Birth defect left me with only light perception in one eye - experiencing weird new symptoms and getting nowhere with my optometrist. Has anyone had similar issues?
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I have a birth defect that caused the back of my eye to be concaved and I've only got light perception in my left eye.
I've been experiencing weird symptoms recently. The most notable is discomfort/pain at the back of the eye, it seems to get irritated when I move it around. It's not agonising but it's uncomfortable/sore. I've also had issues with curtaining vision/vision fuzzing over in that eye, as well as what I can only describe as lighting through my eye sometimes. Not in a pain sense but a visual sense. It's almost like light travels through the veins in that eye really quickly.
I want to preface something before I get into the optometrist visit. I'm autistic and I find advocating for myself really difficult.
It's been checked by an optometrist who said it looks fine to her. She was very dismissive and not very helpful/informative. She basically said she's not sure and that maybe my brain is trying to fill in the blanks? She also implied that because that eye has never been very functional, it wasn't that important. As though to place worth on the remaining vision in that eye.
Yes the eye is almost useless but the key word is ALMOST. It has uses. For example it helps me detect motion on that side on sunny days because I can perceive shadow. On dull days or at night it is virtually useless but like I said it still has use.
She prescribed me two types of eye drops with no explanation as to why or what for and then sent me on my way. I tried to be firm/direct at the beginning and push for a better explanation or even some advice, maybe a referral or recommendation to someone or somewhere else, but I wasn't successful and now I'm just using the drops. One dilates the eye and the other is a steroid. She said they should help with the flashes but didn't say why or how and they haven't helped the flashes at all. They seemed to help at first with the pain but the eye is sore today. I'm thinking maybe that's because I was out and about outside with it dilated and too much sun hit it directly. I was told by my mom I should be wearing sunglasses when it's dilated. I wasn't told anything like that 😭
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying the doctor is lying - if she sees nothing I believe her - but I would like an answer or direction to go in regarding figuring out what it could be.
Has anyone experienced similar issues or been in a similar situation? Any advice on where to go from here would be really appreciated.
TLDR: Birth defect left me with light perception only in my left eye. Experiencing new symptoms - pain/discomfort at the back of the eye when moving it, curtaining vision, and a weird visual sensation that's hard to describe, almost like lightning or light shooting through the veins of my eye really fast. Optometrist said it looks fine but was dismissive, implied the eye wasn't important, and gave me two drops with very little explanation. She said they should help with the flashes but didn't say why or how and they haven't helped the flashes at all. I thought maybe they were helping with the pain but today it's sore again, though I was out and about in the sun while my eye was dilated so that might be why. I'm autistic and struggled to advocate for myself in the appointment. I believe her that nothing is physically visible but I know something is wrong, I just need help figuring out what.
Has anyone had similar experiences?