Anyone experienced "flashers" in their vision post surgery?

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CRM-Mom

CRM-Mom

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
50
Location
Coon Rapids,MN
Hi - I hope someone out there might know about this.

I had some flashers post surgery in my vision that would last 15-30 minutes and then gradually fade away. This occurred in the first 4-6 weeks. It seemed to stop and I had one episode a few weeks ago at about 11 weeks post surgery and then one today at 14 weeks post surgery. My primary care physician attributed it to the body re-adjusting to having been experienced the trauma of OHS. The PA at the cardiologist office had no idea.....which made me wonder. I have been wondering if it could be an opthalmic migrane. I see my doctor next week and will ask about it again. Theses episodes seems to be decreasing. It's a little un-nerving because it affects vision for the short time, and today I felt that it would be unwise to drive to work. I have just returned to work on a reduced schedule last week, and I am finding it tiring and perhaps I have been overdoing it.

Thannks,
Barb
 
hi Barb
You might check your potassium level. Try eating a bannana or two next time your symptoms arise. They're
high in potassium and seem to help me shake the "flashes"
 
Vision disturbances such as flashes, moving sparks, dead spots, and white kaleidescope shapes are all quite common post-op. For the first few months, I had them at least 2-3 times per week, but they greatly diminished over time.
 
Yep ? I had them too ? as other have said it is very common ? I read about it before my AVR and was disappointed to learn they were talking about vision issues:D;)
 
I know i had them alot and even had migraines for about a week at one point. I still notice flashers, but not as much.
 
CRM -MOM,

I have exactly that since my surgery five + months ago. I also had zig zag light pattern from time to time starting day three post op until about 6 weeks ago. The zig zag lights seem to have ceased.

My cardio and PCP had me see my Opthamologist just to be safe and he gave me a very careful exam.

The zig zag lights are occular migraine with no headache. (I've never had migraine headaches). And the lights flashing are called 'flashers'. They are harmless (in my case) and I've learned to ignore them. They aren't exactly like the dark dot floaters but I think it important you have a careful eye exam to be sure you don't have a retina problem. Sometimes the symptoms are similar and one can be confused for the other. A detached retina is nothing to fool around with. It could be coincidence you get the detachment following surgery and connect the two when there a connection should not be assumed.

Hopefully (and probably) you have the same thing and it is harmless. It is not uncommon after valve surgery.
 
How long does it take to go away?

How long does it take to go away?

I'm glad to hear that this is normal - I thought that it was just me. I'm 7 months post OHS and still have them several times per week. I'm seeing my cardio doc next Monday for a follow up echo and consult and had this on my list of questions. Maybe I'll move it down the list and only ask about it if time permits.

Thanks
Judy
 
It's been 2½ years since my surgery and I still occasionally get these visual disturbances that last between 10 minutes and about half an hour. They started immediately after my surgery and I have found they seem to be more common when I'm very tired. The last one I had was about a month ago.

I regularly attend the eye clinic for another matter and they seem to think they are some kind of "optical migraine". Fortunately I have no headaches with them.

Hope this helps.

Regards, Misty
 
Ok., I must be the odd ball. I have had those for as long as I can remember. Mine are shaped in half moon, zigzag design. It lasts about 20 minutes and fades away. No pain but I have been told they are migrains. Until I read this thread, it made me realize, I have not had one since OHS. I hate to jinx it. Good luck.
 
hall said:
Ok., I must be the odd ball. I have had those for as long as I can remember. Mine are shaped in half moon, zigzag design. It lasts about 20 minutes and fades away. No pain but I have been told they are migrains. Until I read this thread, it made me realize, I have not had one since OHS. I hate to jinx it. Good luck.
Click to expand...


Hall,

The half moon zig zag pattern you describe exactly matches the zig zag light I mentioned in my post above. They tested me for stroke the first three times I reported I had them. Mine lasted 22 minutes every time I got them. I had maybe 5 episodes while in the hospital and once they determined I was not having a stroke, no one particularly worried about them. They did advise I see my opthomologist.

