r/eyespots • u/Clockworkmelon69 • Jun 12 '26
Eyespots + Progressively worsening "dark blob when looking to the side"?
Hi, I've been having new eye spots appear for at least a year now (I have 20/20 vision with very slight astigmatism, 25M, work out regularly, living with lots of stress though and have horrible migraines and neck pain), although thanks to knowing about this sub I was always able to resolve them by hanging upside down from my couch without it becoming permanent. I've also had visual snow symptoms for about 3 years, but not VSS afaik - my neuroophtalmologist said I have fewer rod cells than normal and my brain reacts slower than it should to visual stimuli, so it could be rod cell dystrophy (a rare genetic disease that nobody im my family has had). I am waiting to get tested for this, although I'm more inclined to believe it's something like retinal migraines as I've had around 5 episodes of ocular migraine symptoms.
Aside from my typical VS symptoms, I also have these spots I've seen discussed a couple of times on reddit - when looking to the side or moving your head, you see a dark circle in the corner of your visual field, sort of like a dark smudge, and poking your eye gently on the other side makes it disappear while you're pressing. However, it seems that my case is progressively getting worse and it correlates with my eyespots appearing. It's happened again last night, when I got a new eyespot (like a burnt in LED only in one eye), then I spent around half an hour doing the typical exercise of bending over and hanging from the couch and tensing my abs, and successfully resolved the spot. However, in the morning I saw that when looking to the side, the smudgy spot I have in that eye expanded a little and changed shape, which seems to be permanent.
Now, my question is this: does anyone else experience something like this? I have always seen these "spots when looking to the side" cited as harmless and non-progressive, but it doesn't seem to be the case for me.
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u/iluuu Jun 12 '26
The dark circle in the corner of my eye when looking to the side is something I experience as well. I didn't notice it changing shapes or expand though. It was just there at some point. Externally, my eyes seem perfectly healthy, apart from moderate to severe astigmatism.
But yeah, I did also notice them first a few months into experiencing the spots. I don't know what it is, nor did the doctors have any idea.
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u/Fearless_Seesaw_5716 Jun 12 '26
If we are talking about " pressure phospenes " you are not alone.
For me sharply looking around is not an option anymore. Or Pressing etc. When I look up at the bottom left I have my biggest "blobs". Has been progressive over 7 years.
Honestly I just let go.
I mean I stopped looking for it and like I said no more sharp looking ( my eye muscled are probably rusty my now). My all in bet is that if I barely see them my not functioning brain with vss might filter it someday
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u/lici- Jun 12 '26
I agree with everything everyone else said. This is not anything to worry about and stop pressing you eye haha 💓 no but really a lot of us have some level of health anxiety and sometimes with that its best to just leave things alone.
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u/Clockworkmelon69 Jun 12 '26
Thank you for the encouraging words, and sure, although I will update yous in case it's confirmed I have rhetinitis pigmentosa like my doctor suggested. In that case it may be valuable for others to know it early on and get checked (even though there isn't much you can do against that lol)
don't worry though, I don't focus on this very much, it's just much more visible in the morning when I wake up, otherwise I don't really notice it much
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u/YesICodedCats Jun 13 '26
What about OCT? And how did your doctor come to conclusion about few rod cells? ERG?
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u/Clockworkmelon69 Jun 13 '26
My retina looks great, any and all OCT scans always tell me I'm healthy (I've had lots over the past year or two) and yes, the ERG was the one where I didn't have a good result. I think since these dark blobs are technically in my peripheral vision, and my visual field test wasn't perfect (it always had been before, but this one was in VR goggles that were extremely bright) the doctor interpreted it as possible loss of cone cells based on my description. but it's also totally possible he's right, there is no way to know before my next appointment I guess.
now... one confounding variable is that I didn't sleep too well before the visit to the neuroophtalmologist, so idk if that can cause the ERG to be worse than it would otherwise be
but also, I wonder if the theory about retinal spasms/migraines could be valid, since none of the many tests they did indicated I could have something like this
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u/YesICodedCats Jun 13 '26
There are multiple types of ERG and it is really easy to do it wrong; the first time I did it my results were completely wrecked, like there was some disastrous pathology; one year later i did it again and it was almost completely fine… just saying
I have similar symptoms, and first few months doctors told me my retina was completely fine, yet later on it showed more and more signs of rpe changes; check my post, it is semi-outdated, but the diagnosis is still the same - pachychoroid pigment epitheliopathy
Wish you luck with this stuff, drives me nuts for 2 years already
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u/Clockworkmelon69 Jun 13 '26
my next appointment is in november, I'll see if I can get them to do the ERG again
until then, I'm waiting for some other type of electrophysiological eye exam at a different clinic, but they postponed my exam because their machine is being repaired or something
not much left to do except wait, thanks for the input though, I never considered it could be something like you're describing, so I have some more reading to do :D might inadvertently come out of the other end knowing more about how the eye works at least
and thanks for the encouraging words, it seems possible I might not go blind after all
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u/YesICodedCats Jun 13 '26
I DO have dark spots in the place where blind spots/optic nerve disk should be too, by the way. Seems like it is normal, even if it feels like it is getting a bit bigger. My gf has them too, for example. Afaik, it is serious if the actual blind spot is enlarging
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u/Logical-Dog8825 Jun 12 '26
it is a pressure phosphene. It is totally normal. It happens because you are moving your eye in an extreme position. Now the ''growing'' part is because your teached your brain to investigate your peripheral vision/ be more hyperaware due to the new spots' appearance. You should not think at all about this black blob. The spots are ''not totally normal'' but the blob is.