Big Bang? My eye!

 

In case the title suggests that I am about to dispute the veracity of the Big Bang event that gave rise to the Universe as we know it, be assured that is not what this is about.  Rather, it is about a "big bang" event that occurred in my eye.

For two days I had been seeing a jagged flash of light (like a lightning bolt) on the left side of my left eye.  I have had numerous visual events in the last couple of decades such as: "flickering"; photopsia; negative and positive dysphotopsia; floaters; and a scotoma; however, I had never experienced this before.

On Sunday, May 15th, as I was walking in nature looking for photographic subjects, I suddenly saw black streaks cross my vision (left eye) that were very dark and defined:  first like spider legs, then like skeins of geese in V formations.

These V formations moved and changed and finally "exploded" into hundreds, if not thousands, of very tiny black rings (some smaller than others) that then swept across my field of vision (just like a murmuration of birds).  If you are not familiar with the videos of murmurations, you can see a spectacular one here.

These tiny rings gradually dispersed across my field of vision.  Rather alarmed, and fearful of a retinal detachment, I called my ophthalmologist first thing Monday morning and was able to see him later that day.  He explained that this was a vitreous detachment but that no retinal tear nor retinal detachment had occurred and scheduled a follow-up for next month.

In the meantime, I am still seeing the "lightning bolt" but less frequently as time passes.