Floater's & Light Sensativity

[HopefulLady]

Anyone deal with floater's and light sensitivity? I know I always have to go outside with sunglasses. Also this is really strange do any of you have issues with certain lighting that brings on dizziness like school lighting or hospital lighting even some stores like walmart? I notice when I am in a certain lighting setting I start feeling really strange like my vision is weird or something. Also have any of you ever seen like black dots not the wiggly lines but actual small black dots almost like seeing stars but black dots around you they are really small like the tip of a pen? LOL I swear sometimes I just feel like I am an alien with the odd things that happen to me.

[MamaTrain]

I have these floatie things and cant handle being in a room/restraurant that has like one blind open but the rest are closed and it makes that one spot so bright. I will have a headache within 15 minutes! I hate the floatie things. Especially looking at white like when I'm typing this out! :-) I have learned to ignore them but it bothers me when it's really bright outside. Just another strange thing with dysauto!

[summer]

Hi! I get lots of floaties and tiny black dots too. Usually, I have sparkles along with my black dots.....very pretty .

I have also noticed that when my brain fog is at it's worst, these dots and sparkles are worse too. And yes certain types of lighting drive me crazy, especially florescent!

[mvdula]

Hi hopefullady,

I get floaters occasionally.....they don't seem related to my migraines at all though. I have said many times that I can't be in Walmart too long bc of the lighting....feel odd, headachy, just off somehow maybe slightly dizzy.....very light sensitive - cannot get by w/o sunglasses.

[issie]

Me too!!!!! I have to wear sunglasses inside sometimes if there is florescent light. It makes me real dizzy and naseaueous. My husband says it's because there is a faint flicker to these types of lights. Most people aren't aware of the flicker, but super sensitive people (like us) are. We had to change out our lights at home because they made me sick.

As far as the sparkles, I was told that this is a silent miagraine. A miagraine without the pain. The silvery stars are this. I do have the black floaters at times too. I read what that was, but can't remember. I think everyone has them at times. Unless there are a whole lot of them at once (which could be indicative of a detached retina) I don't remember that it is dangereous.

[lissy]

I have the aura with migraines and sometimes silent migraines. Sometimes while using the pc anything white and bright brings on a graying effect on one side of the page it spreads and goes away.

In stores, and doctor offices the lighting is so intense it makes all symptoms unbearable. I wish they would dim them actually

Lissy

[firewatcher]

Ditto on the floaties. I also get the black spots and sparkles. I hate florescent lights with a passion and my pupils don't constrict down enough to be outside without sunglasses.

[gertie]

Occ. I see the black dots covering the walls & ceiling when I first wake up. I also have floaters & detached vitreous. Sometimes it looks like the walls are moving. The weirdest thing I've experienced & I can't remember what the dr called it, if I look at an item that is pink, red or purple, when I look away everything else in the room still looks that color. I wouldn't wear anything the color red for years because when I did the whole world look red.

Also, when I first started experiencing dysautonomia my eyes were so sensitive to light I wore sunglasses inside. You are not alone.

[Tammy]

Same here. Very sensative to light.. it makes me actually feel super dizzy and lightheaded, off balance. As for seeing sparkles or floaters, not yet. My eye doctor asked if I experience that, and I said no. She said that I have scarring on my retina and if I ever notice twinkling lights, light christmas tree light, or that it is like a shade of darkness coming down in my vision, that would be a detatched retina and I would have to go to the ER immediately. Kind of scary being in my 30's and having to watch for signs of a detached retina. YUCKy!

[toddm1960]

Add me to the floaters list, and you're right I have learned to ignor them. I'm another one that always has to have sunglasses, bright lights drive me crazy. Let me add one question........how is your night vission? I see better at night than I do in the daylight hours?!? Just another crazy thing.

[ramakentesh]

My eyes fill up with floaters every time I get a bad relapse. I remember telling my doctor this and he had never heard of it. But unsurprisingly its commonly reported by patients.

Also I am highly sensitive to certain neon lighting - particular places like offices or medical settings where there is only neon lights and no natural light. I also get visual snow 24/7 and migraine visual aural activity most days.

My husband says it's because there is a faint flicker to these types of lights. Most people aren't aware of the flicker, but super sensitive people (like us) are. We had to change out our lights at home because they made me sick.

Your hubby is right - we are like migrainers- oversensitive brains naybe due to our rampant sympathetic system??

[Guest tearose]

ditto to rama's reply

[Noreen]

Hi! I get lots of floaties and tiny black dots too. Usually, I have sparkles along with my black dots.....very pretty .

I have also noticed that when my brain fog is at it's worst, these dots and sparkles are worse too. And yes certain types of lighting drive me crazy, especially florescent!

