Eye damage???

Hi. I am 23 years old and wear glasses but have not gotten new glasses in awhile.

Last night I noticed a problem with my vision and it is still happening today. If I'm sitting beside a wall and turn my left eye to the left and look way to the side, I see a spot and/or blind spot that is sort of light-colored when my eye is in a certain position (this happens whether I'm wearing glasses or not--and if I'm wearing glasses, it happens behind the field of vision of the glasses). And if I try to keep my eye in that position then the spot gets a little bigger. The same thing happens in my right eye also, if I turn it to the right, to the side. (Except the right side of my left eye also has a spot in it when my right eye does.) After I do this, I think I seem to have a little bit of a headache.

I noticed this last night, a couple hours after I got shampoo in my eyes. The shampoo says it may contain sodium hydroxide, which I read can cause eye damage. Could this be the cause?

Is this something that could repair itself? Could it get worse?

What does this sound like it could be?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

It's unlikely that the shampoo caused it. At your age the most common cause would be eye migraine. Eye migraines often do not have headaches. use the search feature on this page to search Eye Migraine and Ophthalmic migraine.

You should see an Eye MD ophthalmolgoist physician for a baseline eye exam and to investigate further.

JCH III MD