Can I see my drusen?

[Mpatz]

This might sound like a crazy question, but I am sure I can see the drusen on my retina, even though they are not affecting my sight. If I rapidly blink at a plain surface I can see a collection of dots. Am I imagining it? Do other people have the same experience?

[Jay10]

Hi Mpatz, I also have this happening when I blink. It doesnt seem to affect my vision and I am being watched to see what develops.

[willnick]

I have dry and if I blink looking at the ceiling in the morning I see a pattern of splodges. I think that must be the drusen. I dont see them normally.

I also see little pin pricks of light when I go outside in the centre of my vision. I can ignore them as they are not too intrusive.

[MikeG1944]

Hi Mpatz; I have that slightly in my good eye and always thought it was mild cataract, as it a large blob in my bad eye and that is due for cataract op on a month or so.

Mike.

[JJnan]

Yes I can see it mainly at night after I put light out ...one eye has a huge black splodge..the other eye a smaller version...when i mentioned this to the consultant he raised his eyebrows and said 'really'....i felt he didn't believe me ...i also knew when i needed inj..glad I'm not alone lol

[ElviraKate]

I've had this for ages, and when I first noticed it a few years ago, after a series of optical migraines, I went to Moorfields to have it checked out. They didn't see anything wrong - but then the drusen were smaller then and no-one mentioned them as being a problem.

It's only in the last few months that I have developed problems with a rogue bloodvessel underneath a couple of large drusen. It seems to me that the drusen increase the light sensitivity of the retina layer above them, so you get what looks like lots of small after-images that gradually fade. Where the rogue bloodvessel was (I hope it's gone, I am coming up to my third injection!) there is a small blob - it corresponds exactly to where the distortion was in the Amsler grid. I only see it now first thing in the mornings and if I look at something very bright, and the after-image disappears very quickly.

I also get an afterimage of a rounder, larger, but more diffuse blob when I put the lights out at night. This seems to be sensitivity to the white pages of a book - even to a Kindle. But it also disappears after a while.

I'm hoping that these after-images just mean that the retina is a bit more sensitive there, and that they are not the inevitable precursor of something bad. But I have asked this question on the forum before and no-one else had the same after-image effect, so it's good to read of someone who has.