Yup... and visual snow - if I walk into a dark room it could be a blizzard ya never know.

Anyone have visual textural type changes? The world can look like a velour jigsaw puzzle at times what with the wavy lines and textural changes - it goes along with migraine clusters but the dimensional aspect is different and one I apparently cannot translate into MDish,

[ramakentesh]

I get increased 'blackness' where everything dark looks super sharp or something, visual snow ALWAYS - I can remember only about two weeks in five years where its gone away, where white zaps and blobs occasionally in my vision and i get super visuals before a migraine

[dakota]

I'm just wondering if anybody has found anything that helps with these particular symptoms. My daughter is having problems with this. Carpets and roads appear to move. Spots all over the place. 24/7, as Ramakentesh said. She recently turned 16 and was hoping to learn to drive, but even she agrees that would not really be wise with the road crawling and flashes of light appearing out of nowhere.

She is on a beta blocker and midodrine. I had wondered if the midodrine was making the blood vessels in the head constrict too much, but she sees the same things when she first wakes up. At that point, the midodrine would already be out of her system.

Any ideas on something that might help this would be most welcome. I am working on getting a neurology appointment to see if they have any ideas.

[blueskies]

I get the black spots -- mostly I notice them when I'm swimming but I can see them now while I'm typing this. I think I'm just so used to them I don't 'register' them a lot of the time. I also am light sensitive (I have daily migraine) and wear sunglasses nearly all the time -- when outside and in brightly lit, especially flouro lit, rooms.

Dakota,

not sure if I have the same thing as your daughter but many patterned floor coverings can make me feel sick --- like travel sickness and I can't bear to look at them. It depends on how symptomatic I am that day. I have some trouble driving occasionally but this is due to brain fog ( I haven't driven in a while) although I can have problems being a passenger often. I cannot read when in a car or bus or train. I'm certain to get more 'potsy' then.

blue

[ramakentesh]

These symptoms are the result of sympathetic excess and vasoconstriction - but brain vasoconstriction is not as reliant on alpha receptors as the rest of the body so midodrine should be too bad. Its basically a pre-migraine aural state.

[blueskies]

These symptoms are the result of sympathetic excess and vasoconstriction - but brain vasoconstriction is not as reliant on alpha receptors as the rest of the body so midodrine should be too bad. Its basically a pre-migraine aural state.

Hi Ramakentish,

Your explanation totally makes sense to me. I have daily migraine which is controlled -- for the most part of the day -- by low dose opiates. No doctor has ever told me my black spots have anything to do with my migraines. I get other types of auras so it makes sense to me that the black spots can be an aura too.

Many thanks,

blue

[tinkerbella]

Please becareful everyone when you have symptoms with your eyes. I went and told the eye specialist I had this and that because I read it here. the first thing she said to me was tell me in your own words what is happening. I have major problems going on and put them on the back burner thinking it's OK everyone else has these things also. NOT. Go to your doctor if your eyes are sensitive they can help you before your cornea if so badly damaged like mine was. Then the retina, is a whole other problem I let set on the back burner thinking I didn't have the time due to all my other medical appointment and my docs were in Boston.

I finally went and you know how the eyes are the windows to the soul? It looks like I may have arteriosclerosis cornery artery disease going on as well as a cyst. Then after blood work was done and my cholesterol and trig. are off the charts.The graying I get is from when I ready to pass out and I know now to get down!!!! That snow that I thought I had was my retinia. I'm being closely monitored every 8 weeks by the regular eye doctor who has put in plugs in my tear ducts and put me on restasis. I also will see my retinal doctor again in June in to retest my eyes as everything is wavy on the chat and when I type. Reading the letters on the eye chat I'm missing a chunk of vision and it's scary. When I told my neuro she said dysautonnomia plays alot with your eyes and you need to make sure you keep up with all your appointments.

So I beg you all, please see your eye doctors for a dx and don't fool around with your eyes.

What may be snow for one person may be the start of a detached retina for another.

love you all,

bellamia~

[ramakentesh]

Yeah very - true definately get checked out.

Also POTS reduces blood flow to the brain and one of the most oxygen dependent organs in the body is the eyes. So it also effects them that way.

Im not sure about the black spots being migraine - if your talking about vitreous floaters. But i get weird black splotches sometimes, visual snow, sometimes things look blacker than they should and a few other odd things. But when I get a migraine this vision things go from a minor problem to a major aura.

[ramakentesh]

Its possible and has been considered by leading specialists that POTS and migraine have a definate connection - and infact there is even a possibility that POTS in some patients may be an abnormal status migraine effecting not just the cerebral vasculature but other areas as well.

Some migraine patients experience POTS for one to two days after a migraine before it resolves. 30% of migraine patients fit the diagnostic criteria for CFS.