My eye doctor told me they are occular migraine without headache. I had never had anything like that pre op. He speculated the stress of the surgery brought them on but did not rule out coincidence in timing.
 
Many types of "Visual Effects" have been reported post-surgery, *most* of them are benign.

Do a VR.com "Search" for keyword "flashes" (and click on "any date" at the bottom of the extended search page) and you will find LOTS of posts on the subject.

Here is a response I wrote to another member earlier this year:

Quote:

I just saw my Opthalmologist for my annual exam and he gave me a pamphlet entitled "Flashes and Floaters". It's longer than I care to re-type so I suggest you call your Opthalmologist's office and ask if they have a similar pamphlet they could send you.

Quote from that pamphlet:

"One should have a dilated eye exam if NEW flashes and floaters develop".

Bottom Line: You may want to see your Opthalmologist again 'just to be sure' your retina is NOT involved. At the very least, you should notify your Opthalmologist of those Flashes and their duration.

'AL Capshaw'
 
Thank you all for the posts regarding the flashers. I will check in with the opthalmologist. I see him every 6 months for monitoring of occular pressure related to glaucoma. He does the dialated exam and checks my retina each time as well. From what many of you say it may be occular migraine. These flashers started since surgery, but I do remember something like this when I was pregnant 18 and 16 years ago w/ my children. I just don't recall much about it before except that I had high blood pressure back then and was on bed rest during pregnancy. Currently I have low BP so I was even wondering if low BP was affecting something. I also have appt. w/ my primary care doctor next week so I can run it by him as well.

Thank you very much!

Barb
 
I saw some "flashers" post surgery too....I remember it was my second week in the hospital, and I had a new senior citizen room-mate. Fortunately after a couple of days his wife brought him some underpants.!!
 
Yes, we were kind of surprised....my first few nights I was alone, but then I had 4 consecutive men roomies since I was there for 16 days.
There were 2 older women in my wing, but they were in quarantine with problems.
 
I suffered from severe migranes about a year ago. They were often preceded by "aura" of vision disturbances. Then they stopped. Since my surgery on 7/15/08, the vision disturbances have returned. I've had a few headaches in the last month- but nothing I'd classify as a migrane. The vision thing has me concerned- so I am happy to discover that this is common.
 
I'm not certain of the spelling, but I think the oscillating, spinning zebra striped version of the occular migraines are also called scotomata. I had two or three episodes of these in the previous 20 or so years, one of which was a TIA (transient ischemic attack) that actually progressed to a severe visual field defect covering about 50° of my vision, but vision returned to normal and the TIA never came back. The rest were like the spinning black and white zebra stripes going around like the rotating color patterns you see when you run a free downloaded Mandelbrodt Set graphics application. I was generally able to see through the more recent ones, while the earlier ones interfered with my vision a lot more. I even got them during dreams, so it involved some deep part of my brain--yes I could see the scotomata when I woke up so I know it was really happening.

In addition, I had partial blindness in my left eye that would last 2-5 minutes, and I could only see deep purple-violet in the affected part of my vision. It affected only a certain portion of my vision in my left eye and had nothing to do with my scotomata. However, I did have an 'aura' sense that the blindness episode would start, and experience a very slight discomfort in my head during the blindness--perhaps a very weak migraine? This was related to my Toprol and gradually stopped completely after I got off the medication. The scotomata also just gradually faded in intensity and frequency as time passed since my OHS. The scotomata looked pretty to me, especially the rainbow version--I sort of miss that part--but over all I'm glad it's gone.

It seems normal to have this happen. It's nice also to know that we're all not dying of strokes or other nastiness--just brains getting used to the idea of living again after being taken so close to the edge.

Chris
 
I've had many different visual disturbance/disruptions since OHS. I still get some, but not as often as in the old days. I wondered if the migraine auras were related to INR, but seem to have them regardless of INR levels. I had 3 roommates over the course of my week long stay. My favorite was a woman about 49 years my senior. She was charming, bright, tolerant of my visitors, and very respectful of privacy as much as was possible. Brian
 
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