I'm the same person who posted on 6/21/11. As an update, two weeks and 4 days in (18 days), the problem has disappeared. Phew! I believe mid-last week it was very hard to detect. So I would say 10 days in, it was unnoticeable or completely gone. This is a huge relief, as in the past any previous health problem that I was concerned about would last indefinitely. Hopefully, it will never come back.
Halga, sounds like it is not a symptom of something more serious which is nice to know. My problem (fluid build up near the macula) was very hard to detect if they didn't use the gizmo that took a picture of the inside of my eye. Maybe you have the same thing. Take some comfort that if that it is the case, it might go away on its own. Hope everything works out for you. I know I had a lot of anxiety and stress dealing with the situation. All the best.
Thank you so much for your kind reply. I'm certainly not helping matters by stressing so much over it. I'm going to see another ophthalmologist this weekend just to get a second opinion, and then I'll relax (with luck!). I am starting to feel a little bit better about it since it isn't getting any worse. But again, I deeply appreciate your response and the time you took in helping me to put this into perspective. Take care and be well!
Hi - I have been experiencing this too for the past month in my left eye and am so glad to find this blog! It's almost as if someone is poking my eye - I see a circular light that mostly happens when I blink. I do get migraines with auras so I know it's different from the flashing zig zag lights. I had an opthamologist dilate my eyes and look for retinal tears and didn't see any nor did he see many floaters. He said for me to watch out for an increase of floaters - that might mean the tear is happening. I thought I had a tumor pressing on my eye but he didn't see anything. I'm thinking it's a stress thing too, I have two small children and work full-time and am in my 40's and am on the computer a lot and have dry eyes and wear contacts during the day. I can deal with it as long as I know I am not going to stroke out or lose my eyesight!
I'm the 6/21/11 poster again. As an update, I only thought it went away, but in actuality, it is still there but much smaller. I notice it so infrequently that I consider my vision back to normal. I'm scheduled to see an ophthalmologist in late August. Best of luck to everyone. I know how stressful it can be to go through something like this.
It's been nearly 2 month since I posted about my flash in my left eye. I actually forgot all about it till I got an email notification from this forum. But however out of sight out of mind, right? Whatever it was has rectified itself and I am now free of an annoying photo flash..
Hi,
I know its been so long, but did anyones eye symptoms clear up? I've had the same flashies
When I blink or watch tv or on the computer. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone respond and let me know. Very anxious. Went to the doctor and 2 opthomologists and nothing detected.
Please just let me know how you guys did. My sympts are a light in upper left section of my left eye which is light against dark but shaded against light, and sometime yellow. It never moves. I domt get headaches though.
Please help.
Eoin
Hi, a few months ago I began noticing, when I'd get up at night, that when I blinked I could see an arc/half moon flash at the bottom of both of my eyes. Kind of metallic looking, like a flash from a camera. When I looked straight ahead and blinked, I didn't see it. I can only see it in a dark room or if I cover my eyes. I went to 2 opthomologists in the last month and they found nothing wrong. I'm going to a retina specialist next week. This is very scary. I don't get headaches and I have 20/20 with a slight correction, but I don't wear glasses. Just have astigmatism. I do sit at a computer all day for work. I'm 37 years old. One of the drs said that when something pulls on the retina, it can cause flashing. Maybe the vitreous is pulling on the retina when I blink? Not sure what can cause this. My eyes do feel tired most of the time, slight aching in the eye muscles. Friend of mine had retinal detachment and had laser surgery. Very scary stuff. She saw a "black curtain" effect when the retina was detaching, no flashes though. Anyone who has had a dr put a name to this, please let us know what could be going on. Thanks!
I have experienced the same thing and have been trolling the web looking for info. In my case it seems to happen when I am tired, particularly after exercising in the morning. What I see is a very narrow arc, like the bottom 1/4 of a circle, in my right eye. It is an afterimage type effect, that is, if I am looking at a bright scene and close my eye I will see a bright flash of the arc; If I cover my eyes or look at a dark scene for a few seconds then look at something bright (like a white wall) I will see a "shadow" of the arc. Always in the same place, no headaches or eye pain, is not noticeable at all unless I blink.
It seems very likely to me that this is a mechanical issue due to a change in pressure somewhere on / within the eye. The arc looks very similar to the bright rings you get when you press against the side of your eyeball, which Isaac Newton so famously wrote about and most of us have seen when rubbing eyes etc. As to what would cause the change in pressure, I have no idea. I thought perhaps it was due to a drop in blood pressure from exercising, but I have checked it and it happens when blood pressure is normal.
My vision seems to be fine, I cannot notice any issues at all except this flash. I started looking it up because I had feared I tore something loose during exercise. One poster above mentioned the buildup of fluid, have any of the rest of you gotten a diagnosis from an opthalmologist??
It seems very likely to me that this is a mechanical issue due to a change in pressure somewhere on / within the eye. The arc looks very similar to the bright rings you get when you press against the side of your eyeball, which Isaac Newton so famously wrote about and most of us have seen when rubbing eyes etc. As to what would cause the change in pressure, I have no idea. I thought perhaps it was due to a drop in blood pressure from exercising, but I have checked it and it happens when blood pressure is normal.
My vision seems to be fine, I cannot notice any issues at all except this flash. I started looking it up because I had feared I tore something loose during exercise. One poster above mentioned the buildup of fluid, have any of the rest of you gotten a diagnosis from an opthalmologist??
