Eye problems

[O_Junior]

I am 22 years old and have been having trouble with my vision lately.  I have went to an opthomologist for the floaters, flashes, moments of bluriness, etc.  I found out two years ago that I had a goiter.  Last year when I was pregnant they could not get it leveled out.  I also got really bad gall stones while I was pregnant.  Two weeks after I had my baby I had to have it removed.  Then three weeks later I went into what is called a thyroid storm.  They are not sure how I pulled out of it without going into a coma or something but it was a little scarry.  I lost my mind for about a month.  It took quite a while before they could get me into surgery because of my heart rate.  It was up in the 200's.  They took my thyroid out in January.  Ever since then I have seen the floaters etc.  They think that they are coming from migraines.  When i went to the opthomologist he said he could see nothing like floaters in my eyes.  Am i thinking that I am seeing these things?  Have I lost my mind?  Or is this serious?  Should I have more tests run on it?

[O_Junior]

I forgot to mention that my ophthamologist did mention that if it doesn't get better I should go see a neuro ophthamologist.  Is that necessary?  I am scarred that I am going to lose my vision.  If the migraines are not causing the floaters then what could it be?  Sometimes I will see what looks like a hazy cloudlike part over the top of my vision.  Here lately I have been seeing it all day long it will come and go about every 10 seconds or so.  I see the floaters and flashes every second some are big and cover over everything I see and others just take up a portion of it.  Then I have one that will blur out one eye it happens in both but at different times and it will last for about 1-2 minutes.  I know that the eye doctor said that there was nothing wrong with my eyes so could there be something wrong elsewhere?

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

Migraines do not cause floaters. Thyroid disease including thyroid storm does not close floaters. Some floaters are too small even for the ophthalmologist to see with their special intruments. Hyper- and hypo-  (over and under0 active thyroids can affect the eye from Graves Disease with buldging eyes, injected and red eyes, double vision, retracted eyelids and even loss of sight to low thyroid with loss of eyelashes to dry eyes.

If you examination by the ophthalmologist was recent then carefully monitoring is appropriate, if it was more than 6-12 months ago then a repeat examination is warranted.

JCH III MD  Eye Physician & Surgeon