Eye Issues

Member_of_the_Club · February 2008

Eye Issues

Member_of_the_Club · February 2008

I started having flashes and floaters in my vision and googled it only to find that breast cancer can metastasize to the eyes and these can be signs of eye mets. Freaked out! Saw a shower of floaters last night -- literally looked like a bucket of dust was dropping from the ceiling -- and i knew I had to see the ophthalmologist first thing this morning.

Turns out I have vitreous detachment in both eyes, which is perfectly harmless and happens to everyone eventually, but to me a bit earlier because I am highly nearsighted (treated with lasik so i don't need glasses, but the underlying structure of my eye is still nearsighted). It can lead to retinal tears, so i will be watched for a bit.

This is the thing. I had a retinal detachment in one eye 17 years ago and i KNOW the symptoms -- floaters and flashes. But because of my bc history I went immediately for the worst case cancer scenario. Scared the crap out of myself and in retrospect it wasn't really rational, given my eye history.

I hate cancer. But all is well and I am relieved.

JoanofArdmore · February 2008

I'm very glad, {{{MOTC}}}!

I know what you went through, because I developed a nasty floater during Taxotere.Others followed through the years, but knowing about the dreaded mets to eyes, I was too chicken to go to opthamologist.

So I finally managed to go in November (was seeing too badly to drive safely).And my opth was totally happy & non-plussed about my eyes.Yes floaters are a part of growing older.There was no diabetes or (that disease which destroys central vision)and no there were NO signs of mets none.Thank you God!

(Plus I can now SEE once again!)

So I, YAYYY, know how relieved and happy you are!Here's to you!

j

Anonymous · February 2008

Member, do you remember me talking about having floaters. This was almost a year ago. Someone on the board said their friend had this problem and finally her ophthalmologist and onc decided it was mets. I asked her to give me more detail. She said she couldn't recall everything, but that her friend had died about a month prior to her post about my floaters.

I remember you saying that floaters wasn't mets. I've also had floaters for years. I'm very nearsighted. So, I know floaters in general are benign. However, the day these knew floaters happened it was DIFFERENT. I let it go for a few hours and then called the ophthalmologist (was on a Sat...hate to bother doctors..hate to GO to doctors) and he told me to meet him at the office and not to eat. Of course my first thought was detached retina. Of course the eating part was in case he had to do some kind of surgery. Anyway, he also told me I had vitreous detachment in, as far as I know, one eye. When I went back for a check up in two weeks I questioned him about mets. He said no.

So, I mention it to my onc PA last Sept. She said, let's do an MRI of your brain. You haven't had your brain looked at lately, have you?

I told her no. Well, no mets. But small vessel disease which has nothing to do with the vitreous detachment (as far as I know).

I looked up this stuff on the computer before I saw the onc. I also read that this could be a sign of mets....these floaters. One thing I do know was the ophthalmologist did a very good eye exam the night this happened.

Happy, happy all is well (except for the annoying floaters) with you. I was told to look for any new floaters or if something that looked like a curtain falls which could indicate a retinal tear or detachment.

Shirley

Member_of_the_Club · February 2008

I'm surprised your onc did a brain mri because of floaters. From my readings, floaters can be a sign of eye mets and that eyes mets are visible when they look in your eye -- probably why you ophthalmologist was confident in saying -- correctly -- that you didn't have eye mets. Brain mets can cause vision problems, but a different kind of vision problem.

But many oncs have a low threshold for scans which can be a good thing.

From my readings on the internet, eyes mets are very rare and even rarer as the first sign of mets. I've been coming here on these boards for three years and with all the posts I can only recall one woman with eye mets.

ravdeb · February 2008

Well, glad to hear you got the all clear. I have more and more floaters, too. I'm not terribly near sighted and I know it happens with those who are nearsighted. I wear glasses but it's for an astigmatism and my far sightedness. I wear progressive lenses.