I am so glad I found this website, I've done so many Google searches and I just can't find an explanation for this. I am also young (27), and completely healthy except for moderate myopia. I do have floaters, but never any past retinal issues. I'm not sure what color your flashes are, but at first I was seeing a white flash when I blinked against a white wall in my left eye only and it was just above my field of vision so it's hard to see it clearly but it's stationery and not a floater. Over the past 4 days it started to fade away to the point where now I can only see it if I'm in a dark room and suddenly turn on a light. When that happens, I can see it for literally 1 second and then it fades away and even by blinking I can't see it. The weird thing is, after the past 3 days when it started to fade, now it's a dark blue color. Anyone experiencing something similar? I was literally at an ophthalmologist 1 month ago just for an annual checkup and nothing was found.
Hey there, I have similar symptoms....did yours go away yet?
I started to see these bright spots in my right eye, on mid November, and I had what was a retinal vein occlussion. This can happen with several factors. If you have a sedentary life and your lipids (cholesterol and triglicerides) go up, your blood gets thick, thick enough that sometimes blood has difficulties passing through the small veins in the retina, and in those small spots where the blood goes from the arterie to the vein, the retina gets damaged, sometimes it's non ischemic, which is good because the retina in that spot does not die, but sometimes it can be ischemic and die.
A retinal vein oclussion can also happen if you lipids are high and you abuse cardio exercise, this because your heart rate increases, and your blood pressure increases, but you blood is thick and the blood that goes from the arteries to the veins does not pass, this makes the vein get clogged and fat, and in the worst case it just bursts and you lose a quite important part of your vision. These bright spots can also happen when you abuse the consumption of vitamin k foods, which helps the blood get easier to coagulate, the are arteries and veins so small in the eye, that the red cells pass one by one, and sometimes because of the hipeagregability(easyness of coagulating or forming clots) of the blood the platelets in the blood stick toghether forming a small clot and does not let the blood flow. Foods that are high in vitamin K are things like chocolate and carrots, you can google it. If you suddenly see more bright spots, try to keep yourself hydrated, try to reduce your lipids, do not abuse of cardio exersice until you get your lipids and blood pressure to normal levels, and do not abuse of vitamin K foods.
I speak from personal experience, being a healthy non smoking 25 year old this happened to me. It's horrible and depresing when you lose your sight or part of it like this.
Don't freak out and Take care.
This kind of thing happened to me on a Saturday. I started to chew a piece of gum and all of a sudden I noticed a black circle that lingered even after I stopped blinking in the corner of my right eye. It would appear if I looked to the right sometimes too. The next day, I only noticed it when I blinked and if I raised my eye (while blinking) upward or to the right. I went to my doctor on a Monday who seemed baffled by it. She looked at my eye with a light and didn't notice anything wrong. She did say it was abnormal and that I should go to my eye doctor within the next 48 hours. I got in on a Tuesday. He is an optometrist and dilated my pupil in my right eye, but didn't notice anything wrong with my retina or anything. They even took pictures of my eyes. He said it is probably something like when people "see stars" when they rub their eyes but they aren't really there. But he did say to call him if the problem persisted. I am not sure what to do about it. But it seems that it's been "fading" over the past few days. It only appears if I blink "hard" but it goes away if I blink normally or squeeze my eyes shut. I don't notice it in the dark. It is more clear when I am looking at light. It has an orangish line around it and a little orange dot in the middle, but it is no longer a full circle. It scared the c**p out of me though! I did notice that the inside corner of my right eye felt funny, like there was fluid that wanted to drain or it felt like it wanted to twitch, but never did. It is hard to describe how it felt though. So weird. I hope my eye is getting back to normal though. It's comforting to know this happens to people from time to time. Thanks for the posts everyone!
I'm the 6/21/11 poster again. I did see the Ophthalmologist in late August. I thought I posted about it, but it did not seem to have worked. The circle I was seeing was getting smaller and going away by itself at the time, so I thought seeing the specialist was not needed, but I thought better safe, than sorry. He said it was fluid build up near the macula, but that everything was fine and no follow up was needed. A bit of it might still remain, but I do not notice anything, and consider the problem to have gone away by itself. All the best to everyone. I know how worrying the problem can be.
i have it in my left eye and i am 17. i have also got floaters, 5-6 myopia, and i always get a sudden blurring in the left eye.
have you got any idea what's wrong with me: :(
have you got any idea what's wrong with me: :(
I've been searching posts for months and use these forums to assist in my communication with my doctors to illustrate that my symptoms are not unique, but an ongoing phenominom among many people in my age group. I am 34 yrs old and spend 8+ hours at the computer. In November I was diagnosed with TMJ and usual disturbances. It started as a white orb in the lower right eye lasting less than one second (flash). It initially only occurred when my eye was open, buy happens often now when I blink. I've been tracking the flashes and they appear to happen mostly when I am under stress or heavy thinking. As of recent, I started having tingling through both arms so I am now seeing a chiropractor and acupuncturist 2x/wk. That could all be rested to stress or TMJ. I have had two angiograms, field study and ERG all under the direction of a retina specialist and opthamologist. They have found some anomalies in my eye, but cannot append a diagnosis to my symptoms. They just ordered a brain MRI last week to rule out a visual disease. I will post any findings, but a word to the wise, don't stress just stay ontop of your symptoms by tracking when they occur so you can give your doctor the best account of your surroundings during the occurrences....stressing will only cause additional issues (likely unrelated to your eye) and you'll end up next to me at the chiro. :)...on a side note, my flashes were initially solo disturbances but I gradually got symptoms of what was a watery wave at the bottom of my vision that would last several minutes (resolved), my left eye started to flash about two months after the right (resolved) but I now have what feels like eye strain and occasional blurred vision; however I have 20:20 vision. Has anyone thought of allergies, my symptoms have been ongoing, intermittent form November-March thus far. Good luck all and Ill keep you posted.