I see a camera flash-type after-image all the time. WTF?
March 30, 2018 4:03 PM Subscribe
You know how after a camera flashes in your eyes, you see a sort of after-image of the flash for a while before it fades? I see something like that all the time, but my eye doctor doesn’t see anything and a brain MRI didn’t show anything. What gives?
I’ve had "ocular migraines" sporadically for a couple years now. They follow a very predictable pattern: I see something in my right eye that resembles a camera flash after-image and it gradually grows into a crescent shape and continues to gradually expand and grow to the right side of my vision until it leaves my field of view completely. It takes a half hour from start to finish and I don’t get any other symptoms — no headache, nothing. The first time I had one, I went to an eye doctor and she told me what it was and that it wasn’t a big deal. I’ve had like three since.
But several months ago, I got one in my left eye for the first time. Afterward, I noticed this camera flash after-image near the center of my field of vision. It’s a small, jagged sort of U or V shape. When I am reading on my computer, it’s about the size that it will block out a letter. It will sort of fade if I keep my eye open long intentionally and it's most prominent when I blink.
I went to an ophthalmologist twice, once right after I noticed it and once just last week. They looked at my eyes with bright lines and used some pressure measure that touched my eyeballs. They had me do a field vision test where I looked for lights in my peripheral vision and pressed a button. They had me look inside this thing with a blue light that took photos of my retinas. No evidence of problems.
I spoke to a neurologist who didn't have an explanation, but recommended I get an MRI to make sure there is nothing pressing on my eye or brain lesions that would affect my vision. I did a brain MRI and, other than some sinus thickening consistent with chronic sinus problems, they don’t see anything of note.
What particularly scared me was, one day, when I was lying in bed reading my laptop a while back, the little V/U I see turned into a black hole and it was surrounded by a gradient of colors, almost like a topography map. That’s what prompted me to get the MRI. But it hasn’t happened since that one time and it hasn’t changed its presentation otherwise either.
What could this be? Should I worry or just let it go? It’s there all the time. I can see and read just fine, but I always notice it and I always think, “I hope nothing is wrong with me.” I have been stressed lately because I'm working on a big project and it's affected me in other ways, like heart palpitations - could stress be doing weird things to me? Is this some sort of weird form of anxiety? I assume I am fine, but it's just weird. Any other explanations?
I’ve had "ocular migraines" sporadically for a couple years now. They follow a very predictable pattern: I see something in my right eye that resembles a camera flash after-image and it gradually grows into a crescent shape and continues to gradually expand and grow to the right side of my vision until it leaves my field of view completely. It takes a half hour from start to finish and I don’t get any other symptoms — no headache, nothing. The first time I had one, I went to an eye doctor and she told me what it was and that it wasn’t a big deal. I’ve had like three since.
But several months ago, I got one in my left eye for the first time. Afterward, I noticed this camera flash after-image near the center of my field of vision. It’s a small, jagged sort of U or V shape. When I am reading on my computer, it’s about the size that it will block out a letter. It will sort of fade if I keep my eye open long intentionally and it's most prominent when I blink.
I went to an ophthalmologist twice, once right after I noticed it and once just last week. They looked at my eyes with bright lines and used some pressure measure that touched my eyeballs. They had me do a field vision test where I looked for lights in my peripheral vision and pressed a button. They had me look inside this thing with a blue light that took photos of my retinas. No evidence of problems.
I spoke to a neurologist who didn't have an explanation, but recommended I get an MRI to make sure there is nothing pressing on my eye or brain lesions that would affect my vision. I did a brain MRI and, other than some sinus thickening consistent with chronic sinus problems, they don’t see anything of note.
What particularly scared me was, one day, when I was lying in bed reading my laptop a while back, the little V/U I see turned into a black hole and it was surrounded by a gradient of colors, almost like a topography map. That’s what prompted me to get the MRI. But it hasn’t happened since that one time and it hasn’t changed its presentation otherwise either.
What could this be? Should I worry or just let it go? It’s there all the time. I can see and read just fine, but I always notice it and I always think, “I hope nothing is wrong with me.” I have been stressed lately because I'm working on a big project and it's affected me in other ways, like heart palpitations - could stress be doing weird things to me? Is this some sort of weird form of anxiety? I assume I am fine, but it's just weird. Any other explanations?
Afterward, I noticed this camera flash after-image near the center of my field of vision. It’s a small, jagged sort of U or V shape.
