YANMD. Yesterday I saw a flash in my left eye, and then saw a semi-circular line of sparkly white flashes for about 20 minutes, which went away suddenly. I went to the doctor, who had no clue what was going on. Another one of these things appeared - right eye, tiny spot right in the center of my vision, that has turned into another semi-circle as I've been typing this. What is going on? Again, YANMD, but my 'doctor' is a series of people at a university health services clinic who tend to be, in my experience, way off the mark in diagnosing anything but the basics or athletic conditions. When this happened yesterday I called the triage nurse who sounded worried and said to come in, but the NP who saw me satisfied herself that I hadn't had a stroke and prescribed me Imitrex for migraines. I haven't had a migraine since 2003 (due, then, to triphasic BC pills), and I didn't end up with a migraine yesterday (but now I have this unnecessary prescription, yay). Just now, this has happened again. I have no faith that the doctors will do anything more than shrug their shoulders at me, nor is the clinic open now until Monday.
Potential factors: I'm a grad student at the end of a term, in the middle of writing my final of three papers, so I've been staring at a computer screen for many hours per day for the past... oh... well, ages, but that can't be good for my vision. I have been sleeping, though - a lot, actually, 9-10 hours a night. I wear contacts for very poor eyesight - nearsightedness and astigmatism. I have problems with dry eye, but nothing chronic (yet?). I'm also 30, so not quite as springy a chicken as I used to be, and I've had poor eyesight since I was about 8. Nothing's happened to my eyes - no trauma, nothing stuck in them, no infections, etc - other than this, all appears normal, but there's a definite disco ball in my right eye at the moment.
I'm not looking for a diagnosis, and I'm honestly scared to read what might come up in the comments. But what I am looking for is some indication of, if I need to return to the doctor, what to ask them to look for. Also, could this just be eye strain? If so, should I whip my last paper out as fast as possible and spend a few days resting my eyeballs?
Thanks, hive. I hope you don't scare me too badly, but... better to know than not? Unngh. Yeah, not happy. Very nervous.
Potential factors: I'm a grad student at the end of a term, in the middle of writing my final of three papers, so I've been staring at a computer screen for many hours per day for the past... oh... well, ages, but that can't be good for my vision. I have been sleeping, though - a lot, actually, 9-10 hours a night. I wear contacts for very poor eyesight - nearsightedness and astigmatism. I have problems with dry eye, but nothing chronic (yet?). I'm also 30, so not quite as springy a chicken as I used to be, and I've had poor eyesight since I was about 8. Nothing's happened to my eyes - no trauma, nothing stuck in them, no infections, etc - other than this, all appears normal, but there's a definite disco ball in my right eye at the moment.
I'm not looking for a diagnosis, and I'm honestly scared to read what might come up in the comments. But what I am looking for is some indication of, if I need to return to the doctor, what to ask them to look for. Also, could this just be eye strain? If so, should I whip my last paper out as fast as possible and spend a few days resting my eyeballs?
Thanks, hive. I hope you don't scare me too badly, but... better to know than not? Unngh. Yeah, not happy. Very nervous.