Worried about a retinal tear or the start of retinal detachment

[Jordan85]

Hello,

I'm back with my health anxiety dragon after staying clear of it for about 3 years, and it's my vision again.
I've noticed what appears like a curved hair in the vision of my right eye, it appears similarly to a floater but either doesn't move as much or at all and more like a shimmer. I've had shimmery/flashy lines appear in my vision before that have caught my eye when watching TV and tend to disappear/or I learn to ignore them over time, but this one seems slightly different:



It's been here for at least 4 days
It appears sort of centrally near the bottom of my vision when I blink rapidly
I can trigger it also by moving the frame of my glasses past the bottom of my vision back and forth against a light background or bright screen
And I'm terrified that it's a retinal tear or a retinal detachment on the way


The only thing consoling me at the moment is that it hasn't got worse in the 4 days but it doesn't look like it's going anywhere. Can anyone help? My anxiety about going to get it checked out is through the roof.

Thank you in advance.

[.Poppy.]

It could very well just be anxiety or something totally benign, but I do think it's worth getting it checked. Do you know why you are anxious about having someone take a look? Both a tear and a detachment can be fixed so it's really just a matter of determining if that's what is going on and then setting it right.

[Jordan85]

Thanks for your reply Poppy, it's really helpful - I'm just scared of hospitals, the thought of having to get surgery and potentially having to have an anaesthetic etc. I'm worried that I just noticed it out of the blue over the weekend and it's still here if I look for it under those conditions.

[.Poppy.]

I understand, that can be really scary. It might be different there, but I know my dad had a retinal tear and here in the US, it was a very simple outpatient procedure. I think they just numbed his eye and took care of it, he was out and my mom was driving him home within an hour.

It could be something else entirely, too. Maybe just normal floaters, optic migraine, or even just a scratch or irritation. Just try to keep in mind that no matter what it is, it is probably an easy thing for the professionals to deal with.

[Jordan85]

Thanks again for the reassurance Poppy. Thankfully today the line doesn't seem to be as noticeable, or at least it hasn't got worse since last weekend. Hopefully that's a good sign.

[Jordan85]

Update: I went to see my optician who did a 3D scan of my eye and was able to show me a 3D map of my vitreous gel and retina - both looked healthy and we found a little floater just at the back of my eye in front of my retina which was probably causing the issue. Happy to live with it now, just relieved it was nothing!

[.Poppy.]

Good news! And well done for braving a trip to the optician!

[Jordan85]

Thank you Poppy! I'm glad to put it to bed, I'm so thankful I did go thanks to your advice. It fully prepared me for the optical migraine I got the day after - the universe works in funny ways :D I have only ever had one of those before (which ironically was when I was worrying about my eyes a few years ago) so I was able to ride through it and, weirdly enough, enjoy it in a way where I knew nothing could be wrong, I had been here before and knew exactly what was happening and when it would pass.

Thank you again!