Blind spot

Eye care
1

For the past month, I’ve had a weird blind spot in my right eye. It’s not big, and about twice as tall as wide. It flashes, the way lights flash if you look at them and close your eyes, but it never goes away. I guess you could described it as a sort of haze; when I close my left eye and point my right eye just right, I can block things that I should be able to see, no matter how bright (I haven’t tried with the sun or lasers, because I’m not an idiot, but I’ve tried with lamps, bright lights, etc). It flashes when I close my eyes, and if I squeeze them shut, it’ll flash again. It’s most visible when I’m trying to use the computer, or when it’s especially bright outside.

I’m 26 and I have type 2 diabetes. Up until the past year, I’ve always had perfect blood sugar levels (A1C usually about 5.1). My blood sugar slipped for a while over the past year, but I finally got to see my doctor, and he prescribed a new medication to help with it. Since then, it’s been pretty consistently around 130, give or take.

I saw my retinologist a few days after it first appeared (about a month ago now), and I told him about it. He dilated my eyes and did the usual exam. He said there was a single, minor hemorrhage in my left eye (the one *without* the spot), but that my right eye was fine. He swore up and down there was no retinopathy, and I trust him; I’ve known him a while, and he’s competent.

I can’t get in to see any other eye-type doctor at all for at least a month, and that’s if I’m lucky. Even then, it’s just my optician, not an opthalmologist or something. Given that it’s not retinopathy, I have no idea what it is, or what can be done about it.

When I close my eyes, another three tiny spots flash in a triangle around the original, close but not connected. These are much less noticeable, and I can’t make stuff disappear behind them (in fact, I usually can’t see them at all; it’s only for a brief moment when I close my eyes.

What could this be? What can I do to fix it?

2

Are you in the UK?

I ask because there are eye casualty units attached to the bigger hospitals here you can go as a walk in patient.

Manchester Royal Eye hospital, Moorfields eye hospital,, St Thomas#s in London.

The signs and symptoms you present with should be investigated as soon as possible.

3

No, I’m in the US.

I can go to emergency room, but it needs to be an actual emergency, otherwise I’ll spend six hours waiting to get “go see your eye doctor in a month” scribbled on a four-figure bill.

At a certain point, I start to wonder if a plane ride to jolly old England might cost less …

4

Please come over here then !!!!!!

​Flashing lghts is an emergency.Can u googl Moorfield eye hospital London. Thyhve lots of info on eye conditions. Can u sk a helplinein the US to advise you re the flashing lights etc.

Has your eye pressure been  tested by anyone.

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5

I’m afraid I was joking. I can’t afford plane tickets, either.

An emergency, even though I’ve had it a month with no change? If you’re, like, a doctor, I’ll take your word for it and try to pull some strings, but using up emergency services without having an actual emergency wastes a lot of time and money, for both me and the hospital.

I want to reiterate that there is absolutely no way that this could even remotely relate to my retina; Scott’s too good at what he does to just miss something, especially given that I told him about the spot.

“Flashing” may have been the wrong word. It doesn’t flash in the sense that a strobe light flashes; in fact, most of the time, it looks like a dull phosphene or photogene. It’s like an afterimage, the kind you get from looking at a bright light, but it doesn’t go away, and there’s no light.

When I said it flashes, I meant that when I close my eyes, it is briefly more noticeable. Then it fades, either because I open my eyes, or becuase I leave them closed.

As for my eye pressure—no, no-one’s tested it. I wasn’t aware that was a thing. Do you think a general practitioner could do that? It’s easier for me to get in to see my GP than to see a specialist.

6

I know you werejoking.

​I am not a dr I just trained as a nurse.

Have you googled glaucoma. Drs usually check th eye pressure, visual fields, visual acuity ,the retina.

7

I don’t think it’s glaucoma. This is a single distortion at the center of my vision; there’s no loss of range. My peripheral vision is fine.

8

I do not know if drs in the US have the necessary equipment check the pressure of one's eyes I am afraid.

Eye specialists always check the pressure as part of their routine eye examination as do optometrists .