Morning everyone, hope you’re all enjoying the sun, however the heat can be a killer, can’t it, anyway I had my annual eye exam just recently, and like a lot of others on here I have problems with my eyes, not so much sight problems, but BL**DY awful pain, shooting pain, someone just stuck a pin in my eye, slight blurred vision, that kind of thing, anyway it was a new optician and he gave me a real good check, at the end he told me I had redness at the back of both of my eyes, and also floaters, now I knew about the floaters, not to concerned about them, then he said if the floaters got worse, and I also got flashing lights to go straight to the hospital, now I was so taken aback, and it was the end of the test, and others where waiting, I never got chance to question him, has anyone else been told this, and what does it mean, take care, all, Jean x
p.s when I googled this it referred to inflamtion
Hello, I posted a question about eyesight only last week, so my experience may throw some light on what the optician meant. I’ve had a few floaters for a while, not a problem and optician wasn’t concerned. However on Wednesday last week I had big black floaters in my right eye and using my right eye was like looking through a dirty window or a black veil, and some flashing lights. At first I thought ms, because I had previously suffered double vision.
Anyway I went to the optician on Friday (first available appointment) who was very thorough and she suspected detached retina (if you google this you will see why the optician said go straight to hospital), she sent me first to my local hospital where the consultant told me the retina was torn, and that there had been some bleeding as a result, and she referred me to another on call consultant for laser treatment which I had on Saturday (my birthday as luck would have it!). I still can’t see properly but they tell me it can take a couple of weeks and further lasering may be necessary, the idea being to prevent retinal detachment apparently.
So, forearmed is forewarned, but try not to worry too much about what might happen, after all it might not, and it is not due to the ms, just to getting older! Yvonne x
Floaters are a risk factor for retinal detachment, as Yvonne’s already said. Retiinal detachment has to be treated as an emergency because the cells in the retina start dying very soon after they aren’t attached. There are excellent treatments for it these days though, so as long as they are done pronto, people’s vision often returns to the same acuity as before. When a retina detaches, it can cause lights, a curtain like effect blocking part of your vision, a shadow,… So any changes and you should get off to the optician (or preferably an ophthalmology clinic).
Not sure what the redness refers to though - could be a number of things. Maybe a referral to an ophthalmologist would be sensible anyway? It might need treated?
Karen x
thanks for you’re replies, it’s just good to know so I know what to do, it’s still a bit un nerving though, Jean x