E is for Eye

Our flight to Maui last month included a layover in Seattle. Soon after landing, I started seeing shooting lights in one of my eyes. I (very occasionally) get ocular migraines, which start with weird vision squiggles and blurriness, and sometimes progress to severe nausea. They are related to my sinuses, I am sure. I had some trusty sinus meds in my pocket, and just in case, I went into the news stand store and bought some Excedrin, as that is what always works for me when I have a migraine. I took it and worried and hoped for the best, and we boarded our flight to Maui.

After awhile the flashing lights went away, and I was left with a new floater, that looked like a circle and annoyed the crap out of me. I assumed it was related to the thwarted migraine, worried a little bit but was tired, it was almost 1am California time, so when we got to our condo, I took a shower and went to bed.

The next day the floater was still there, so I did some googling and discovered that maybe it was something serious, could be thyroid related, who knows, and maybe I should see a doctor. I didn’t want to deal with that, so I pushed down my worry and just enjoyed my vacation. Of course, there was always a tiny bit of worry there, why wasn’t this going away? At the same time, I had been feeling kind of light headed on and off for a few days. Not all of the time, not even often, but just sometimes when out for a walk. So that worried me too. What if there was something seriously wrong and I was being stupid by not going to the doctor? What if flying home would somehow make it worse? Nevertheless, I persisted in my denial and stupidity, and did not go to a doctor.

Happily, the light headed feeling went away a day or two in, and I stopped worrying so much. We enjoyed our much needed vacation, and came home. Upon our return, I made an appointment for my annual exam with our optometrist, and then started googling some more and freaked myself out, and made an appointment with an ophthalmologist. I went in and had my pupils dilated, and he took a very thorough look see around my eyes, and said there was nothing to worry about, I had something that everyone goes through at some point (though not everyone is aware of it, and the flashes and floater are not seen by most people), Vitreous Detachment. What a disturbing thing to have happen, but thankfully no permanent damage, nothing to worry about. Whew! (I had forgotten about the light headedness and did not tell him about that. I have no idea whether it was related or not.)

So I told a couple of people about this, my sister and my cousin. My sister told me she has been worried about Vitreous Detachment for decades, since an eye doctor told her that if she experienced the flashing lights and new floater, to get to a doctor right away, it can be a sign that the vitreous is not detaching correctly, and can mean a tear and possible blindness. My cousin told me when this happened to her, she went to the doctor right away, and they performed surgery to repair her retina THAT DAY. Like, “Oh, this is serious, you’re going into surgery now.” Terrifying. And yet, for the majority of people, they either see nothing, or if they do, it is like mine and nothing to worry about. If I had known then what I know now, I’m afraid I would have rushed to see a doctor in Seattle and postponed our vacation a day or two. That would have been the smart thing to do. Thankfully there are no consequences to my ignorance!

In the mean time, I have to wait for this floater to ‘go away’. The ophthalmologist said it never goes away, your brain just adjusts. The optometrist said it never goes away, but after awhile it will sink to the bottom of your eye and therefore be less visible. Either way, it’s annoying and I look forward to it being gone. And I’m thankful (VERY) that it was not a lot worse.