Flashing light right eye only

About two months ago, I experienced something very strange. I was sitting outside on my balcony in the dark talking with a friend and looking up at the night sky when a ring of light appeared in my field of vision. It was about the size of the pupil of your eye. Immediately following, I had a flashing light in the corner of the same eye. The flashing light would float slightly but always remain in the peripheral vision of my right eye. It intensified in the dark but could be seen in the light as well. It is a small, oval shaped light that is partially hollow in the middle with some other dots of light in the center.I can see it when I close my eyes too.

This happened about 5 days prior to my wedding. I woke up the next morning and noticed the same thing. I went to the eye doc and got my eyes dilated. The doc said that she saw nothing in my eye (no optic nerve damage or retinal tears). I am slightly near sited and wear glasses for certain things. The doctor said she thought it was an ocular migraine caused by the stress of my upcoming wedding. She said that it might not go away until after the stress was gone.

While on my honeymoon for 2 weeks I experienced no eye flashes. When I got back home, it started doing it again. This time, I would wake up with the flashing light, it would go away but during the day at random times when I moved my eye to the right I could see quick flashes of light. Sometimes when I look up it does the same thing. It's been almost 2 mos. now and I am still experiencing this. It's less intense but goes away and then comes back. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Forum-OD-MP]

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[Ag-i-doc]

pressure phosphene.  many threads here about this.  the short version is that a flash that ONLY occurs when you look in a certain direction is usually caused by the presure that your extraocular musculature exerts on the outside of your eye.  totally harmless.  assuming, of course that retinal problems have been ruled out, as you say they have...

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/EyeCare/messages/1052.html

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/EyeCare/messages/897.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene

[Ravyn007]

This is interesting but it isn't exactly what I am experiencing since it isn't only present when I look to the left or the right. Sometimes, I will wake up with the flashing light in the corner of my vision or it will come and go during the day. It is more visible when I look down and to the right but it stays for maybe a few minutes to an hour and then goes away. When the flashing light goes away, I will occasionally experience three quick flashes of light when I look down to the right and rarely when I look up to the left. It only happens in one eye. Interestingly enough, when I was in Italy on my honeymoon the dang thing went away. When I returned home, it came back. It's not as prominent as it was when it first started but it comes and goes with some days being worse than others.

I'm on the computer all the time (my job requires me to look at a computer screen for 8+ hours a day) and I often come home from work and go back on the computer for research, game playing etc...

If it is, as you say, pressure phosphene, when does it go away? Is it something I will have to live with for the rest of my life or does it usually go away in a few months, a year...???

[Ag-i-doc]

go back to the eye doc.

[Random_Spatula]

I had this experiance many years ago. It is apparently something called "Migraine Aura". People who get migraines will experiance this prior to suffering a migraine headache. In some cases, people only experiance the aura, and not the headache. Turned out both my uncle and father experianced these, which is how I found out what was going on. It was a relief to find out it wasn't something more serious. Google "migraine aura" and you'll find a lot of info about this and can determine if it's what you're experiancing.

[deedee13]

A related discussion, Flashes on the left side of my left eye was started.

[lois143]

A related discussion, flashing light in eye was started.