Sudden appearance of very high amounts of vision floaters - worried
 

Hey fellow forum members! How's it going?

Just a little update: I've made a tremendous progress recently, and my PCS is not nearly as bad as it was 3-4 months ago. I'm not completely healed, but I noticed a great improvement! I'm still anxious about getting hit on the head, but I started CBT and I hope it'll help. I always hope everyone here is making a progress towards healing!

Anyway, today I woke up and when I got out of the house I noticed a huge amount of floaters in my vision. It is scary, I've never had so many floaters. After getting my concussion, I would have a floater or two every couple of hours, but today I have so many floaters that it's terrifying.

Anywhere bright I'm looking at I see floaters. This doesn't stop and I see floaters nonstop when I go outside now. I literally see like 2-3 floaters EVERY SECOND, and I'm very worried.

I've read a few years ago that the back of the brain is where vision is controlled, and I really did notice a strong pain at the back of my head when I woke up today. Can I have somehow gotten a blow to the back of the head that triggered that?

Yesterday I was watching TV in bed and I was moving my head a lot on the pillow. I was pretty rough with my head and just pushed it into the pillow and moved it around to get comfortable. It did feel like something in the back of my head is shaking or something (not sure how to explain it), but I just ignored it and kept watching TV. I did not think for one second that it's dangerous.

And today suddenly, when I go out, I notice a crazy amount of floaters. This is absolutely terrifying - I've NEVER had seen so many floaters before. I cannot walk outside of my house right now without seeing floaters on the walls, on people stand nearby or pretty much on anything I look at. It's not as worse indoors because the brightness is lower.

Could it be a setback? Could the roughness with my head on the pillow caused a sub-concussive impact or something?

I'm asking this because I'm worried I did something serious that will compromise my ability to continue healing from PCS and/or worsen my situation. I wasn't worried about the fact that I moved my head on the pillow until I got these floaters.

When I've seen the floaters today I've just made a link between all the things - I see floaters, the vision center is at the back of the head, my back of the head really feels a bit weird, and yesterday I've seen TV and aggressively moved my head on the pillow.

So, could it be related? Did I do any damage? If not, why did these floaters suddenly appear today? I'm really worried :(

Thanks,
-ProAgonist

The floaters come from the retina in your eye.... They may have black dots in them, and those are more serious than the transparent ones.(the black dots are blood spots). They do not reside in your brain.

The general rule is when too many floaters come all at once, it MAY be a signal that you are in for a detachment of the retina.

However, nearsighted people tend to have more of them than normal sighted people because the eyeball is oval in that area and not round. This tends to put pressure on the cells and they may slough off more frequently.

Anyone with a huge flood of floaters should see an eye doctor ASAP. (especially if severely nearsighted.)

If your tears are not forming correctly you may notice thickening of the tears, which seem to "float" over the eyeball as well. Using artificial tears may help this. People in hot dry climates may have dry eyes occasionally. Make sure you keep hydrated, drinking enough water daily for your needs. Dry eye is more common in older people, and less so in young people.
It can be a sign of conjunctivitis, pink eye, or other inflammations of the surface of the eye. So seeing an eye doctor would be a good idea for this too.

mrsD,

Thank you for your reply.

My vision itself is fine - I can read from the same distance I always used to. The only problem is the floaters, and it started today.

Maybe it has something to do with the Ritalin I take? The focus Ritalin gives me is usually accompanied by the eyes being wide open for long periods of time (I'm very focused so my eyes are wide open as a part of the focus). I noticed that this wide opening of the eyes sometimes feels like pressure accumulating in my eyes - can this cause glaucoma or floaters?

If not, can floaters just happen spontaneously because of an infection? I thought floaters can also be caused by a change in the function of the vision center in the brain, not just the retina itself. Thanks for letting me know it is not a problem with the brain.

Should I go to a doctor now ASAP if I don't have vision problems other than this (my eyesight is as good as it has always been, I can still read from long distance and am not near eyesighted)? Or just go in a few days if it persists?

Thanks,
-ProAgonist

I cannot tell you what to do on the internet.

Ritalin will increase your blood pressure...this in turn can be reflected in the eye, which the doctor can see as changes in artery and vein size. High blood pressure starves the retina, reducing blood flow there. Over time, the retina changes, and it might cause a higher cell turn over, as cells die from this lowered blood flow.

So yes, it could be a factor, a warning sign that you are not really tolerating the drug well physiologically. An eye doctor can see this effect. So I favor your seeing a doctor, and do so when you have the drug in your system...so any reduced blood flow will be visible then.

Damage to your retina is a serious thing.

I have huge amounts of floater in the morning when my eyes are dry and have thicker tears. Once I have rehydrated (drank my morning glass of water), these floaters resolve. If I start to focus on these floaters, my brain easily gets stuck focusing on them until I find something to distract my brain away from the floaters.

I can tell they are in my tears because once I am hydrated, when I blink, they will move. I have them as dots and squiggly lines. The squiggly lines must be pieces of lint.

It's amazing how much dirty can get into the tears.

The thickened tears are not floaters.

Floaters are shed skin cells inside the eye, mostly from the retina.

These float around for days. They eventually go away.

Dry eye will cause thick tears on the surface of the eye, and that is another thing entirely. Real floaters are a serious symptom that must be seen by a doctor if they come all at once and don't go away as the day progresses.

You can buy artificial tears and an lubricating ointment which helps during the night, so the cornea does not dry out.

Some people like Systane drops. There are also individual applicator types (keeps risk to contamination very low) like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Tears-Naturale...tificial+tears
Most eye doctors I know recommend the preservative free types of tear. (my son has congenital eye problems with his left eye and used tears for quite a while at one time.)

[However, a sudden increase in floaters, possibly accompanied by light flashes or peripheral (side) vision loss, could indicate a retinal detachment. A retinal detachment occurs when any part of the retina, the eye’s light-sensitive tissue, is lifted or pulled from its normal position at the back wall of the eye.

A retinal detachment is a serious condition and should always be considered an emergency. If left untreated, it can lead to permanent visual impairment within two or three days or even blindness in the eye.

Those who experience a sudden increase in floaters, flashes of light in peripheral vision, or a loss of peripheral vision should have an eye care professional examine their eyes as soon as possible.]
https://www.nei.nih.gov/health/floaters/floaters

That sounds bad... Should I see a doctor tomorrow then?

Also, I looked for the possible causes for this and there's nothing there that applies to me. Can it be something else than a retinal detachment?

The eye sheds cells all the time. It is when there are MASSES of them, and they are unusually predominate that indicate a medical emergency.

Since you take Ritalin --you should get an eye exam yearly to see if there are any retinal changes in blood flow. The eyes are the first place that microvascular changes can actually be seen.
If the retina shows changes in blood flow, you can be sure it is happening in the brain too.

People with collagen disorders sometimes detach retinas. Also blows to the head or car accidents can do it. Poor nutrition also thins the retina. (low Vit A especially)

When this first manifest for me, I was checked out by an ophthalmologist. After a thorough exam, he gave me the all clear. By thick tears, I was not saying the thick tears were the floaters. The thick tears just caused the debris in the tears to not 'sink' but rather stay suspended.

The ophtho said to watch for floaters that tended to stay in the same place after blinking and had a red or brown tint. He said that if they had a red or brown tint, get to the ER immediately. He seemed to be more concerned about whether there was any perceived color.