. I just tell myself that I could have something a lot worse and at least I can see. It's hard though. I think people don't appreciate how irritating they are.

I have flashes of light in my peripheral vision and they are like sunlight catching on something and I also noticed an increase in floaters at the same time. I only notice the flashes in low light levels but they are obvious. When I first saw them I googled it and saw it was a sign of a detached retina and needed to be assessed so I phoned my local specsaver and they had me in on the same day for a dilated eye exam where they put drops in your eyes so they can clearly see the retina. They couldn’t see any tear or detachment of the retina so I was diagnosed with PVD. I sympathise about the anxiety, the PVD has an increased risk of a retinal tear and I find myself questioning if the vision in that eye is getting worse. I’m sure your optician would be happy to see you again if you’re concerned they seem to take these sort of symptoms seriously.

Been back to optician this morning and the optimal scan showed something more and she’s concerned it is the start of a retinal detachment. So I’ve got an appointment at the rapid access eye clinic at 2pm. Absolutely terrified.

When I had flashes the optician wouldn't look at it, was told to go to A&E/eye hospital walk in asap. The odd occasion I have had them, everything has been fine

Cross posted, hope you will be okay @eyesightlessthanperfect

My cousin's wife had a similar referral and things healed up fine.

Sending best wishes.

Have been seen at the eye clinic and they’ve confirmed no holes or detachments. I’m high risk for detachment due to thinned areas, but 2 people looked and I had more scans and they’ve said nothing to be concerned about right now

Thank you for taking the time to update us.

No probs. It’s nice to have the outcome on these threads for someone who is searching it in the future!
My left eye is still sore on waking this morning, maybe my blepharitis is flaring up and making this worse. Was hard to tell last night re the floaters/flashes as my eyes were dilated and everything looked off, we’ll see how today goes!

Do keep monitoring it. Even after I'd had an obvious haemhorrage, and been seen at the eye emergency, the doctor there still said no problems, just PVD, and was going to send me home, but for my insistence that there was more wrong than that, causing all the black blobs. He finally (grudgingly) agreed to get a different lens and have another look, and then found the tear - it was in a difficult place to see (kind of on the bit of the retina that curves around by the nose, almost facing backwards). But it was there, and needed immediate treatment. I'd already waited several days because of things going wrong in trying to get an appointment (you can't just self refer to the eye emergency here), and it was frustrating trying to get them to believe me. The opticians had been great, but the hospital less so. They were good at the actual treatment, though, but it took persistence to make sure they kept looking when I felt something was wrong. So trust yourself, if it feels like things are getting worse, or any new symptoms, and make sure they keep checking.

@TakeMeToAnIglooThat’s very scary. I had the initial ophthalmologist looking and then also the person above who would have performed the surgery as he happened to walk past at that moment. Then they did the scans again and I was able to show them to part that my optician was worried about. I’m hoping that’s through enough. They didn’t ever use the other lens, she was about to when he walked by. I think my eye is quite dry too which isn’t helping as it’s making me light sensitive in that side

Hi sorry to resurrect an old thread!

I’ve recently had 3 detachments in quick succession for apparently no reason, resulting in 3 operations and I just wanted to let you know OP about the things to look out for as my symptoms weren’t the black curtain that most sources say will happen.

My first detachment was a jelly like thing on one half of my vision which got bigger over a day, but it wasn’t black, I could see light through it but not detail. In the days before that appeared, I had black spots in my vision like a fly I kept trying to swat away. There was no pain but it was frightening how quickly the opaque part moved across the eye as the retina progressed it’s detachment

the second was in my other eye, a few days after the first surgery. Again, it was a corner of my vision with just a frosting or jelly like effect and again the black floaters. I also had showers of black floaters. This was operated on with the same operation as the first (vitreous jelly removed, cryo to detachment and eye filled with gas)

The third was a similar pattern resulting in the same operation again to the first eye.

I would say any increase in solid black floaters or a patch of vision that is just not normal (my spot came and went through the day but I knew it wasn’t right) just go straight to an eye A and E.

On all 3 occasions I was operated on the same day I went to the hospital for assessment, it is sight preserving to reattach within hours of detachment so it’s really a race against time.

I hope yours proved not to be a detachment but just wanted to come on to say don’t delay assessment if it’s not the black curtain, as it does vary between people