<p>A few months back I had little flashes of light in my peripheral vision on one side. Looked like lightning bugs when outside in the evening. Calling my eye clinic, they had me come in right away for an exam. They said probable vitreous detachment, a common event in folks my age, and to expect it in the other eye before long. Sure enough, the little flashes started there as well, but with more floaters. In my case, with ocular migraines, that was another possible cause. Things have since normalized in both eyes. Regardless, get in, have it checked out, as retinal issues are serious. </p>
<p>Well, had an appointment with the ophthamologist. He checked it out and confirmed that it IS a floater, sure enough. He also said just watchful waiting is fine but if it gets much worse, call him and he will refer me to see one of his colleagues in Washington DC while we are traveling. Hopefully it won’t be necessary, but he wants us to be cautious. We will be in town for a bit longer before we go off on a vaction, so I can call him if there is anything worrying.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, H says he’s had floaters since he was 18 and my folks swear they don’t have any floaters! Hmmm…</p>
<p>@great lakes mom, I’ve had ocular migraines twice, in both cases associated with sinusitis. The first one was severe and lasted for 5+ hours. Very freaky, also scary until I found out what it was. An MD friend lectured me severely about waiting several hours to get it checked out. “You could have been having a stroke! It’s people like you who die of these things!!” :)</p>
<p>It is not big deal at all. Both my H and I have had them in both eyes forever.<br>
But both of us went to the doc. to make sure that it is what it is and NOT more serious problem.<br>
Yes, exactly, I am also “Glad you are going for a doctor’s visit.”
If these are just those nothings, then you will get used to them and stopped being bothered by them. </p>
<p>My take on all of this is exactly as MommaJ says. It’s becoming a big deal for me because through I have no “serious” problem, the clutter in my eyes is affecting my eye sight adversely. I am one of those whose brain is not ignoring this and I feel like I am wearing a veil over my eyes at times. I am seeing several retinal specialists and have the info on laser surgery, and may have it done on one eye. </p>
<p>I had a light floater for years. In fact, I realized they were floaters when somebody posted on CC years ago. It hasn’t got worse but when I last see my eye doctor for dry eyes he said I have minor cataract like less than 1 from a scale of 0-10. But he said to wear big hat to cover my eyes when I’m out in the garden. I hate sunglasses.</p>
<p>The danger isn’t from the brightness of the light but from the UV. You need sunglasses that block out the UV to prevent damage to your eyes.</p>
<p>Yes I think that’s is the problem. But I still hate glasses.
Edit to add that I eat a lot of stuff mentioned in Rockerville’post. No vitamins yet. I hate vitamins.</p>
<p>I hate swallowing pills, but my concern about my eyes is so great that I do take 2 of the AREDS2 vitamins every day and they are large! I already have extreme nearsightedness and dry eyes, don’t need further vision issues. No way to tell if the vitamins are helping, but I guess they can’t hurt.</p>
<p>Consolation, yes, I was rather scared too, at the time of my first visual migraine. Thinking retinal detachment at that time as well and called the ophthalmologist, who looked around and told me about the visual migraines. Since then, I have maybe 3 per year. </p>
<p>For those who don’t know, it is odd. like looking at things from underwater, though symptoms can differ. The symptoms this summer, that were labed vitreous detachment, could also be visual migraine related, though were not similar to my usual symptoms. </p>
<p>So I want to know if there is any obvious pain involved when there is a detachment?</p>
<p>According to the ophthamologist I saw, there doesn’t have to be any pain, but there tend to be some flashes (like lightening) that may giave you a hint that there is a tear or detachment. That was one of the reasons he squeezed me in within 24 hours after I called about starting to see floaters. They just wanted to be sure it wasn’t something that needed prompt attention and repair.</p>