Bright light spots

[buriedinfur]

In my left eye I've had a floater that stays in the center of my vision and doesn't move around for over a year, but it's not really all that troublesome - I can ignore it now. Over the last few days I've been having random very intensely bright small spots of light that come and go over a matter of seconds in the center of my vision too - right by my floater. Again, not troublesome...just weird and new.

I've had iritis in my right eye - that was troublesome for about a year - but eventually I could taper off the NSAID drops and it's been behaving reasonably well since. That was about 2 yrs ago.

I did go to the optometrist last summer about the floater. They checked it out and only found a slight bit of cateract formation around the edge of the lens - but no issues other than that.

I'm 34, female, no diabetes, do have fibromyalgia with some odd neurological things. My MRI is fine. I do get migraines frequently, but the lights haven't been involved with them (no migraine anywhere around the time I've seen one) and I've not experienced them before with a migraine. I am rather nearsighted. -7 in the left -7.5 in the right. Prescription has been stable for them for a while.

Any tips? Things I should watch for? I'd rather avoid going to see my poor doctor *again* for something that is 'nothing' you know? I'm not stressed about this, but want to be proactive about my vision.

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

This is not "nothing" and you should see an ophthalmologist for an evaluation to make sure you do not have a retinal tear or detachment.  I wonder if you have have had a PVD or posterior vitreous detachment with resultant flashes of light.  The fleeting flashes you describe can sometimes be seen with severe uveitis but are not typical of migraine type lights which are often zig zag lines lasting 15-30 minutes.  Again, see an ophthalmologist.

MJK MD

[buriedinfur]

Thank you so much for your help :).