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Avatar universal

Retina Detachment/ tear

I've had floaters since I was little. I asked my doctor about them a couple of years ago and he said I was fine. They kind of come and go. Now I am seeing a lot of them, especially when I look into the sky. Most of them are small and very faint, but a few are bigger and darker. And I did hit my head very hard about a month ago. I didn't have a concussion or anything. I have an eye appointment, but its in about 2 weeks. I'm only 20and my family thinks I'm crazy for worrying about retinal detachment. Is 2 weeks too long to wait if I do have retinal detachment or a tear? I don't think I see any flashes.  I'm worrying a lot. Please help. Should I just wait the 2 weeks? I had a normal eye exam pretty recently, but it was before I was worried so I didn't ask about detachment. Can the eye doctor notice any detachment in a normal exam? He did the glaucoma test and looked into my eye with a flashlight with the lights off. Could he have seen problems then?
7 Responses
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233488 tn?1310693103
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Look carefully at the doctors card. If it had "MD" or "DO" after his name that's okay.  If it has "OD" it means he's an optometrist who is not a physician, not a MD, has not been to medical school and you should see someone with a MD or DO after their name. Find one at www.aao.org

JCH MD
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
Oh I don't know, I think his title is just OD
but I have his card and under speacialities it list things like trauma and disease treatment
and I know he does laser correction. I don't know if that means anything...
I did get my appoinment moved to this thursday, so it is sooner. Do you really think I need to get an appt with someone else? Or should I see what he says thurs?
Helpful - 1
233488 tn?1310693103
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
-
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
You have an appt with an MD eye doctor, right?
Helpful - 1
233488 tn?1310693103
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
the flashes of RD are very bright and very short. think like a bolt of lightening at midnight. How often they occur depends on how much traction the vitreous in the back of the eye is putting on the retina.  An infrequent flash is much less worrisome than very frequent flashes especially flashes that occur in daylight and without eye movement.

JCH MD
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Ok thanks. And one more thing, I always read things about flashes but I'm still a little confused. One thing I read said they were infrequent while another article said they are very frequent. Sometimes I think I might have seen a flash, but I could just be freaking myself out. I'm sort of a hypochondriac at times and I always worry about things too much. These flashes will be pretty obvious right? And how big are they?
Helpful - 0
233488 tn?1310693103
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Retinal detachment is very rare at your age and with a negative family history. perhaps as little chance as one in 8000.  With no flashes, no loss or peripheral vision, no history of severe trauma and no previous cataract surgery then NO 2 weeks isn't too long of a wait.

JCH MD
Helpful - 0

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