I'm new here. Why is my bad eye is better than my good eye at night?

[oldoakowl]

At night, in the dim light of my bedroom, my left, dry eye has a large black central spot, and the right, wet one (progressed to wet 2 months ago) has a smaller, lighter spot. However, during the day, the left eye has no visible spot and the right eye has a visible black area as well as distortion of both horizontal and vertical lines. Drives me crazy when I read, even with very large text.

I don't understand why this happens - can't think of any possible explanation.

By the way, I am very proud of myself because I just learned how to dictate on my computer! It isn't nearly as hard as I feared.

[Blindbasset]

My guess is cataracts. I also had a big grey spot central vision at night...not during the day. When cataract was removed the grey spot was gone.

[oldoakowl in reply to Blindbasset]

Thank you for replying! I have had cataracts removed from both eyes, one a year ago, one two years ago. I was told they could grow back, but I was told that, if it happened, it would be in about 10 years. Wonder if I should ask the retina specialist or the cataract specialist.

[Hidden]

It may be a scotoma, a patch of damage. I have a small one but don't notice it much anymore. Your clinic should be able to tell you what yours is.

[fed13]

Yes! I was v tempted to say it sounds like a typical scotoma. Hope you get to the bottom of it. All the best ! xx

[oldoakowl]

Thanks, friends. I looked up scotoma and it appears to be a patch of low vision, from different conditions, including MD. But I couldn't find anything on why some are worse in dim light and some in bright. Maybe I am asking the wrong question?

[oldoakowl]

I got an answer from my doctor. The left eye, which is worse at night, has more damage to the rods than the right eye. Rods just sense light, not color. During the day, the black spot in the right eye indicates that there is damage to the cones, which sense color as well as light. It makes sense! Now I am curious as to why my eyes deteriorated in different ways and at different rates, but I doubt there is an answer, Except, "These things happen."

Sadly, I now have wet MD in both eyes. I had shots in both eyes on Friday and did fine. We caught it early, which is good. I need a good cry.

[Magsofkent in reply to oldoakowl]

I have just returned from my monthly injection. It varies from

month to month sometimes I need answers to questions but they don’t really help. I have the blobs vary in different light. Also when due another injection it becomes darker usually gave two weeks out of four where there is a slight improvement. Eye has been stable for two months but another leak today. Was surprised as could read chart a bit better but lines are still bouncing on doors and frames. No harm in having a little breakdown but can improve for the better.

[oldoakowl in reply to Magsofkent]

My eyes supposedly got better, too, according to the chart. But I realized that the chart they use is blackletters on an intensely lit background in a dark room. Low contrast things are far harder to see than high contrast ones. In normal life, they had gotten worse.