Shimmer in eye

[ascotphill]

Hello, I have noticed a shimmer in my right eye. It like a small wavy area just off centre of my vision. I have a lot of floaters and thought it might be something to do with that.  I have had a eye exam a few weeks ago and he dilated my pupils and said he could not find anything. I seem to notice it more when I am reading as it seem to be there most of the time.

Any idea what it could be.

Thank you

Phill

[ascotphill]

Thank you very much for your help.. I shall keep my eye on it .. Sorry abut the pun, I am sure you have heard it before..

Phill

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

Watchful waiting is not the same thing as neglect, it would probably be okay to continue to monitor your eyes with at least a weekly Amsler grid test and observe the shimmering to see if anything new develops. If anything does change a re-evaluation and further tests might be appropriate.

JCH III MD

[ascotphill]

Hello, and thank you for your quick response. I did in fact see my local optician. After dilating my pupils he carried out three separate exanimations on both my eyes. One with a hand held device, the second with a machine where I had to look up down left right etc while he looked at the retina, the third using a similar machine with a vertical beam of light, same up down etc. He took about 20 minutes for each eye. I have had a visual examination in my local eye hospital a few years before and I would say that this exam was just as thorough.

I did raise my concerns to him about the shimmer and that I thought it might be the start of AMD, he did dismiss this as I am 40 years old and he felt that it was highly unusual for someone of my age to have this problem at this stage in life. After the exam he said he could not find anything to suggest a problem.

I did as you suggested and do a search for an Amsler Grid, and I do see some distortion on the far side of some grids depending on the size and how close I have the grid to my eyes. I only seem to notice this problem when I close one eye and concentrate to find the shimmer. My normal everyday sight seems to be unaffected.

Sorry for the long explanation, but do you still think I need to get this looked at or just monitor it to see if the problem gets worse. I have had this shimmer for about 9 months and it does not seem to have got any worse in this time.

Thank you for you help again

Phill

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

You don't say who examined your eyes a few weeks ago. If you did not see an eye medical doctor (Eye MD = Ophthalmologist) and instead saw a non-physician, limited scope eye provider (optometrist) then you need to see and Eye MD.

If you saw an Eye MD and you had this symptom then and the exam was normal you might watch it a while longer. If it is comething that came up after the exam with the Eye MD then a follow up appointment would be appropriate.

Also use Google and search for "Amsler Grid" and print out the instructions and an Amsler grid and use it to monitor the spot. If you see distortion or missing areas in the grid see an ophthalmologist in the very near future.

JCH III MD  Eye PHysician

[John C Hagan]

You don't say who examined your eyes a few weeks ago. If you did not see an eye medical doctor (Eye MD = Ophthalmologist) and instead saw a non-physician, limited scope eye provider (optometrist) then you need to see and Eye MD.

If you saw an Eye MD and you had this symptom then and the exam was normal you might watch it a while longer. If it is comething that came up after the exam with the Eye MD then a follow up appointment would be appropriate.

Also use Google and search for "Amsler Grid" and print out the instructions and an Amsler grid and use it to monitor the spot. If you see distortion or missing areas in the grid see an ophthalmologist in the very near future.

JCH III MD  Eye PHysician