But, I have my eyes checked by a neuro-ophtalmologist twice a year (for a different reason) so I'm sure it's not mets. Never thought it was..never realized it had anything to do with mets. hmmm..another thing to worry about??? Tongue out

caaclark · February 2008

MOTC-

When I first started reading your post I was thinking that it was the retinal detachment thing-my husband had the same thing.

But...I completely understand you jumping to the bc conclusion. I have done that twice within the last 2 weeks. I wonder when that stops??

Anonymous · February 2008

MOTC, do you still have the floaters? Mine never entirely went away. They are lighter, but are still there. And, when I close my eyes I don't see them anymore. LOL What mine looked like was squiggly...like dark, thick eyelashes. It scared the crap out of me. I only saw a flashes a few times from that eye.

Oh well, just another annoying thing to deal with. It could have been worse.

Shirley

Member_of_the_Club · February 2008

I have had floaters for 17 years, since my detached retina, so I don't worry about those. (I really told you not to worry about floaters? I guess I was speaking from experience, but at least I was right.) I don't expect they will ever go away. What made this different was that I was seeing flashes of light (which I've also experienced several times over the years, just not contiuously) and the shower of floaters (already gone away).

I always have the squiggly lines. When my right eye went this time, I had a really dark, distracting floater, which I've never had before. And with my left eye I had the shower of floaters, like dust pouring down from the ceiling.

I expect that as I age this will happen more and more often. If I had a detached retina at the age of 29, I am clearly strongly predisposed. What I will have to talk to my ophthalmologist about at the follow-up visit is how to manage this -- when should I go in? Now that I've been through this experience I think I will be less likely to think it is eye mets in the future, but I do have to protect my vision. I was so focused on cancer that I missed the most important concern, a retinal tear. So I'm older and wiser. Its the older part I have to get used to.

Anonymous · February 2008

Yeah, getting older is something we all have to get used to. And it's not for wimps. LOL

I have not had a problem with my retina YET. I hope I never do. Of course that was the first thing that the ophthalmologist was thinking when I called him.

Your must have been scared with your experience. I know I was, but only one eye was affected. Let's hope this is the end and nothing else bad happens like detached or torn retinas. I need to make an eye appointment for April. I dislike going to doctors.

Shirley

cmb35 · February 2008

Oh my goodness! First of all, glad you're OK.

But also really glad you posted this, and that I saw it. I started with the floaters toward the end of chemo (my friend taxol) and they got progressively worse. My eye doc did a thorough exam, the kind where they dilate your pupils, and told me all was well.

I am also very nearsighted. I have been having more and more floaters. I get both the dark squiggles and the flashing lights. I was also recently thinking, since they seem to be getting worse, brain mets. But was waiting until my next follow-up to mention it (you know how you get darn sick of doctors appts? LOL) So, it is reassuring to know floaters are common with nearsightedness. I didn't know that.

And for the record, I currently have 2 bruises on my thigh, no idea how they got there, so of course - thigh cancer. I have a sore on my ear, well, OK, that actually is cancer, but I was linking it to my bc, as it is left ear, and my bc was left side, so clearly it was brain mets coming out my ears. (Actually a squamos cell carcinoma, and will be a-ok.) I have the eye floaters - brain mets. I have a weird pain in my right rib - bone mets. And I have an on-again, off-again pain in my upper right quandrant, which although my onc did a blood test for liver function at my last follow-up and gave me the all-clear, is obviously liver mets.

At least I can laugh at myself... sort of...

And at the same time, I am 3 short months away from my 3 year's from dx - I can't hardly believe it. And there are lots of times now when the cancer seems like a long time ago - I never would have thought I'd be saying that as short as a year ago!

That little voice in the back of your mind is the worst part about being a bc survivor (to me anyway.) Anyone else wakes up in the morning with a stiff neck or a pain in their back and they think, "must have slept funny." I wake up with the same thing and think, "oh please, no!" Just gotta tell that little voice to keep it down, and keep moving forward I guess.

Anonymous · February 2008

cmb35, you made me laugh. Yep, those little pains makes the voices very loud. LOL

Thanks for the laugh.

