Strange spots in vision

[weirdspotsinvision]

Hi, I am a 31 year old female curious about some of the vision symptoms I have. I have myopia/nearsightedness which has been mostly stable for years, I have always had fairly bad visual snow and noticeable afterimages, but I did not think anything may be wrong with my vision until a year and a half ago when I was sent to a glaucoma specialist because my retina/optic nerve area appears to be inflamed/have a “egg yolk” appearance during regular exam. My eye pressure has always been normal but after my appointment I noticed sometimes in the morning I have some parts of my vision with distinct borders that appear like spots of heavy visual snow, almost to the point of appearing more like a migraine aura (which I have experienced once before). After meeting with glaucoma specialist several times and having my progress monitored they determined probably my egg yolk optic nerve is genetically that way (which it may be, as my grandmother also has this without vision loss), and I had no vision deterioration that is noticeable to me (bearing in mind that I still experience visual snow and afterimages).

But now it’s been years since the first time I ever noticed the intensive spots in my vision, which do not seem to have gotten markedly worse, but perhaps a bit worse in time. They are not very noticeable during daily life but perhaps if I stared at a white wall I could see them. The time when they are most distinct is sometimes right after waking up if my room is light. For the first few seconds I am awake they are very distinct, with distinct borders and do not go away if I close my eyes (so I cannot tell if it’s coming from my eyes at all, really). The spots in and of themselves are areas of intensely moving black and white patterns, not the same patterns which I saw during migraine aura but more like intensely moving fractals. They always appear in the same splotch/blob-like pattern in my vision, with some around the center and then trailing down vertically toward the bottom of my visual field (none on the sides like in migraine aura), and I am not able to see anything in or through them, even though they themselves have distinctive patterns.

So my question is, since I’ve been told my eyes are stable, what the heck are these spots? Even though they are not bothersome while I’m awake per se they certainly were not there a few years ago. Can I expect this to worsen? And is this a symptom of any disorders besides glaucoma seeing as I was cleared of glaucoma suspicion?

Thanks

[JohnHaganMD]

Continue to see an ophthalmologist yearly, the  'egg yolk' is called "optic nerve cupping"    since you have been fully evaluated it is 'normal' for you.  But ongoing care is needed annually as the tests do not mean you will not get glaucoma in the future, but the larger cupping does not put you at higher risk. I have been answering questions on this forum for over 15 years. Your type of complaints and observations are extremely common. There are extended discussion that have gone on for years. You can use the search feature to read them.  Given how long you have had them and that nothing ominous has happened it is unlikely that it will cause anything serious.  I have been to serval lectures on visual snow, not much is known about it, very few centers study/test the problem and there is no reliable treatment.  If you wanted to push the limits, which gets expensive you can see a neuroophthalmologist,   but you are looking at MRI/MRA, EEG, etc.   None of your symptoms suggest glaucoma which is usually asymptomatic.