Black spots

[obassoo]

This morning I had a disturbing feeling as if something got into my left eye, and it kept annoying me the whole day. My left eye vision gradually got blurry, and now I see black spots when I look at small or far-away light sources. What might be the cause of this? and how serious is it?    

[debilynn17]

I believe the black spots you see are called "floaters".  They are very common with age.
I heard that sometimes the get out of your vision line and eventually move to the bottom of your eye (by gravity).  It may take time, but sometimes they go away.  See topics on "floaters".

[obassoo]

I've done some "experimenting" with my vision, and I realized that what I wrote was a bit misleading. Those spots are not exactly black. I'll explain.

If I look closely at one of those small light bulbs you find on electronic gadgets, I see it normally, only a little blurred. As I move away, the light disperses into a circle surrounding the bulb, which, if seen in the dark, appears as a black spot. In a lit room, I can only tell that I can still see parts of the bulb's surroundings in the middle of the circle. I also noticed that the effect gets stronger with higher frequencies (i.e. more bluish lights)

One more thing. I found a "dot" in my eye when a looked in the mirror, just about the center. I'm not sure if it is really ON my eye, or this is an illusion. However, the reflection of a florescent light off my eye gets distorted as it passes near the dot.

Thanks for the response.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Because this is a sudden new change in your vision you need your eye examined by an Eye MD to reassure you its nothing serious. in the USA find an Eye MD at www.aao.org elsewhere ask your family MD to refer you.

JCH MD