Shirley

Member_of_the_Club · February 2008

cmb35, you really should go to the eye doc. It isn't eye mets but the flashes may signal a retina tear and that is a medical emergency. If they catch it when its just a tear they can fix it with lasers and not full-blown surgery I waited too long to go in when I had this and lost a quarter of the vision in one eye before I saw the doc. Fortunately, the surgery completely fixed my vision, but it was full-blown surgery.

As a person who is very nearsighted you are at high risk for retinal tears. And I should be clear -- nearsightedness does not cause floaters. It does increase your chances of a vitreous detachment and that is what causes the floaters, and can lead to a retinal tear.

You don't have mets, promise, but you need to make sure you don;t have something else.

cmb35 · February 2008

Member,

Thanks for the heads up, and the kick in the pants. I am overdue for an eye exam, and they really are increasing in amount/frequency, so I will definitely make the appt. I know he looked very specifically at whatever you look at to make sure that I had no retinal tears, and I remember something about something being "sticky" and that being part of the cause of the floaters. I think?

Anyway, thanks for giving a hoot - it's so much easier to take care of ourselves when we feel like someone else cares - and there are an amazing group of women on these boards who really do just that!

Colleen

chemo072 · February 2008

MOTC - glad you're ok! Good call to get that checked out ASAP.

One does have to check these things out....and better to err on the side of caution. But I do have to confess that I fought a brain MRI before Xmas....(it's fine, well at least not cancer) because I'm soooo done with tests. Each test brings this wave of cancer-trauma anxiety that is a little much.

My poor PCP, I'll be responsible enough to call if something odd is happening (like my tongue swelling on one side after penicillin), and they'll say "Proceed directly to ER" at which point I say, "umm....you're over-reacting, if I'm not gushing blood I'm not going" and then we argue from there.... they usually end up getting me in to the office, which I will do.

Responsibility and self-ethics after cancer are quite a fine kettle, because on the one hand there's the question that you all identified above: is it fear speaking? - and then, is that fear a bad thing? does fear serve a useful function in alerting us to what's wrong? or is it blowing things out of proportion? or, alternately, is denial kicking up and minimizing symptoms or keeping one from calling the doctor? and then for me, there've been times when fear gets in the way and I call because I feel obligated - after all, so much time and $ has been spent getting me well, can't blow it now - but because I'm scared I'll minimize the problem. EEEKS.

In any case, it's not an easy road to navigate, especially for those of us newly out of treatment. And for me personally, it makes me feel a little neurotic/hypochondriac/crazy even if it's all perfectly normal ways of dealing with self-care after cancer. The two-week rule helps, and the above-the-elbow and above-the-knee rule helps as well.

Member_of_the_Club · February 2008

I find bringing symptoms to the attention of my doctors to be very, very difficult but I've also found that the more I do the easier it gets. There are some really petty things I've brought up because I just though it would be good for me to get into the practice of raising issues. The scary ones are harder, but I've done that several times now as well.

I've never had scans but I did have four breast biopsies this past fall. All was fine, but there was a lot of emotional wear and tear from the experience.

sharebear · February 2008

I had some weird what I describe as a visual shifting before christmas and I called my onc. He did order a Brain MRI. It turned out that I had a tumor on my pituitary gland that had been bleeding. Now the question is what is it? Is it cancer or a microadenoma (which is nothing to worry about). I'm having another Brain mri again because I've been experiencing headaches. Now that could be the weird Michigan weather and just my sinuses but he wants to make sure. The big clue would be if my peripheral vision changes. If it's cancer it will grow and put pressure on my optical nerves that will effect my peripheral vision. So we watch it month by month.

I just keep in mind that 22% of the population has these microadenomas and doesn't even know they have them. Yes, that's what it is and it's not cancer...

It could also be what's keeping me from losing weight!

Sharon

Member_of_the_Club · February 2008

Its not cancer, Sharon. Just a microadenoma. I'm sorry you have to deal with this.

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