retinal tear

[sophia_xx]

I have like a retinal tear or atrophic hole near my nose area , I don't have any symptoms really other than sparks amd one or two floaters  would tis need treatment?/

[kingofvarden]

Sophia, I speak as a retinal detachment patient. The only way to tell what's going on and what treatment is needed is for you to get a dilated exam, preferably by an ophthalmologist although where I am you have to go to an optometrist (what we'd colloquially call an optician) for exam and to get a referral to an ophthalmologist if needed.

Dr. Hagan may well be right in thinking this could be nothing to worry about. But if you really do think it's serious (and even if you don't - just for your own peace of mind), I'd advise you to get an exam now. Optometrists can often very easily make emergency appointments to see you if you mention these symptoms - they are standard "red flags" that they know to look for and they will make time to see you if you mention them. Mine will often see me the same day, and I have seen them multiple times since my surgery when anything new crops up. Whoever is examining you will tell you what treatment may be needed and/or make onward referrals to those more specialised in the field if necessary. The advice to get an exam is standard advice for the symptoms you describe (flashes and floaters), particularly if they appear or change suddenly.

Nobody can afford to play around with this eye stuff. Trying to self-diagnose or get diagnoses or treatment plans from people on online forums is taking up time which may be important if your problem really does turn out to be serious. A retinal tear can quickly lead to a retinal detachment which can be blinding and requires major surgery to fix. If you have a retinal tear you can get it lasered to try and prevent it progressing to a detachment, but time is of the essence, and you need to be getting all this looked at now. No matter how detailed you are in your descriptions of symptoms, nobody online can ever make a diagnosis or tell you what treatment is needed.

I'd suggest not discussing this here again at all unless / until you've had that appointment and either been given the all-clear or else been told in detail what is causing these symptoms and what, if anything, further needs to be done in the way of treatment.

Feel free to keep us all up to date on what they do eventually say at the appointment!

[MrPresley]

What kingofvarden said...my optometrist was able to get me in to see his recommended ophthalmologist who was a retinal specialist the same morning when I first experienced symptoms from retinal issues.  Your eyes are too important to take a wait and see approach, and a qualified ophthalmologist may very well be able to successfully treat your symptoms on your first visit to  his/her office.

[sophia_xx]

Hi I have had an appointment with an optometrist who said there's nothing wrong bit online I saw a trick where u put a flashlight near your eye with ur eyes closed and u can see ur retina, I did this and I saw lke a little tear ?? So I'm freaking out

[kingofvarden]

Haven't heard of this one - sounds potentially dangerous though - I know you're keeping your eyes closed but I can't see lots of eye specialists recommending doing this.

Spotting retinal tears takes years of training. To give you some idea, not even my A&E doctors (both fully qualified ophthalmologists but specialising in other fields) could spot my tear when I presented with detachment symptoms, although they clearly saw the detachment itself. It was only the actual vitreoretinal surgeon who operated on me (and who no doubt spends every day of her life looking for exactly this kind of thing and doing pretty much nothing else) who managed to find my tear during the checks immediately pre-op. It's unlikely too that there are going to be many people around who can explain what it is you're seeing with this method of self-examination.

My guess, with flashes and floaters, is that the optometrist will either have said come back in six weeks or so, or else will have discharged you with instructions to come back again if there are any changes or if things worsen. If so, I think they're probably doing all they reasonably can.

[JohnHaganMD]

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[MrPresley]

My optometrist was able to spot my retinal issue (macular pucker)  quickly since his office has an OCT in-house.  The ophthalmologist he immediately referred me to does nothing but retinas, as kingofvarden posted, and he found a retinal tear in my non-symptomatic eye that was previously undetected.  That was with a fully dilated exam by the way.  

[sophia_xx]

Well I can see it clearly idk I'm worried and I did have an appointment two months later but I didn't go and it was my annual regular appointment  for my glasses I missed it and my parents forgot about it ?

[JohnHaganMD]

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[kingofvarden]

Missing an appointment for glasses would not cause a retinal tear. Always good to keep your prescription up to date, though, so why not reschedule that appointment? Did he optometrists do that for you when they saw you about the flashes and floaters?

[sophia_xx]

They didn't I had an appointment when I tang saying I was having flashes like 2 months ago but then I haven't had one since then ? Also would retinal tears cause like sparks or little spots of light

[kingofvarden]

If you've had any change in symptoms or are still concerned about this going on for that long, make another appointment. or just phone them up and ask for advice. Sounds as if you have to be in there soon to get glasses done anyway, so what better time to have another eye exam?

Keep in mind that eyecare providers may not always be able to explain why you see what you see. Don't hold back in telling them about odd symptoms, of course (some of these may well give them useful information), but keep in mind that what they are there for is to check that everything seems from their point of view to be OK and healthy. If they tell you things do seem to be OK and healthy, you have to either trust that or else seek a second opinion by getting an exam from somebody else.

Seriously, nobody discussing this online is ever going to be able to say much more than that, I'm afraid.

[sophia_xx]

Okay thanks but still  I there was a small retinal tear how long until it caused detachment like when  do most retinal detachment happen due to retinal tear

[JohnHaganMD]

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[kingofvarden]

Can't really generalise, particularly as you're a teenager and retinal detachments aren't common at your age. What I can tell you is that it was pretty much exactly two weeks between my first appearance of floaters signifying my tear (which the optometrists couldn't detect) and the onset of detachment symptoms (shadowy bubble). As you no doubt know, if you ever get a shadow / veil / curtain of this kind in your vision (typically shows as a big patch or blob coming in from the side that you can't see through at all, usually seen as being dark against light and light against dark - I certainly never experienced it as being black or grey) - as I say, IF you ever get this, you need to be seen immediately by a retinal specialist and they will be operating on you very fast. Hope things never get to that stage for you! Best of luck.

[sophia_xx]

Thanks but as u said retinal detachments don't happen at my age, what if it was a tear at that age ? Also  what floaters did u have and did u have flashes ?  Also I've head that if you haven't had a detachment from a tear in two months them you don't need to treat the tear, would this be true? U said detachments are mot common at m age but what if I had a tear would it cause detachment and wen do i need to see an optometrist?

[kingofvarden]

I'd say see your optometrist either for your next appointment alongside glasses, or if you're really worried make another appointment before then. It's more likely to be just to try and stop the worrying, though, by the sound of it. You can ask all these kinds of questions and more then. I think we all worry about these kinds of things and from my posts you'll see I do a kind of up-market, intellectualised version of what you do. There's a lot of information out there and, contrary to the way things used to be, not all of it is untrustworthy or disreputable. The one thing as patients that neither of us have is the actual practical experience that doctors, optometrists and other eyecare providers have in assessing when things are likely to be OK and when there are likely to be problems. It's a very human thing in many ways, and of course because of this there's potential for bad things still to happen - but where would any of us be without this wealth of experience that they have? When they say things seem to be OK, chances are they are probably right!

[sophia_xx]

WH symptoms did u get with ur detachment