This sounds kind of like a scintillating scotoma.
posted by zamboni at 4:27 PM on March 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
This sounds kind of like a scintillating scotoma.
posted by zamboni at 4:27 PM on March 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
Maybe Scintillating scotoma? I get Scintillating scotoma; for me getting enough sleep and exercise reduces the incidence a lot.
posted by gregr at 4:27 PM on March 30, 2018
posted by gregr at 4:27 PM on March 30, 2018
I noticed you specifically mentioned your left eye as the affected one. When I experience ocular migraine aura, I experience it equally and simultaneously in both eyes. I know from that experience that in my case the issue is not with a particular eye but instead a neurological one. I’m sure it’s possible for a neurological issue to only affect a single eye, but that bit of your description jumped out at me as unusual.
posted by skinzi at 4:49 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by skinzi at 4:49 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I see the ocular migraines in both eyes, but it seems to be coming from one eye. Kind of like how if you flashed a light in your right eye with your left eye closed, you would see the after-image in both eyes, opened or closed, but the source of it is your right eye. Basically, the crescent seems to evolve through a specific side of my vision, usually the right, but last time the left.
I'm confused by what "scintillating scotoma" is and how it differs from an ocular migraine because the wikipedia page calls it a visual migraine. To me that sounds like my ocular migraines, which last a half hour and have a distinctive crescent shape. So what would scintillating scotoma be? Some other visual disturbance associated with silent migraines? I should note I do see this thing in my left eye pretty much all the time.
The neurologist seemed fixated on migraines, but I don't really get migraine headaches that often. Maybe once or twice a month a get a headache that hurts all over with malaise, that I assume was a migraine and I believe may be triggered by hormones/menstruation. I don't get my period anymore because I skip my blank birth control pills. I haven't really done a good job tracking migraines to be sure of the correlation. The ocular migraines never involve a headache. I saw two different ophthalmologists who don't see anything wrong with my eyes.
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:11 PM on March 30, 2018
I'm confused by what "scintillating scotoma" is and how it differs from an ocular migraine because the wikipedia page calls it a visual migraine. To me that sounds like my ocular migraines, which last a half hour and have a distinctive crescent shape. So what would scintillating scotoma be? Some other visual disturbance associated with silent migraines? I should note I do see this thing in my left eye pretty much all the time.
The neurologist seemed fixated on migraines, but I don't really get migraine headaches that often. Maybe once or twice a month a get a headache that hurts all over with malaise, that I assume was a migraine and I believe may be triggered by hormones/menstruation. I don't get my period anymore because I skip my blank birth control pills. I haven't really done a good job tracking migraines to be sure of the correlation. The ocular migraines never involve a headache. I saw two different ophthalmologists who don't see anything wrong with my eyes.
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:11 PM on March 30, 2018
The tiny after-flash thing happened to me, and was the first sign of choroidal neovascularization (tiny blood vessels trying to grow through the retina). It is a serious condition, but there are treatments for it. You just don't want to let it go too long. Your ophthalmologist can do a test called a fluorescein angiography to see if there are any leaks in your retina. Are you very nearsighted? I am young for CNV, but super nearsighted--it's more common in that population.
posted by zoetrope at 5:26 PM on March 30, 2018
posted by zoetrope at 5:26 PM on March 30, 2018
Response by poster: I'm near-sighted, but my prescription isn't especially strong. They did take some photos of my retinal wall and it looked completely normal - they even showed them to me. They also said blood flow looked normal. I didn't do anything that involved dye, but I know they did an OCT (optical coherence tomography) because I asked what it was, so I suspect that should have detected signs on CNVM, I am guessing. But I will certainly keep an eye on it. (Pun not intended, but I like it.)
posted by AppleTurnover at 7:00 PM on March 30, 2018
posted by AppleTurnover at 7:00 PM on March 30, 2018
I've had this since I was a kid. I was told I brought it on myself by squeezing my eyes shut and pressing on my eyes with my fingers (yeah, I did that), or by looking straight at the sun too much (yeah, I did that, too). I grew out of such behaviors at a normal age, and I still at age 40 get the crescent after-image sometimes in different parts of my field of vision. It doesn't happen often, maybe 10 days out of the year. It's not severe enough to really interfere with my vision. It hasn't gotten any worse over the years, and doesn't seem to be associated with headaches for me. I get where you're coming from in being worried about the unknown, but maybe it reassures you that I've lived with it for 32 or so years without any problem.
posted by Former Congressional Representative Lenny Lemming at 7:38 PM on March 30, 2018
posted by Former Congressional Representative Lenny Lemming at 7:38 PM on March 30, 2018
Your eyes sound like my eyes. Central serous retinopathy, maybe?
posted by prize bull octorok at 8:52 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by prize bull octorok at 8:52 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Two things - you can get an ocular migraine without actual head pain. The other thing: in my experience (and in a lot of people’s experiences), hormonal birth control makes migraines WORSE. I wonder if you’d see a decrease in ocular migraine if you went off the pill (I can do the micro-pill without issue, FWIW.)
posted by Countess Sandwich at 11:31 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Countess Sandwich at 11:31 PM on March 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Sounds a bit like the CSR mentioned above. A dye test diagnosed it. Related to stress in my case.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:00 AM on March 31, 2018
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:00 AM on March 31, 2018
Response by poster: I don't believe it's central serous retinopathy. They did an OCT. They also dilated my eyes and examined my retinas. They specifically said there was no fluid and no signs of retinal detachment. Honestly, I think that's the first thing they were trying to rule out.
I'm just gonna keep an eye out for any symptoms that change or get worse. My bigger concern was having a brain tumor or something, which I don't. I also don't want to go blind but it doesn't seem like that's something I really need to worry about at this point either.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:31 AM on March 31, 2018
I'm just gonna keep an eye out for any symptoms that change or get worse. My bigger concern was having a brain tumor or something, which I don't. I also don't want to go blind but it doesn't seem like that's something I really need to worry about at this point either.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:31 AM on March 31, 2018
They do sound like the sorts of visual effects I get with my migraines. If you've been prescribed anything for your migraine headaches, maybe take it next time you get one of these and see if it goes away?
posted by hollyholly at 1:58 PM on March 31, 2018
posted by hollyholly at 1:58 PM on March 31, 2018
I have those bright anomalies in my vision and they are apparently caused by a Rathke cleft cyst. However that should have shown up on the MRI. How much information did they give you about the MRI? They might have told you "nothing there" if they were looking for a tumour, but you might still have a cyst. It's not too likely, but it is possible.
My understanding is that when the cyst gets more inflamed my symptoms are stronger and when it is less inflamed the symptoms abate somewhat. I also get migraines - it seems to be part of the whole thing with me.
posted by Jane the Brown at 8:03 PM on March 31, 2018
My understanding is that when the cyst gets more inflamed my symptoms are stronger and when it is less inflamed the symptoms abate somewhat. I also get migraines - it seems to be part of the whole thing with me.
posted by Jane the Brown at 8:03 PM on March 31, 2018
It sounds like you have a variation on Visual Snow. The good news is that there's no known link between this condition and brain tumors (which is a common initial fear). The bad news is that there's no known treatment either - while people have suffered from this disorder for years its existence was not commonly known until only very recently. To this day even many optometrists and ophthalmologists haven't heard of it.
posted by Ndwright at 8:46 AM on April 1, 2018
posted by Ndwright at 8:46 AM on April 1, 2018
I highly recomend that you go have an angiogram with a retinal specialist to rule out several conditions that have been mentioned here. You say that they didn’t see any fluid on examination, but it can be missed.
I had idiopathic subretinal neovascularization years ago. I could ‘see’ changes in my vision that even an angiogram could not reveal. It would go something like this- Doc, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a bleed. Doc does angiogram and says nope. 7-10days later I say Doc, for real, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a bleed. Doc does angiogram and says yep, you’ve got a bleed. Multiple bleeds, laser treatments and PDT treatments later, I am functionally blind in that eye- no depth perception at all with just one working eye. The whole episode lasted for about a year. It sucked. It also sucks to be visually impaired (and that shit is permanent).
I’m also lucky enough to get optical migraines with the scintillating scotoma. It’s funny because I ‘see’ it in my blind eye too (obviously as it’s a neurological event, but still kinda neat to ‘see’). What you’re describing doesn’t sound like the optical migraines that I get- I don’t have that after-flash effect.
You’ve got something going on and you’ve been to several specialties so it seems like you should just see it to the end and get a full workup by a retinal specialist. It’s worth taking this last step because OCT and visual exams don’t catch everything that can happen in an eye. You’ve only got the two, you see, no replacing them. You should NOT just wait to see if things get worse.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 9:35 AM on April 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
I had idiopathic subretinal neovascularization years ago. I could ‘see’ changes in my vision that even an angiogram could not reveal. It would go something like this- Doc, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a bleed. Doc does angiogram and says nope. 7-10days later I say Doc, for real, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a bleed. Doc does angiogram and says yep, you’ve got a bleed. Multiple bleeds, laser treatments and PDT treatments later, I am functionally blind in that eye- no depth perception at all with just one working eye. The whole episode lasted for about a year. It sucked. It also sucks to be visually impaired (and that shit is permanent).
I’m also lucky enough to get optical migraines with the scintillating scotoma. It’s funny because I ‘see’ it in my blind eye too (obviously as it’s a neurological event, but still kinda neat to ‘see’). What you’re describing doesn’t sound like the optical migraines that I get- I don’t have that after-flash effect.
You’ve got something going on and you’ve been to several specialties so it seems like you should just see it to the end and get a full workup by a retinal specialist. It’s worth taking this last step because OCT and visual exams don’t catch everything that can happen in an eye. You’ve only got the two, you see, no replacing them. You should NOT just wait to see if things get worse.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 9:35 AM on April 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
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posted by praemunire at 4:11 PM on March 30, 2018 [5 favorites]